Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum
MEMBER BULLETIN BOARD => GREETINGS/TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF => Topic started by: John Schwartz on January 09, 2009, 01:48:29 am
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Howdy from Gresham, Oregon. Looking forward to gleaning from everyone's experiences in the forum. I've been keeping bees almost a year (my first winter) with both my own custom Top-bar and Langstroth hives. I have 6 kids, 4 of them girls--so, what's a few thousand more girls out in the back yard? :)
Blessings,
John Schwartz
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Welcome John! It is so nice to see more people from the Pacific Northwest.
I hope you and the kids had a great holiday and good luck with the bees!
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Hello and Welcome John
There is alot of great information on the forum !!
The members here are willing help and answer your questions, all you need to do is to ask
Johnny
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Great to see more people from Oregon :jerry: This is my first year too. Good luck :-D
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Thx for the welcome, all :)
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a neighbor!!
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a neighbor!!
howdy KathyP :) what's your story with bees?
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just a few hives on the back 40. no honey for 2 years, but i think part of that is 2 commercial operations within my flight area. (can't be me! :-) ) i'll move a couple of hives to a friends place this spring and see if that makes a difference.
how about you?
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just a few hives on the back 40. no honey for 2 years, but i think part of that is 2 commercial operations within my flight area. (can't be me!:-) ) i'll move a couple of hives to a friends place this spring and see if that makes a difference.
how about you?
Very cool...
Questions for ya as I'm trying to learn more about our area in particular:
1. how are you handling moisture in hives during the winter?
2. how many hives have you lost? causes?
I have a thriving topbar hive out in the backyard although I'm going to have to move them to a Langstroth for a couple reasons. I'm going to standardize on the Langstroth in general.
The rest of my hives are all Langstroth. I have three other 1-yr-old hives at a friends. They're all doing well but noticed moisture under inner cover on them all this week so needing to rectify that.
Then, and this is fun, somebody *gave* me 6 hives out back of their place which I need to figure what to do with. They aren't being taken care of well and I'm a bit leary of disease, etc. Looks like bees just left one of them and there is mold in there. Another hive is dead with lots of dead bees inside. I'm thinking I might just burn those two and play it safe? 3 of the others seem to be doing ok and 1 is weak. I notice the previous folks left Thymol packets in top of the hives for some time.
Any advice? :)
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moisture around here is always an issue. some people vent the tops. i don't. i use screened bottom boards with the inserts in at this time of the year, tip the hives so that moisture run to the back of the cover rather than dripping down, and i put dry sugar on the inner cover. the dry sugar absorbs moisture and is available for them if they run out of stores.
i have lost a couple of hives in the last few years. last year i lost no hives, but had to combine a couple because they were weak. so far this winter, i have lost none, but two look weak from the outside. spring will tell.
if the hive bodies are sound, i'd try sterilizing them rather than trashing them. the things are expensive! folks can give you ideas on doing that. bleach dipping will kill most things. some take a blow torch to the inside. get new frames. they are cheap and old frames can be a pain to work with.
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awesome, thx Kathy :)
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Lotsabees,
Being from Gresham you're just around the corner, so to speak, from Dane Bramage. Dane has grown from hobbiest to sideliner.
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John, welcome to four forum. Holy smokers, 6 kids, four of which are girls, you got your hands full...smiling.
This will be a place where you can tell your tales, stories, experiences, make new friends, ask questions, give answers to questions, a place full of quality, in every way. We love new members, and love to listen, this will be a place where you will love to spend time. Have a great and most wonderful day, life, health. Cindi