Yeah, well I DON"T take "any" honey from August on and I'll feed when neccessary "if" temps will allow me to get inside.
Before closing them up for the winter they all get 10# of dry sugar.
I take majority of "my" honey once danelions have begun blooming in Spring.
:roll:Bees aren't dumb or stupid, only people can hold that title ;).
Although I'm not interested in selling bees or queens I would like to get a trade network of Northrn Beeks going in order to trade bees and queens, just a pipe dream I've had for some time now.
Trot; Sounds like your living my dream, man. When the family and I settled in N/W Wisconsin nearly 30 years ago, it was like what you've got now I suppose, with "no power or water", we built our cabin (slept in a VW bus pop-up w/ wife and two kids for about 7 months), raised our kids, planted gardens, hunted, fished etccc. Raised a variety of livestock.
Now the kids are gone and its just me and my girl and our critters, but I noticed about 10-12 years ago it began getting crowded, nearby lakes that were empty of any human activity for eons suddunly had several (part time) houses (mansions) on them and once the power company came through and hooked us up after all those years I began thinking "we gotta get outa here." Now I'm getting to old to move, almost :)
thomas