Future Plan Hobby to Sideliner

[Willie T]

My 84 year old father raised bees for quite a few years. I worked out of town often and mostly supplied general labor by moving hives, extracting, bottling etc,etc. Now that dad doesn't get around so well these days, I have taken to gathering up some of his equipment (which btw is in excellent condition) and want to start doing a few things to help support my efforts. So the following is a rough draft...

1. Buying two packages this spring for 10 frame medium equipment that we have on hand - 2 hives
2. Hopefully, down the road i can pull a couple of frames from each hive, insert in a nuc or hive and add winter survivor queens that should be available in May
Let all four of these builld and see how they overwinter. The strongest will be split into nucs and some into building hives.

My ulitmate end goal will be to maintain local survival stock made available in the form of nucs from approx 10-15 hives built up over the next couple of years. Selling 20 or so nucs per year to help bankroll my hobby.

I have a honey house, extractor, most tools, tanks etc, etc so I'm lucky my start up is low. Looking for ideas, tips pitfalls etc.  

[Vance G]

Just make sure to take your dad out to the bees and I would ask him these questions first!  You have a tremendous head start.  My thought is that you should start the packages and if they build out rapidly, think of splitting them in early July.  Will be even more well mated survivor stock queens available then.  Or Let your two packages make a honey crop and split them in the spring.  Personally, everytime I try to hurry things up, I get further behind. 

[Willie T]

Thank you for your response!

Again, I don't have extravagant goals. I am hoping to build-up to about 10 hives or so and hopefully be able to raise and maintain local stock. I hope to be able to sell a few nucs to help pay some of the inevitable expenses.

Dad has some great info and theories. For example, he says he fed very little in spring as long as the willows were blooming, he claims the honey tastes too much like plain sugar.

Best regards

[johng]

I think your off to a good start. You are way ahead of most. I would start off with a few more than two hives though. See if you can find a few local nucs to go along with your two packages. 4-5 hives is not really any more work than 2. Then follow through on your plan. Growing slowly as your skill level and customer base grows. Already having extracting equipment, wooden ware and a father that has kept bees will give you a big head start.

[Willie T]

Package bees are running approx $96 per package here right now, and with the rough winter they seem (at least to me) to be hard to come by. The gentleman I will get my packages from is sold out of his nucs of overwintered "survivor stock". He says he may have some local queens available in May, I hope so.

Luckily, the Southeastern Michigan Beekeepers Assoc (SEMBA) is having their annual conference this weekend, Mar 15. There should be a lot of good info available there, as we just keep enjoying this old fashioned Michigan winter.   

[sc-bee]

Dad has some great info and theories. For example, he says he fed very little in spring as long as the willows were blooming, he claims the honey tastes too much like plain sugar.

I am sure you already know, you don't feed with honey supers on. Ot is considered by beekeepers a adultered honey.

[Willie T]

No I didn't know about adultered honey. I do know that he didn't feed often, usually when a package was first installed. He would cut back if the willows (which were nearby) were in bloom. He always used all 10 frame medium equipment, even before it was considered fashionable. he was a systems analyst for many years and logic seemed to dictate ease of interchanging equipment not to mention lighter equipment to work with.

He always had good strong hives, lost very few and never any complaints about the quality of his honey