The curse of beekeeping!

[Wynoochee_newbee_guy]

Ok does any one have this problem? Its the end of the year, and honey sales have been good and people want more Honey so you look at your hives and go.... Hmmmmm? I could make splits next year and double my hives Yeah!. But you have already told your wife or husband that your done building your bee yard. An they were like yes no more spending money. Then you tell your spouse what you are going to do :shock:. And they look at you like you need a Intervention :roll:. And say You keep pouring money into them boxes of bugs when is it ever going to stop? That is when I realize there is a curse to beekeeping. It grabs hold of you and won't let go. it demands that you offer burnt incents "AKA" the somker. And it demands that for every hive you have you need to double that number each year. and every five years the bees demand new comb. So who is keeping who? I hope that all my rambling made sence.
A now degranged Beek. :-D

[VolunteerK9]

Yup, I know the feeling well. This is my first year and I started out with 3 packages. "I just want 3 packages honey, that will be enough for me" Mid-summer I got up to 10 and then later combined so I'm currently at 7 hives going into Winter. I would like to double up by this time next year.  Yup, its and addiction. We could have worse ones I suppose.

[edward]

I have a beekeeping mentor/colleague , His wife was sick and tired of his hives in the bottom of the garden so he had to move them   :idunno:

He then began queen breeding  ,  so he started with a few at the bottom of the garden , she never goes there any way = bee keeping in a brown paper bag  :cheer:

Out of site out of mind  ;)

edward  :-P

[AllenF]

Everyone is on the beekeeping crack train.   Don't try it or you will be hooked.....

[annette]

You should have seen my hubby's face when I went from 1 hive to 4 hives. He was worried, but now he knows he can't stop me when it comes to the bees.

[lenape13]

I went from 4 to 15 this year.  I' hoping to reach 25 to 30 in the coming year.  I'm lucky though.  Pam is supportive and likes bees almost as much as I do.  I'm setting her up with her own hive in the spring so she'll leave my honey alone.  As it stands now, I have more places to locate bees than I have hives.  Life is good.

[edward]

You should have seen my hubby's face when I went from 1 hive to 4 hives. He was worried, but now he knows he can't stop me when it comes to the bees.

Why on earth would he want to !?  :-D


Our local bee keeping club made a collective purchase of bee keeping supplies , we filed a friend's medium sized truck with about 250 hives + everything else , I stood in the back of the truck and a girl came by with her boyfriend (i don't think he wanted to bee there) "how many hives do you have she asked ?

Feeling a bit cocky I said I had 12 but I was going to expand a little , she smiled and laughed the boyfriend looked even more annoyed  :hissyfit:
Now I have 39 hives , I´ll have to say a prayer on the 7 of DEC to St.Ambrosius so i might still have 39 in the spring  :)

[Joelel]

Addicted to bees is good or bad ,depends on why your into it.

[edward]

" The curse of beekeeping! "

Is n´t that what you do after you've been stung ?  ;)

[David McLeod]

OMG, that is what has kept me out of the game for so long. I remember way back going from 4 to 12 in a season and all this time I've toyed with the idea of getting more boxes but kept telling myself no. Bees are like cats they can get out of control in a hurry. Oh well, my minds made up. I'm getting back in this spring and no more than four boxes (well maybe a couple TBH or Warres) but then again I do swarms and cutouts so I need a few more boxes............
All in all though I guess it's better than being the one in the neighborhood known as the "catlady". LOL

[AllenF]

Cats are no problem.  You just get rid of the as soon as they show up.   :-D

[David McLeod]

Cats are no problem.  You just get rid of the as soon as they show up.   :-D

I wish everyone felt that way. I have to be careful voicing my opinions since I am a trapper for hire that will go after feral cats. More for philosophical reasons the fiduciary because trapping out cats in urban areas is a PITA with all the cat lovers out there.

[AllenF]

What do you tell people that you do with wild feral cats that you trap?

[David McLeod]

I follow the law which in Georgia requires one to turn all "domestics" over to the county animal control. The rub comes from the cat lovers that think running loose subject to disease and traffic is somehow better than those mean "kill shelters".
BTW, I also run head up against the TNR (trap, nueter, release) crowd in spite of the fact that it is an animal cruelty offense the willingly release a domestic into the wild in this state, but try to get that one enforced. I've had animals released and traps tampered with, a felony in Georgia, but again try to get it enforced.

[AllenF]

People don't understand how wild a cat can get.   We years ago had a white momma cat that moved into the hay barn for a couple of years.  We would see her every so often after dark, but never during the day unless we were moved hay and ran her out.  She only had 1 black and white kitten that I know of and the kitten killed a whole flock of my turkeys.  She would reach in the pen at night and grab a wing and twist it off.  The turkey would die after that.   Trapped her and she was meaner than anything I had ever trapped before.  She would  have beat a 30 pound boar coon in a fight.   

[David McLeod]

Something that never hit the news here. A few years back Henry county animal control had to go in and trap out an entire colony of feral cats that some "nice" folks were feeding in Locust Grove. Over half of the cats tested positive for rabies.
I've been called in more than once after someone tried to take one of the kitties home with them, usually a rush job since the kitty now needed to be tested.

[Bee Happy]

I was figuring on maxing out at around 5 hives and selling nucs out of the annual increase - we'll see how it goes, but it's my wife, not me who wants to jump up to 10 hives asap. (she didn't do any of the comb crushing this last season).

[BEEMAN]

Problem? What problem? Isn't it great to be bee crazy? :-D

[Joelel]

 :piano: