Raising bees

[Neanderthal]

For a while now, I've been seriously considering getting a hive and some bees. Not only do I love honey, I think it would be another kewl "outdoorsy" venture and help with the environment. Anything really important that I should know before diving deeper into this?

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Epipen are now prescription only... Good luck

 

[Johnny]

They grow up super fast. Just like teenagers.

We got a hive about mid summer. They have done grown up and moved out. They come back and drain the suger water my wife puts out there to feed them and then they disappear. I think they moved into a hollow tree close by. They still mooch. Just like teenagers man.

Good luck. I think they are pretty self sustaining as long as they have enough spring time to build stores of honey to live on thru out the winter. There is some find formula on how much honey to leave in there when you harvest. All of this info is from Internet reading.

 

[0311]

I've thought about this too. But what has stopped me is what I keep seeing from time to time about hives being colonized by the Africanized bees - in Texas. I don't know if it's too dangerous with the African killer bees buzzing around that close to Oklahoma...

Quick internet search reveals they were discovered the year before last in Pushmataha County - that's getting close...

 

[been]

 

[Kyle78]

1 of my co-workers keeps them in coal county, lots of people do around here. The whole African bee scare is pretty much over, just replace the queen with a normal queen and they calm back down.

My neighbor has a hive in his back yard and we live in town. Our fruit trees benefit tons from them.

 

[TurnedTurtle]

There is a beekeeper club in the Tulsa area that has meetings every month. I went to a few meetings before moving out of the area and learned a lot.

Here is their web site. http://neoba.org/

 

[Mike_60]

There are a lot of good books on beekeeping but a good basic one is "Beekeeping for Dummies." I liked it and it gave me alot of good basic information on what to, and not, do.

 

[turkeyrun]

Oklahoma Bee Assoc.

 

[LightningCrash]