Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Catherine Fenner" <c1fenner@comcast.net>]

There is another option to owning and working your own hives. A number of beekeepers will place hives in your backyard or growing area and be grateful for the space. They'll service and transport the hives so they can have the honey. If you live in city limits you must contact code and see if they're allowed. In my town the management thought progressively over a decade ago and changed their code to allow them. Now that there's such a problem with lack of bees, more towns will be willing to alter their views.

 

Catherine

 

 

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In reply to Gwen from Ohio about getting bees and starting home hives:

 

My partner and I took a bee-keeping class, sponsored by the East Central Ohio Beekeepers Association, this past February at Dawes Arboretum in Newark, Ohio. For brand new beekeepers, I would highly recommend contacting a local beekeeper club and taking a class prior to setting up the first hive. Your local Ohio State Extension office should be able to help you find a bee-keeping club near you. I had read a couple of books about beekeeping prior to taking the class, but the knowledge imparted to us by experienced beekeepers was priceless. We attend bee club meetings once a month, and I don't think I've met a friendlier and more helpful group of folks as I have at the bee club. The experienced beekeepers are more than willing to mentor the new keepers and the meetings are great fun.

 

We ordered our bees through one of the club members, and just put them in the hive two weeks ago, so it's not too late in the season to start a hive, but with all the bee losses I've been hearing about, some of the companies may be sold out of bees already. I know someone who has had great success with bees he ordered from a company in Texas called B. Weaver Apiaries. Their web site is www.beeweaver.com. I've ordered various hive and beekeeping supplies from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm, web site www.beeequipment.com ; Dadant and Sons, Inc., www.dadant.com ; and Walter T. Kelley Company, http://go.netgrab.com/secure/kelleystore/asp/home.asp. Another source that I've heard is excellent, but I've not personally ordered from is Betterbee, Inc at www.betterbee.com. I believe that one or more of these companies may also sell packages of bees. If these companies are sold out, you may be able to purchase a "nuc" or nucleus colony from a local beekeeper. A nuc is supposed to be an easier way to start a hive as it includes not only the bees, but also some frames of drawn out comb and maybe some larvae in the comb, to give the bees a bit of a head start on getting their hive's housekeeping set up.

 

I hope this information is helpful.

 

Anna

Four Cats Farms

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