Hello, Thinking of starting a hive or two in the spring, taking a 4 hour beginners course next week, will be checking in with the local club.
Working my way through "The Practical Beekeeper" and have a copy of the 1935 edition of "The ABC and XYZ of Bee Culture" on the way.
I have also, time permitting, been reading anything I can find on the web. One thing I have noticed is, for every problem there seems to be many varied and conflicting solutions. I think, right now at any rate, that I am leaning toward keeping things as natural, chemical, etc. free, as possible. I am a big fan of Joel Salatin, not a beekeeper that I know of, and would like to apply his philosophy of farming to beekeeping. IE; let the bees be bees. We keep chickens and try to do it as naturally as possible.
I live on 4 acres in central NY with what should be plenty of good flowering plant life for the bees. Not looking to necessarily sell honey, just thinking that keeping a few bees is the right thing to do considering their decline.
I am open to any and all advise and will most likely be posting my fair share of questions, though I promise I'll try to do a topic search first.
Thank you for this site and wish me luck.
Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of threads and videos here, you can also check out some of the videos on you tube. your taking the bee course and joining a local club should have you well on the way. Be fore warned though that beek is additive. Good luck to you and the bees you will have.
Joe
You think the beekeepers offer varied solutions,wait till the bees show they didn't read the books!!
Try to start with two hives so you can share some resources between the two if necessary. It may help overcome some situations that otherwise could end up with a failed colony.
Good to know bees do not read the books!!
HEHEHEHE
BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)
Hello, welcome to beeking and good luck. You have started off well by your coming here, doing research and acquiring ref. material. This is not an exact science as it is with chickens, cows,etc. And your observation of the 'MANY' solutions to the varied problems is a great start. The honeybee is probably the most complex/ sensitive to environment organism's that we have tried to keep and there is much to learn. Be busy as the bee and keep us posted on your success.lee...
welcome to the forum.
welcome