I'm just curious as to which aspect of beekeeping is everyones least favorite. If you don't mind taking the time to answer, would you mind jotting down a reply?
Mine is equipment building and preparation.
Thanks
Ray
Melting down old frames and cleaning and disinfecting dead hives after Winter :-X
:-X Its the worst :-X
mvh Edward :-P
I have very little experience keeping bees. That said I would have to say knowing I have pests that are trying to destroy my colony. Also the "just not knowing" part.
Cleaning out smelly, full of dead SHB, oil trays. An oil tray that is almost solid black with SHB really stinks. Had to scrap them out and then use the hose to wash them out. Luckily I don't have to add the oil any more. Now, I just have to keep them clean, with my hive tool, because any moth or beetle larvae the bees kick out of the hive, can survive and grow in the pollen and trash that collects in them. Much nicer, faster and cheaper job now without the oil.
Jim
RH,
Having only kept Bees since January, there's still some parts of the process that I'm yet to experience, such as a honey harvest...That being said, I think I've enjoyed most every step in the process, building boxes, assembling frames, etc. etc. Even painting and getting stung on occassion hasn't been that bad. :-D
However, hands down, my least favorite part is wiring frames, especially when I'm trying to get them as tight as possible and pop a wire...Grrr...Frustrating!
Feeding
I have to say that being a newbie am I doing things right. And watching my hive slowly die out and not schour what to do. But with the help of my club and my mentor I am learning how things work in the world of the BEES.
Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 21, 2013, 07:53:30 AM
Cleaning out smelly, full of dead SHB, oil trays. An oil tray that is almost solid black with SHB really stinks. Had to scrap them out and then use the hose to wash them out. Luckily I don't have to add the oil any more. Now, I just have to keep them clean, with my hive tool, because any moth or beetle larvae the bees kick out of the hive, can survive and grow in the pollen and trash that collects in them. Much nicer, faster and cheaper job now without the oil.
Jim
No oil, I'm confused. What are you using?
Selling the honey so I can keep beekeeping is the worst part. Beekeeping would be all fun if not for harvesting and selling honey.
Vance I will second that. It's even worse than cleaning a wax moth infested deadout.
Getting stung on the fingers
Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2
Dealing with the honey.
Quote from: Leather Jim on July 21, 2013, 09:52:00 AM
Quote from: sawdstmakr on July 21, 2013, 07:53:30 AM
Cleaning out smelly, full of dead SHB, oil trays. An oil tray that is almost solid black with SHB really stinks. Had to scrap them out and then use the hose to wash them out. Luckily I don't have to add the oil any more. Now, I just have to keep them clean, with my hive tool, because any moth or beetle larvae the bees kick out of the hive, can survive and grow in the pollen and trash that collects in them. Much nicer, faster and cheaper job now without the oil.
Jim
No oil, I'm confused. What are you using?
LJ
After killing thousands of beetles year after year in each hive and not allowing their young to survive their numbers seems to have seriously dropped.
I just open up the trays and kill any beetles in them and kill the larvae. A lot of the hives have no beetles in them, but have a moth larva or a few of them. I just kill them during the inspection. I also check in the STB for beetles.
I stopped using the oil because there were not enough beetles in each tray to justify it.
Clean oil trays are much nicer to deal with. Less smell in the hive, no greasy cleanup, and makes it easy to look for mites. Win win win. If the beetle population increases again, I will start using oil again.
Jim
Gotcha thanks
Jim I've noticed the same thing. My traps were black with SHB last year. This year only a few individuals. I think I'll try no oil for a while and see how it goes. Thanks.
I love the selling of honey. Its the most satisfying part.
Pest, hate em!
Getting stung on the fingers isn't very nice.
Having bees stolen sucks too.
Over all though, here in Florida, the heat!
I'm in my first year, but painting about 20 screen bottom boards was a real pain!
No, we don't have that many hives (someday, I hope ;)), but we did some work for our mentor as payment for our hives.
As of now, wearing a jacket and veil in 95 degree heat.
Quote from: dennis2021 on July 22, 2013, 07:58:29 AM
Over all though, here in Florida, the heat!
Ain't that the truth!
Get yourself a place on Lake Gichigami :)
My least favorite part of bee keeping is harvesting the honey and painting hives. Both of those activities are definitely W-O-R-K.
Probably a tie between heavy lifting and heat.
Getting stung on the top of the ear. :(
The least favorite part of beekeeping for me is getting burnt by the smoker. Dosent happen often but when it does OUCH!
I hate it when they beg you for a new queen, I mean, make your own darn queen already!
...JP
Watching the sparrows pick off my returning queens.... Loosing almost 35% on their mating flights.
"Eat the Drones! There's lots of them!"
Upgraded the kids pellet guns and gave them a bounty on the dumb birds.
Not sure if tie between not being able to see well thru the veil or selling the honey or jacket in hot weather.
scraping propolis off the hives/frames/etc. I just find it annoying, and if it isn't done it's a pita, and this year there has been a lot of propolis. and not just in my caucasian hives. maybe they are cross breeding the worse traits, but it seems other have used a lot of propolis this year also. Though I have to admit, I was a idiot and when I stapled some frames together the staple shot out the side of the frame and I didn't catch it, so it created a small gap that shouldn't of been there, that was my fault of course.
Keeping the smoker lit. It always seems to work best when I DON'T need it.
Quote from: skatesailor on July 26, 2013, 12:25:16 PM
Keeping the smoker lit. It always seems to work best when I DON'T need it.
The tighter you pack the smoker, the better it stays lit. After an hour of burn time, pack it down again.
Jim
ya the thing with the smoker is you just want a good base of embers, and then you can pack it tight. but if you only have a few hives, then by time you get it going you really don't need it that much. The mentality that gets me through using the smoker is I remember when I was like 5 years old, my parents were talking to my neighbor whose house burned down about the fact that he emptied his fireplace into a steel can, but his wife evidently put grocery bags (back then they just had paper really, I think.) in the can 5 days later, and that is what caused the fire...... embers that are going good and are insulated from a fire place can stay hot and lit for 5 days.... so that is what I always thought about when using the smoker..... keep em insulated and a good ember from the start and you'll be golden, it'll never go out, and can be stoked with air to come back to life strong quickly.
>scraping propolis off the hives/frames/etc. I just find it annoying
That's why I never do...
www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopscrapingpropolis (http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopscrapingpropolis)
Quote from: Better.to.Bee.than.not on July 26, 2013, 11:53:13 AM
scraping propolis off the hives/frames/etc. I just find it annoying, and if it isn't done it's a pita, and this year there has been a lot of propolis. and not just in my caucasian hives. maybe they are cross breeding the worse traits, but it seems other have used a lot of propolis this year also. Though I have to admit, I was a idiot and when I stapled some frames together the staple shot out the side of the frame and I didn't catch it, so it created a small gap that shouldn't of been there, that was my fault of course.
i'm trying to breed it into my bees. less hiding places for beetles.
I quit removing propolis ever since I found out that this is the way the bees make the hive clean. For a bee this stuff is like caulking. I only scrape burr comb and then only when it makes it difficult to close up the hives. They're just gonna build it again.
I hate working my bees when the temperature and humidity are high. I take better care of them in cooler weather.
Steve
Quote from: Better.to.Bee.than.not on July 26, 2013, 11:53:13 AM
scraping propolis is off the hives/frames/etc. I just find it annoying, and if it isn't done it's a pita, and this year there has been a lot of propolis is. and not just in my caucasian hives. maybe they are cross breeding the worse traits, but it seems other have used a lot of propolis is this year also. Though I have to admit, I was a idiot and when I stapled some frames together the staple shot out the side of the frame and I didn't catch it, so it created a small gap that shouldn't of been there, that was my fault of course.
Scrapping propolis and burr comb is a waste of time and energy. They will just put it back cause they want it there for a reason. I will just remove what is necessary to remove frames and put them back.
The first year when you are just starting out as a beek and you only have a few hives, knowing that a loss rate of 25% or more is normal and not having the ability to build up enough hives to compensate for the loss kinda sucks. I know if you have 10 or 15 hives you could still lose all of them but the chances are slim that would happen. Just don't want to lose my 4 hives and have to start from scratch again next year.
Then there is this robbing thing. Really HATE that.. :)
David, look up robbing screen they work.
Quote from: Michael Bush on July 28, 2013, 10:43:21 PM
>scraping propolis off the hives/frames/etc. I just find it annoying
That's why I never do...
www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopscrapingpropolis (http://www.bushfarms.com/beeslazy.htm#stopscrapingpropolis)
what, when you take your frames out or boxes and store them you leave them dirty and sticky? I take full frames out for whatever reasons or boxes, replace them with clean ones and clean up the others for storage until I need them again. The worse part to me is scraping the propolis off them, but I'm not going to leave it on there. just how I roll I guess.
>what, when you take your frames out or boxes and store them you leave them dirty and sticky?
I only scrape them if the propolis is in my way. The bees are only going to have to gather more propolis to replace what you take.
"Propolis rarely creates problems for a beekeeper. Certainly any effort to keep a hive free of it by systematic and frequent scraping, is time wasted." --The How-To-Do-It book of Beekeeping, Richard Taylor
Miss matched equipment gets on my nerves, the bees load up the spaces with burr comb or just stick everything together. Culling out old frames is a pain also, can't decide on just how bad a frame has to be before tossing in the melter. Cleanup after an extraction when you are hot, tired, sticky and still have to melt down the cappings and move the boxes back to the bee yard for finial cleanup. It's a heck of a hobby, standing out in the heat wearing a bee suit blowing smoke out of a silly little contraption while trying not to get stung by a couple thousand bugs. Don't know how you commercial guys do it but still Gotta love it :-D
I have to second or maybe third or even forth the heat in a jacket. All the rest seems easy
Quote from: Michael Bush on July 31, 2013, 10:21:23 AM
>what, when you take your frames out or boxes and store them you leave them dirty and sticky?
I only scrape them if the propolis is in my way. The bees are only going to have to gather more propolis to replace what you take.
"Propolis rarely creates problems for a beekeeper. Certainly any effort to keep a hive free of it by systematic and frequent scraping, is time wasted." --The How-To-Do-It book of Beekeeping, Richard Taylor
no, no...not 'in the hive' I do not try to keep the hive nice and neat or anything like that, but I clean up my frames and boxes I'm not using and storing them. in the hive I'm glad they have the propolis...they are glad they have the propolis. it closes gaps and secures their house. you remove it from that then they will just have to work to put it back. I clean up stuff when I am no longer using it in the hive though. I would find it weird if richard taylor tried telling me never to clean stuff off , and I wouldn't listen to him if he did.
My vote is having to get suited up in the summer robbing season here in Florida. I am not crazy about selling honey but it's a great opportunity to talk to people about bees so I guess it evens out.
Wearing shorts, and running out to do a quick check, on a single hive before running off for a fun filled evening with the wife,, and getting stung right in the bullseye... screaming like a girl, jumping nine and a half feet straight up, while hitting self with both hands in a very tender spot, while WIFE watches/falls on ground/laughs/kicks feet/snorts/keens/laughs more....................
The heat! Trying to work my hives in 90 degree weather stinks, even with an ultra breeze suite. No Seabreeze, it's just plain hot!
Joyce