First time on forum, second year beekeeping, first successful year, I hope!

manaway · February 21, 2013, 04:15:58 PM

Hey all - bought a box of bees last year and installed in my topbar hive. Bees did great for a few months and then died off.

I have bought a couple of nucs this year and need to buy some hives to install them in (I have a couple months here). I'm also looking for knowledge on how to do this more successfully.

If anyone has a couple of hives they are not using (even one would work), I'd be interested in them if the price is right.

I am up in Blaine, WA.

Thx

Kathyp · February 21, 2013, 04:46:51 PM

you are way up there!

have you been able to find a local beekeeping club or group? that would be helpful.

check Mann Lake. i have found them to be the least expensive for me, factoring in shipping. they even have free shipping from time to time. some other places are less expensive in equipment cost, but the shipping is to high.

also try craigslist. i have found quite a bit of my stuff on there.

tefer2 · February 21, 2013, 05:22:01 PM

Welcome to the forum manaway. I'll second what advice Kathy offered. You can also try out the search box at the top of the page.

Joe D · February 21, 2013, 07:13:38 PM

Welcome to the forum,manaway. I built a dozen boxs and then ordered frames with foundation from mann lake orders over $100 was free shipping. It doesn't take a lot to be over that amount. ha Good luck with your bees

Joe

Georgia Boy · February 21, 2013, 09:09:10 PM

First off Welcome.

I am new this year just getting started.

I bought my hives from Ozark Cedar Hives no other reason just liked his stuff over the others. See link below.
I did the all medium hive unassembled only cost $120.
I bought 2 complete hives and 4 additional medium supers and an assembly jig for the supers and the shipping was only $80. The total for everything including shipping was only $409.
I didn't think that was too bad compared to the others out there.
http://ozarkcedarhives.com/

Since I want to do one hive with foundation and one foundationless I bought the first from Mann Lake and the second from Walter Kelly. The Kelly frames have a built in comb guide at the top.

Thats all I have to offer. Hope it helps.

David

AllenF · February 21, 2013, 11:22:46 PM

Welcome to the forum.

manaway · February 22, 2013, 04:57:20 PM

Hey all! Thanks for the input! I was not sure that I expected the forum to be so active! (I am as new to forums as I am to bees).

I apprecaite the feedback, recommendations and advice. I have certainly checked Craigslist and have found a few things of interest for sale - but at prices that made buying new worth while. I do have a question for you though now that you mention craigslist - is drawn comb a good idea - when you do not know who you are buying from? I am not sure I want to invite problems, be they mites or disease into a new hive, but if it saved the worms a year of building out comb, it is attractive. The second question is at what price - say for 10 frames of drawn brood comb and another 10 frames of honey comb?

David - I will look into Ozark.
Joe - I would like to build them but find the idea of finger joints daunting! :-)
Kathy - and here I thought I had found a local club.

Kathyp · February 22, 2013, 08:36:55 PM

Quotebut if it saved the worms a year of building out comb

?? the bees will draw comb fairly quickly when there is a nectar flow on. most of the time you'd probably be ok to use drawn comb if you were given some, but i don't think i'd bother to pay for it. you do need to think about what you are going to do for foundation. you have some choices between wax, plastic, foundationless....

you'll find plenty of discussions about that stuff on here if you do a search and as you are thinking about what to buy feel free to post questions. most of the time you'll get way to many answers and have to weed through them. :-D

hardwood · February 22, 2013, 08:56:44 PM

Welcome!

Scott

fshrgy99 · February 23, 2013, 10:35:39 PM

Welcome! I have found all the experience on the forum to be invaluable. Sure you will too.

BeeMaster2 · February 24, 2013, 07:01:01 AM

Welcome to the forum. I also use Mann Lake. That free shipping makes a big difference. I went to order 20 boxes, frames and foundation from a company in PA that my father in law recommended and I had visited the previous year. The prices were great until I asked about the shipping cost. $165.00. I told them to stop the order and checked Mann Lakes price for the same inventory. Ended up saving about $75.
Jim