New Hive in the Florida Keys

KeyLargoBees · April 27, 2015, 03:47:28 PM

Hello from Key Largo

I have a few questions for the forum if anyone is down here in the semi tropics some advice would be appreciated.

Since I am down here in the Florida Keys and temperatures are mild even in January and December and we have decent year round forage....what is a common brood box configuration. I am not afraid of deeps and have one as the base ready for bee delivery. Should I go for a second deep for brood before adding medium supers for honey or is there some other special "tropical" configuration I should be looking at. I am finding that there is virtually no literature out there that deals with our south Florida weather and how it affects hive box configurations.

Thanks for any and all responses

don2 · April 27, 2015, 06:01:54 PM

Regardless of your location, in the spring when the queen is on the upward swing in laying. They need all the room they can get. If you don't mind lifting deeps full of honey, [ approximately] 90 lbs. I would go with 3 deeps. Even here in central Ga I have had the queen to go as far as a second super with 2 deeps. But like you say someone closer to you should have a better view on this. d2

KeyLargoBees · April 29, 2015, 08:46:05 AM

Thanks D2 i appreciate the reply and will continue to research locally. Installing with the single deep and will add on to that based on my research

jayj200 · April 29, 2015, 09:41:17 AM

Yep
two deeps then whats your preference
the brood deeps need to be rotated twice a year (don't kill the queen)
Catlin is your state inspector. contact her
the keys are even warmer than here by at least 10 degrees and this was a warm year

D Coates · April 29, 2015, 12:19:55 PM

I was down there about a year ago at the Boy Scout Sea Base. Had a great time! While I was there I thought (dreamed) of what it would be like to keep bees down there. That far south I'm not sure if the queen does a winter break so you're going to need to stay on top of swarming (2 Deeps, or 3 Supers), Varroa, and SHB's.

BeeMaster2 · April 29, 2015, 02:35:22 PM

A commercial beek in our club up here says that you only need a deep for winter. I still run 2 mediums for winter. A commercial company that places 56 hives up against my farm in the spring, places them with all single deeps and then adds supers.
There is a beek in the Tampa area that has documented pulling 1600 pounds of honey from 4 hives in one year. That's 400 pounds per hive. His bees are making honey year around. I heard about this because he was afraid of breaking the cottage industry rules due to exceeding the $15,000 per year rule. The Inspector told him not to worry about it with only 4 hives.
Maybe your bees can make honey year around. If they do, no worries about winter size.
Jim

KeyLargoBees · April 30, 2015, 10:14:33 AM

Thanks all...I have been in contact with Caitlin and once I am set up she is going to come on down to do the inspections.

I have heard that production is year round and cant wait to get started but the delivery date for my bees just got pushed back a week

.... due to rain and queen mating I would assume.

I am in a residential area in Key Largo so we don't have "crop flow" but we get almost year round blooms of some sort of native hardwood trees and shrubs and almost everyone down here has some sort of flowering landscape plantings so I think my soon to be new babies will be happy. The only drawback so far is there is no organised club down here so it looks like if I want to meet like minded people in a club environment it will be a trek up to Broward....which is a pain with traffic and when they meet so I dont see myself attending a lot of those.....which means you all might be stuck with me and my questions on this forum

D Coates · April 30, 2015, 10:27:31 AM

If you've just got to have some meetings I'd be more than willing to come on down for week once a month during the months of Jan, Feb, and March. The club would be called the CRBC (Conch Republic Beekeeping Club) and we'd have a definite winter schedule but a really laidback meeting schedule for the other 9 months.

We could raise funds selling T-shirts! (I'd definitely buy one of those.)

BeeMaster2 · April 30, 2015, 12:13:37 PM

Key,
If you have the room, you could have a very large bee meeting right in your home during the middle of winter. You would have beeks from all over the north coming just to get their hands in a hive in Jan or Feb.

Jim

johng · May 01, 2015, 02:46:48 PM

Sea Grape and Mangroves I think are two big honey producing plants in the Keys and I would imagine you get a decent flow from some of the Palms. Varroa is probably gonna be one of your biggest challenges without a slow down they will build up pretty quick.