Lend me your ear's

[doak]

I want to tell the story of my beginning in Bee Keeping.
O.K, "all you Girl friends", please don't think I am throwing this at any of you.
The person I bought my first equipment and bees from was a lady.

I had been reading up on keeping bees for several years, 3 or 4 maybe.
Read 3 or 4 books that many times each.
Finally in the year of our Lord, 2000, I bought two colonies, a veil, smoker and 2 suits.
About 25 boxes/supers for  $200.

On my first trip to collect my purchase, I gathered up all the empties, the smoker, suits and veil.
On my next trip I opened up the first stack, which was 8 boxes high.
The lady had driven one inch re-bar into the ground with nothing on top so the bottom board was sitting right on the (END) of the bar. By this time rot had managed to set in and the bar was up in the hive about 6 inches.

O.K, so I take the top off, and the first thing I fine is, She had been taking frames of honey out and not putting an empty frame back in it's place. This held true through 3 supers.
So there I am with 3 honey combs with bees and honey the length of 3 boxes deep with out the frames.

I did get it worked out. Brought home 2 and 1/2 boxes of honey and got the honey out as good as possible with out an extractor.

Sat the boxes outside in the back yard and on the fourth day a swarm came and went in.
I put my veil on to watch an glad I did.
It is such a picture to see when the queen lands on that landing board and has a troop all around her.

That was the only colony I had to start with.
The two that was with the boxes when I made the deal, well, One absconded before I could get them home and the other one died in about two month's.

When I had time to clean up the rest of the boxes I found one deep brood chamber where the bees had left before and wax moths ate the wax and a new swarm came in and built the comb across from corner to corner.

For any one thinking of starting I would "highly recommend"  starting with new equipment and package or a nuc, or an established colony, From a good beekeeper. :shock: ;)
doak

Now, this is my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Bennettoid]

LOL

Good story.

[Kathyp]

i know buying from established "beekeepers" can be a bit of a mess.  i have had to sort through all the stuff i bought and set it right.  however, i have gotten some very good deals by buying used bulk.  it didn't save me any time, but it did save some money.

i agree though, if you are just starting out, it's probably better to start your first colonies with some new stuff.  then you don't have to figure out what is what.

hey.....if you hadn't bought that used stuff, you wouldn't have gotten that swarm!  :-)

[buzzbee]

Thanks Doak for sharing your bee beginnings with us. i am sure there is much more humor to be had from the bystander. It's a great story and one with a lesson well learned!!

[Ronnie Elliott]

Great story, my only experience was being at the right place, at the right time.  When the African bees crossed over into Texas, some hobby beekeepers friends quit the bees, because of the media fear factor.  I got all my hive bodies, electric exractor, new hive bodies etc. etc.  Those African bees have done me good, and I have nerver seen one yet, knock on wood. 8-)

[Cindi]

Doak, nice little story.  I love it when people give an accounting of what firstly got them into beekeeping, and their stories of their lives with the bees.  I find these stories fascinating, don't know why, but it really strikes a beautiful chord in my heart, and I read each one with great interest.  It is wonderful that people take the time to share their thoughts.

I wonder why that woman didn't replace the frames that she removed in the boxes.  Maybe she just didn't know, or got too busy, forgot, whatever, but that surely made for some interesting comb I see.  Have a wonderful and beautiful day, lovin' our life we live.  Cindi