Post by clackamas on Nov 20, 2015 23:22:43 GMT -7
Hi - Introduction:
My name is Brian, I live outside Wilsonville/West Linn on 5 ac. We border on a 20ac next door property, and have a 225 ac far across the street. No one in our area has fewer than 5 ac, so our area is pretty rural. I am 47, and have always wanted to keep some bees. My daughter, 13, has picked it up the desire as well. She will pick up grounded bees and let them crawl on her hand trying to give them a chance to fly, both bumble and honey. I taught her from an early age that bee's are not harmful if you are nice so we both have the equal appreciation and respect. I really want to start a hive on our property, I guess more out of curiosity than anything else. It would be great to have the honey, but more that we would like to just have them and care for a hive. The honey is probably more than we can use so I suspect we would leave most of it in the hive for health. It would be nice having honey and using it instead of sugar but that is not our purpose. At our previous home we had a hive in the hole of an oak tree for at least 5 years, occasionally it would swarm, we just left it alone, it was neat to have in your backyard. We still own the home and keep it as a rental, I think in part to protect the hive. The new tenants were chosen, so they would not mess with the hive and just let it bee.
How do we get started? I know now hives are dormant, this is hibernation. Can I buy a hive and if so from whom? If I get a hive, what should we do to educate ourselves on keeping it healthy? What should my next steps be? I appreciate the input, I am a total newb, I can read and have done so, but boots on the ground knowledge is worth 10X a page in a book. Not to denigrate books, but just that real experience is paramount.
Sincerely,
Brian
My name is Brian, I live outside Wilsonville/West Linn on 5 ac. We border on a 20ac next door property, and have a 225 ac far across the street. No one in our area has fewer than 5 ac, so our area is pretty rural. I am 47, and have always wanted to keep some bees. My daughter, 13, has picked it up the desire as well. She will pick up grounded bees and let them crawl on her hand trying to give them a chance to fly, both bumble and honey. I taught her from an early age that bee's are not harmful if you are nice so we both have the equal appreciation and respect. I really want to start a hive on our property, I guess more out of curiosity than anything else. It would be great to have the honey, but more that we would like to just have them and care for a hive. The honey is probably more than we can use so I suspect we would leave most of it in the hive for health. It would be nice having honey and using it instead of sugar but that is not our purpose. At our previous home we had a hive in the hole of an oak tree for at least 5 years, occasionally it would swarm, we just left it alone, it was neat to have in your backyard. We still own the home and keep it as a rental, I think in part to protect the hive. The new tenants were chosen, so they would not mess with the hive and just let it bee.
How do we get started? I know now hives are dormant, this is hibernation. Can I buy a hive and if so from whom? If I get a hive, what should we do to educate ourselves on keeping it healthy? What should my next steps be? I appreciate the input, I am a total newb, I can read and have done so, but boots on the ground knowledge is worth 10X a page in a book. Not to denigrate books, but just that real experience is paramount.
Sincerely,
Brian
