# New from Denver



## Verbify (Nov 12, 2014)

Hello from a very frigid cold Denver! Despite the arctic blast, my sights are on the spring when we'll start out with two hives. Being new, I've been reading voraciously (books and this forum) and these forums have been a fantastic resource. I'm not sure there's an original question left to ask! If I've learned anything it's that if you ask 20 beekeepers you'll get 20 answers so take it all in, ponder it and make a decision.

That said, the natural cell/treatment free approach appeals to me most so I'm looking forward to learning more and connecting with others in my area taking the same approach.


----------



## fieldsofnaturalhoney (Feb 29, 2012)

Verbify, Welcome from your neck of the woods, I think it is more like ask 20 beekeepers, and get 25 answers . good luck on your endeavor, its a learning process, but can be done.


----------



## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Verbify said:


> That said, the natural cell/treatment free approach appeals to me most so I'm looking forward to learning more and connecting with others in my area taking the same approach.


If you're going that way, buy bees from a TF beek. Don't buy a package/nuc from a non-TF supplier and expect them to flourish w/o treatments. You'll be very disappointed.


----------



## Verbify (Nov 12, 2014)

snl said:


> If you're going that way, buy bees from a TF beek. Don't buy a package/nuc from a non-TF supplier and expect them to flourish w/o treatments. You'll be very disappointed.


That's the plan. I just have to find the right folks. I dropped in on one local club last month but it was pretty clear TF was not on anyone's agenda there. I'm open to suggestions if anyone in the area has some contacts I might try.


----------



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

If you do go with a "treatment free" supplier send me a PM. I'd be more than willing to place a friendly wager that your TF results will result in a  face faster than you would assume from all the hype.

Very few braggers remain standing on that flimsy TF soapbox without great losses in short order. Good luck if you do... Your going to need it.


----------



## Verbify (Nov 12, 2014)

Honey-4-All said:


> If you do go with a "treatment free" supplier send me a PM. I'd be more than willing to place a friendly wager that your TF results will result in a  face faster than you would assume from all the hype.
> 
> Very few braggers remain standing on that flimsy TF soapbox without great losses in short order. Good luck if you do... Your going to need it.


I suppose, at the end of the day, experience is all a beekeeper ever has. Otherwise, you wouldn't get 20 different answers from 20 beekeepers.


----------



## garusher (May 28, 2012)

Swarms would give you a good start at TF. provided you know the bee tree they came from and a little history.


----------



## bbruff22 (Dec 24, 2013)

Welcome from NE Kansas Verbify! It's my first season, and I know painfully little, but it's addictive stuff. I'm busy worrying about winter now and if my three hives are in good shape. 

I'd check out Mr. Bush's site very thoroughly or his book. He's a TF guy and very successful I think. http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

Good luck to you!


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Very few braggers remain standing on that flimsy TF soapbox without great losses in short order.

Or maybe they are just tired of getting bashed all the time...


----------



## Verbify (Nov 12, 2014)

bbruff22 said:


> I'd check out Mr. Bush's site very thoroughly or his book. He's a TF guy and very successful I think. http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm
> 
> Good luck to you!


Thanks, bbruff22, I have indeed read Mr. Bush's book (and keep going back to it) among others. I'm also lucky enough to have discovered a few quality mentors in Denver, one of which wrote a mentoring book recommended by Mr. Bush. It's going to be a long winter waiting for spring.


----------



## Verbify (Nov 12, 2014)

Michael Bush said:


> >Very few braggers remain standing on that flimsy TF soapbox without great losses in short order.
> 
> Or maybe they are just tired of getting bashed all the time...


No worries. I've lurked here long enough to form my own ideas of where to place people on the credibility scale based on their posts, the subject and attitude. I'd like to think I've given it some cogent thought and considered many approaches. I'd managed to read a few oft-recommended basics books before stumbling on Kim Flottum's, Ross Conrad's and then yours (which I keep going back to, by the way. It makes sense to me.). I'm confident this system fits me and my own ideals, whether I succeed or fail. Either way, I learn. An added plus is that Don Studinski is right in my back yard (and can actually BE in my back yard should I need help).


----------



## Honey-4-All (Dec 19, 2008)

Michael Bush said:


> >Very few braggers remain standing on that flimsy TF soapbox without great losses in short order.
> 
> Or maybe they are just tired of getting bashed all the time...


Not here to bash TF beekeepers. More power to them. 

Was wondering if you could give me your estimate on the number of hives one person could run on a full time basis using no treatments ( genetics and manipulations only) ????

Do you have a list of the number of commercial beekeepers making a living off of TF beekeeping without any outside funds of support? How many are there? Willing to toss out names?


----------



## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>Was wondering if you could give me your estimate on the number of hives one person could run on a full time basis using no treatments ( genetics and manipulations only) ????

Kirk Webster, last I heard, was running about 300 hives and 300 nucs. Dee Lusby is running about 600 hives by herself (she was running about 1,000 before she lost her husband and partner). It's a lot LESS work to run bees treatment free. Not more work...

>Do you have a list of the number of commercial beekeepers making a living off of TF beekeeping without any outside funds of support? How many are there? Willing to toss out names?

There have been several discussions on the topic and some names were provided... and 22 pages of posts resulted in at least one of them...
http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?278944-Treatment-Free-Commercial-Beekeepers


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome!


----------



## fruitveggirl (Mar 8, 2013)

Welcome!


----------



## Mikescomic (Aug 13, 2010)

Hi and Welcome, I live in Aurora Colorado near the intersection of 6th and Chambers Rd. I'm a quarter mile north of Delaney Farm, a community garden run by the Denver Urban Gardens. That area is in a very large open space across Chambers from Aurora's government buildings, police, library etc. I've attended several of the bee workshops that they have out at Delaney Farms during the year. The current beekeepers that manage the bees out at Delaney, are Allan and Debbie Brown and I have taken in a few of their workshops. Before them, about 3 years back the beekeeper was Marty Hardison. Marty was a top bar beekeeper that had designed his own top bar hives. I found this blog on him on the web which can link to his plans. http://bbhb.blogspot.com/p/appropriate-beehive.html
I was impressed by the only bee workshop I attended given by him, which was the honey harvest. I noticed on that link above, has a link to a photo gallery of Marty building one of his top bar hives out at Delaney Farm. I built two top bar hives from Marty's plan for myself and a friend of mine, but I plan to build a couple more in the next coming months. I've had real good luck attracting swarms to my yard, 3 in the last 4 years. The first two died out, but the swarm that showed up on May 18th this year is still going strong. I too, am a newbie and trying to gain experience, beesource is a great site for information. I've assumed my fortune for attracting swarms is by first getting them into the yard with a lot of bee friendly plants (lots of borage), an empty hive and attractants on and in the hive. Inside I put some bee wax, didn't have any comb at the time but on the false moveable wall inside the hive I made my own comb by pouring the wax on the wall about half inch thick then taking about a 3/16 drill bit drilling shallow holes into the hardened wax followed by a heated hex wrench to make the cells. The bees never used it, but I believe it was the attractant that worked. Also put lemon balm around the outside. The reason I plan to build a couple more hives is because I think I'll need them come spring. I didn't check on bees again after they arrived until September when I thought I'd go in there and harvest the honey. I found the hive almost completely full to the rear of the hive, but because they had crossed combed the bars in the rear I didn't feel comfortable in going any further. So my plan is to break up the hive in the spring and see if I have enough bees to fill another hive or two. They seem to be survivors, they made it through that -9 degree night back in November, biggest problem right now seems to be all the yellow-jackets that keep trying to get into the hive, but I found on this site that cutting the top off a 2-liter pop bottle and inverting it back into the bottles works well as a trap. I put it out yesterday and today it has 3 yellow-jackets and about a dozen flies drowned in the soda.


----------



## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Welcome to BeeSource!


----------

