# Hello from Abilene Texas. Possible beekeeper here that needs help?



## Riskybizz

Jungle

Congratulations on your experience with amazon bees in the jungle, and Just when you think you have escaped them guess what...."there baaack"..you are living in africanized bee territory. Sounds as if your going to make a great beekeeper and you have a very worthy cause. You asked what you needed and my best advice would be to find an experienced beekeeper to talk with and to help you. I'm guessing there are some in your area. Most beekeepers are willing to help out. Books are great for cold winter nights but nothing like watching someone who knows how to handle bees help remove them from an old tire. Good luck with your next adventure. 

http://agnewsarchive.tamu.edu/dailynews/stories/ENTO/Sep0199a.htm


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## StevenG

Jungleexplorer,
I lived in Abilene for 8 years, before relocating 7 years ago! Small world. 
First bit of advice, find the Texas State Beekeeper's Association on the 'net, see if there's a club in or near Abilene. Contact the local extension office, they may know of a local group of beekeepers. Then get in touch with one or more, and go from there.

Second bit of advice, is to plan now for next spring. As dry as Texas is, and this late in the season, it is probably best to get all your equipment ready, and hive those bees early next spring.

Third bit of advice, don't assume those bees are tame! First off, there is no such thing as a tame bee. Some are just less aggressive than others, but under the right circumstances, all bees are little devils. 

Next, you are correct in assuming those bees are survivors. Use them to expand your number of colonies once you get them transferred to new equipment. Sounds like you won't need to treat them for mites...many of us don't, because we start out with bees that don't need treatment. 

And finally, have you discovered the best steak house in Texas yet? I can't recall if it's "The Beehive" or "Fort Griffin ....." but it's on the south side of Albany, and I believe run by a Lebanese family. They have the absolute best steaks! We'd drive up there regularly from Abilene... give them a try. And welcome to beekeeping!
Regards,
Steven


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## lfzebra

Partner, you ask good questions. IMO (in my opinion) there are two types of beekeeper, the minimalist and the traditionalist. Top Bar Hives or you may know them as Kenya Top Bar Hives are a good option for a minimalist approach. Traditional uses what is known as the Langstroth hive (that is the square box hives you are prob familiar with). I have one of each type of hive but use no medications and will covert my Langstroth hive next year (that is a further discussion for later). I STRONGLY recommend the book "Beekeeping for Dummies"! It does not talk about TBH's but it is great for beginners and gives great info about diseases. I use mine almost every week. 

Watch YouTube vid's, join your local beekeeping association, and read. I spent a whole year educating myself before I actually got my bees. 

When you get your bees, buy local bc (because) those bees will be acclimated to the area and flora there. Or, get a veteran beekeeper to help capture one of those colonies near you.

I ordered a beginners kit made of cypress wood and have been very happy with it. One thing I do not use is the gloves. I have found I like wearing latex gloves bc I have a better feel for what Im doing and will not accidentally crush a bee. I have been stung (only once) while wearing latex and the glove helped remove the stinger when I pulled it off. 

I do not have a full bee suit. I do have a beekeeping jacket and a hood (with a hat). I wear my old military pants.

With TX being so dry, if your buildings have gutters, put rain barrels on the gutters. I use a bird feeder with rocks in it as a water source for my bees. I see them there everyday.

Michael Bush has a website full of info for TBH's and he is very helpful. You may see his name on this forum, I cant recommend him enough for all the help he gives to beekeepers. 



I hope this little bit helps. I wish you the best!


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## PCM

Might try;
http://etba.info/forum

This is made up of mostly Texas beeks.

PCM


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## AmericasBeekeeper

Welcome, beginner's kits have plenty of stuff that will collect dust. You might just get the basics for your first year - smoker, hive tool, veil/jacket/suit, standard hive plus two or three supers.


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## jungleexplorer

Riskybizz said:


> Jungle
> 
> Congratulations on your experience with amazon bees in the jungle, and Just when you think you have escaped them guess what...."there baaack"..you are living in africanized bee territory.



You got that right. Fortunately for me there was a river for me to jump into about 100 yards away, but they followed me right to the rivers edge. I did not know what was going kill me first, the bees or running through the sweltering Amazon jungle with three layer of clothes on, getting super heated and then jumping to to a cold river. Great memories now, but not that fun then.


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## jungleexplorer

StevenG said:


> And finally, have you discovered the best steak house in Texas yet? I can't recall if it's "The Beehive" or "Fort Griffin ....." but it's on the south side of Albany, and I believe run by a Lebanese family. They have the absolute best steaks! We'd drive up there regularly from Abilene... give them a try. And welcome to beekeeping!
> Regards,
> Steven


Thanks for the bee advice and the steakhouse advice. I am from Lubbock originally (at least that is that is where I lived when not out of the country). Lubbock is the capital of food, but Abilene is really pretty bad in this regard. I like mom and pop restaurants. One day I spent four hours driving around Abilene with a phone book checking out local family restaurants and they were all out of business. I will definitely try to find the one you spoke of.


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## jungleexplorer

lfzebra said:


> Partner, you ask good questions. IMO (in my opinion) there are two types of beekeeper, the minimalist and the traditionalist. Top Bar Hives or you may know them as Kenya Top Bar Hives are a good option for a minimalist approach. Traditional uses what is known as the Langstroth hive (that is the square box hives you are prob familiar with). I have one of each type of hive but use no medications and will covert my Langstroth hive next year (that is a further discussion for later). I STRONGLY recommend the book "Beekeeping for Dummies"! It does not talk about TBH's but it is great for beginners and gives great info about diseases. I use mine almost every week.



I like the term you used "minimalist". That is important to me because I have many other duties and obligations on a daily bases that consume most of my time and I don't need to add another huge burden. I am not looking to become a honey factory, just produce enough for our needs, which right now is quite minimal. But when you buy honey at the store, you don't use much of it, so our use might increase once we produce our own. But I think three hives have the capacity at full production to produce many times honey more then we need, so I plan to let the bees take care of themselves mostly and not take all their honey, leaving some for them to survive on during the hard times. Of course, this statement comes from a totally uniformed person, so it may change once I learn more. But it is my understanding right now that bees store honey to eat during hard times and if you take all their honey you will have to feed them sugar water during the hard times. If these bees are anything like those aficanized bees I captured in the Amazon, that could be a lot of sugar water. When my brother and I captured them, we put all of the honey comb we could in the hive box, but there was too much to fit. It was a huge honey comb. The bees had built it in a large hardwood box that was about four feet long by three feet tall by two feet wide and it was full of comb. There is no telling how many bees were in that colony, but I would have to estimate over half a million. It took hours of searching to find the queen to transfer to our hive box. Anyway, after a few days the bees started dying by the thousands. We kind of expected this because the hive boxes was much smaller then the boxes they had come out of, so we logically assumed that there were just too many bees for that small of a box. We had no books, but we guessed that were starving to death and we wanted to save as many as possible, so we started feeding them sugar water. We put out a gallon and it was gone in one hour and the bees were still dying. I can't exactly remember now, but I think they were consuming five pounds of sugar a day and still dying off by the thousands. We could not afford to keep feeding them anymore so we just gave up. The hive died down to a handful of bees before it stabilized. By this time we were so discouraged, we decided we did not know enough to be beekeepers, so we just abandon the bees to themselves. The hive survived on their own for years until we moved away, but we never tried to get any honey from them.


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## jungleexplorer

PCM said:


> Might try;
> http://etba.info/forum
> 
> This is made up of mostly Texas beeks.
> 
> PCM


I live in the west part of Texas near Abilene but out of the Oak forest. My area is mostly cactus and mesquite trees. There are tons of flowers from spring through early summer, but not much after that. I think I need info from people from this area, but I will take a look at what the East Texans have to say as well.


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## Kazzandra

AmericasBeekeeper said:


> Welcome, beginner's kits have plenty of stuff that will collect dust. You might just get the basics for your first year - smoker, hive tool, veil/jacket/suit, standard hive plus two or three supers.


I do not recommend beginner's kits, as well. I got a beginner's kit after doing the math and realizing I was getting a discount for buying the kit. "What a deal!" I thought. What I didn't consider is that the beginner's kit has the cheapest quality veil, the cheapest quality gloves, and the cheapest quality smoker!
I've already replaced the veil with a different, better made style, the gloves I have had to buy a smaller and better made pair, and I plan to replace the "economy" smoker next year with one that doesn't go out every other minute.

Beginner's kits ensure you buy twice the equipment you need.


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## jungleexplorer

Thanks for sharing your experience. That is what I kind of thought anyway, so now I know I was right (at least about the starter kits). Now I am trying to decide between top bar hives or the other kind.


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## jungleexplorer

Just a little note. I plan on buying the hives and equipment to start out with and maybe building more hives in the future if I decide I want to capture the splits, once I have more experience. I appreciate all the info about building my own, but I just don't have the time for the foreseeable future to do it.


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## Bee Bliss

Welcome!

Yes, read books and Beesource and find some local beeks..... but also, get some beekeeping catalogs from: Dadant, Mann Lake, Betterbee, etc. 

Check out the following post on Beesource in the "How to Start Beekeeping" (b. First equipment & supplies to obtain thread)---- post No. 2 by PeteO. He has quite a detailed list. I printed it out and then fine tuned it to suit my needs. I also stayed away from the beginner's kit and bought equipment from several places and drove 4-hour round trip to Dadant in Watertown to pick up equipment. It is a good idea to buy a better quality smoker (larger size is better). I gave this same list to someone in the area who was asking me what he needed to get started. 

As I read info on Beesource, I also adjusted the list based on advice from members. Thanks!  

How many acres are you on? Irrigation for the gardens? Sounds really nice. Good luck!


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## Jaseemtp

Ok, so jungleexplorer I am in North Texas about 30 miles west of Fort Worth. I am on the ETBA site also and while im not in east Texas it is after all still Texas. Beekeeping for Dummies is a good start, it helped me get familiar with all the lingo and the hive componets. The two old hives that are established I would leave them alone for now, but the one in the tire I would do my best to get them into a regular hive of some sort, they will require some feeding. Heck this is Texas we wont have cold weather until November at best. Good luck, read alot and try to find a bee club, those are the best things to do. 
Jason


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## jungleexplorer

Bee Bliss said:


> How many acres are you on? Irrigation for the gardens? Sounds really nice. Good luck!


I have ten acres with a 1/3 acre water tank (which my bees love) for wildlife and fish. One acre is a garden area with automated solar power underground drip irrigation. I have a chicken flock in divided pens on 1/2 acre and I grow rotated forage crops for them in the pens, things like Milo, winter wheat etc. Other then this, the bees will have only natural sources. There is some agriculture land in the valley south of me about 1/2 mile but I don't think bees fly that far (I am not sure). I just found out today that the bees in those two old hives have been there for 20 years. Must be Terminator bees! LOL!


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## jungleexplorer

Looks like I will be going with the Langstroth style. I farmer down the road just give me the centrifugal extractor equipment. I read somewhere that you can't use it with top bar hives.


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