# Old school no more!



## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Greetings folks! I've been keeping bees since college when me and my dad cut down a bee tree for fire wood. Since we didn't know that the bees were there, I tried to save them but it was the middle of January and the skunks got in to them. That spring I started beekeeping and have been doing it since 1980. Sometimes I only checked them once a month or only a couple of times a year and I still got a lot of honey off them. In normal years back then, 50 to 100 lbs of honey were very standard for this lazy beekeeper per hive. Since I lived away from home in Florida or Texas I really couldn't be very active in my beekeeping. Since I moved back closer to my home base, I now have Carniolan bees since my Italians finally died out in 2008 and I made the change to start being a better beekeeper. In my primary location is in Kingston Tennessee has a great population of Tulip Poplar, clovers, sumac and some basswood. This year I did a split in the middle of March off my 1 hive after finding a queen cell and that hive still produced over 100 lbs of honey. This location is that good for beekeeping. From early Feb through mid-July there always something in bloom. I have been really impressed with the NW carniolan stock and I'm planning to make a lot more splits this spring and get up to 6-7 hives. So far the carniolan are controlling the mite population without a lot of hard treatments from me. Using wintergreen/tea tree (in sugar feed) and mineral oil (on frames) plus one treatment of Thymol in September for primary control. Going to get a lot of nucs started this spring to expand my hobby. Happy beekeeping guys!


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## toekneepea (Jul 7, 2010)

Welcome to BeeSource!

Cheers,
Tony P.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Welcome UT, looking forward to hearing how it all goes.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome UTVH!


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## Slow Modem (Oct 6, 2011)

Hi neighbor and welcome!  I'm just down the road in Meigs County, but I work in Kingston. This is my first year having bees. Hopefully I'll still have bees in the spring. Had a good year this year with one hive. Hoping for more success (and more bees) in the years to come.


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## UTvolshype (Nov 26, 2012)

Slow Modem said:


> Hi neighbor and welcome!  I'm just down the road in Meigs County, but I work in Kingston. This is my first year having bees. Hopefully I'll still have bees in the spring. Had a good year this year with one hive. Hoping for more success (and more bees) in the years to come.


Greetings! Since it looks like another mild winter you should do well as long as they have good stores and a good population going into winter. I have one hive low stores hive right now I'm feeding back honey (+ wintergreen oil) to keep it in good shape. One thing you can do right now is check the entrance for dead bees (it's normal to have a few per week 1 or 3 is no concern) and check their underbellies for mites. Drop them in to rubbing alcohol to prep the dead ones and look closely for dislodged mites). Not really the time to treat but your know if you have a problem. Good luck and have a great Christmas.


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