# Two general questions for seasoned beekeepers (for fun)



## jim lyon (Feb 19, 2006)

Best advice? "big window to the front" My father telling me as a 5 year old how to put on a folding veil

Advice that was wrong? "boys dont ever think you can do this again" This was actually my grandfather talking to my father and uncle in the late 40's after they had raised 100,000 lbs. of honey for the first time.


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

1. Don't try to carbon copy someone else's management techniques.
Even if they are very successful, blindly copying their actions without understanding what's behind them probably won't be successful.

1a. Don't make increases just to have larger numbers of hives.
Having 100 hives may sound impressive for a sideliner, but 20 well run colonies will out produce 100 poorly managed ones - and you won't have 100 for long.

2. Beekeeping is a never ending money pit.

You may not get rich, but by carefully managing expenses, diversifying products, and charging appropriate prices you can cover your expenses or better - even at a small scale.


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## gone2seed (Sep 18, 2011)

Boxes don't make honey, bees make honey.


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## rfgreenwell (Feb 14, 2010)

#1 Start with 2-3 hives if at all possible, and you will have both a comparative factor and resources that you will need.

#2 The "treating for mites -vs- treatment-free management"...be very sure you are in complete understanding of what goes into "treatment free" beekeeping if you are inclined in that direction...there is a lot of hype floating around and a few of the suppliers can be unscrupulous. There are many threads and posts devoted to this topic and I suggest you read them all. I generally try to dissuade newbees from anything other than straight forward "langstroth style" equipment and any type of management other than "standard" for their first season or two. If you are reasonably successful at overwintering your colony/colonies, then branch out into the other types of equipment and management practices. If your mentoring resources don't understand the newfangled techniques you are trying to pull off they may not be of much help if you get in a bind, and by far the majority of more seasoned beekeepers will be "old school" in their expertise. Could you start out with natural, or top bar, or warre, or barefoot, or naked beekeeping? Yes, it has been done for certain, but I see more failures among the non-standard newbees then the standardized. When I say failure, I am considering successful overwintering the first and second year as my brass ring.


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## cheezer32 (Feb 3, 2009)

1. I started keeping bees on my own and didn't ever read anything or know anyone that kept bees at first (I was like ten), in the end I think that was best, I learned what truthfully worked and what didn't by observation; now I find what most people talk about doing and not doing completely unessesary most of the time.

2. That you can't make money, or that beekeeping is a money pit, or its to expensive to get into, or... You get the point. It's a straight lie. I'm not sure what exactly people do to not make money in this business/hobby, there's more than enough to go around quite easily actually. Probably reverts back to all the unesessary stuff in point 1.


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## mathesonequip (Jul 9, 2012)

rfgreenwell said:


> #1 Start with 2-3 hives if at all possible, and you will have both a comparative factor and resources that you will need.
> 
> #2 The "treating for mites -vs- treatment-free management"...be very sure you are in complete understanding of what goes into "treatment free" beekeeping if you are inclined in that direction...there is a lot of hype floating around and a few of the suppliers can be unscrupulous. There are many threads and posts devoted to this topic and I suggest you read them all. I generally try to dissuade newbees from anything other than straight forward "langstroth style" equipment and any type of management other than "standard" for their first season or two. If you are reasonably successful at overwintering your colony/colonies, then branch out into the other types of equipment and management practices. If your mentoring resources don't understand the newfangled techniques you are trying to pull off they may not be of much help if you get in a bind, and by far the majority of more seasoned beekeepers will be "old school" in their expertise. Could you start out with natural, or top bar, or warre, or barefoot, or naked beekeeping? Yes, it has been done for certain, but I see more failures among the non-standard newbees then the standardized. When I say failure, I am considering successful overwintering the first and second year as my brass ring.


[1] real good [2] really true


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## Santa Caras (Aug 14, 2013)

1. Start with at least two hives if not more. (need all you can manage in the beginnings to have resources and still will probably never be enough)
2. You get them and I will help you. (from my wife) uhh yeah...if your reading this Honey.....still waitin!! (her veil is still in the wrapper LOL)


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Best advice? Bees don't fill boxes when they are in the barn.

All the advice I ever got was good. Not that I always followed all of it.


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## burns375 (Jul 15, 2013)

Best Advice: Don't be afraid, get in the hive, observe, watch, listen, smell.....I think alot of new folks are afraid to get into hives, afraid they will do something wrong. 

Worst Advice: Well theres alot of poorly guided things people do, things that I believe don't work as well as people think, really don't have much benefit. But the biggest is. You have to buy queens from a breeder, if you make them yourself they are no good.


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## Ski (Jan 18, 2007)

Best Advice,
Get a mentor and join them when they go into their hives. Also do this before attending the bee school.


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## SS1 (Jun 1, 2013)

g2knee said:


> I've not started with hives yet, but I am doing my research and learning over the winter. Here are my two questions:
> 
> 1. What is the one best piece of advice you were given as a beginner?


 DONT work the bees when Angry or sweaty.



g2knee said:


> 2. What is the one piece of advice you were told but was wrong or didn't really apply?


 If you get stung, use a banana peel to rub the spot, it will take the sting away....

If you try it, get away from the bees first.


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## squarepeg (Jul 9, 2010)

worst advice: if you find a hive that is queenless, broodless, and overrun with moths and beetles all you have to do is buy a new queen and introduce her to the colony. (be prepared for them to abscond if you try this)

best advice: let the bees teach you.


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## beepro (Dec 31, 2012)

worst advice: You cannot do this. It won't works.

best advice: Go ahead to try it then you'll see the results.


Bees are very forgiving as long as you don't completely killed the hive.


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

g2knee said:


> 1. What is the one best piece of advice you were given as a beginner?
> 
> 2. What is the one piece of advice you were told but was wrong or didn't really apply?


1. The best advice someone gave me was "don't stand in the flight path". Or like others have said start with more than one hive, preferably with different genetics.
2. One piece of advice I was given that was wrong, or did not apply was/is "boys, if you don't treat your bees they will die".

Shane


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## tsmullins (Feb 17, 2011)

burns375 said:


> Best Advice: Don't be afraid, get in the hive, observe, watch, listen, smell.....I think alot of new folks are afraid to get into hives, afraid they will do something wrong.
> 
> Worst Advice: Well theres alot of poorly guided things people do, things that I believe don't work as well as people think, really don't have much benefit. But the biggest is. You have to buy queens from a breeder, if you make them yourself they are no good.


+1 About buying vs raising your own queens!


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## jbeshearse (Oct 7, 2009)

Best advice: Buy at least 3 hive tools

Second best: Never, never put your smoker on the floorboard of your truck (failed to heed this advice)

Worst advice: Don't treat.


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## Charlie B (May 20, 2011)

Take advice from beekeepers in your area. Plenty of them on this site. Beekeeping is like real estate, location, location and location.


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## chillardbee (May 26, 2005)

I was about 14 years old and had bees for about a year when a grizzle old time beek I was talking to told me "you'll learn from your mistakes". This is probably more of a philosophy then advice, but I have learned from my mistakes and if you can learn from other beeks mistakes, even better. That was about 27 years ago.


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## dleemc1 (Dec 31, 2012)

1-all they can do is sting you 2- there is no such thing as sourwood honey- it` corn honey, in july stand under a sour wood tree for awile see how many bees you see - then go look in the corn field!!!


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

1. It takes a generous population of healthy, well-fed young bees to get a hive through winter.

2. No need to treat, bees need to be able to combat varroa on their own.


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## NCbeek (Mar 23, 2011)

1. Best advice : Find what works for you no matter what someone else does. experiment a little.
2 Worst advice: Swarming bees won't sting you!... Trust me, they will.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

Being totally new at this, (7 months now)

1. Best, read read read, then do what works for you and your bees for your area. Follow your gut (give your gut feelings time to develop)

2. Don't believe all you are told what will or will not work. 

Example, we have been told since day one, move a hive 18 inches a day or move over 3 miles. Well we locked down the hive, kept them locked up for 48 hours, moved the hive 75 feet, put a potted bush in front of the hive. When we released them, they did their orientation flight, stayed in their new home. (all done because of serious robbing and the bees were in a renters carport we worried about her getting stung)


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

People have told me my *whole life* what I am doing is not possible. Even when they are _looking right at the finished successful item_, they will _still_ insist it is not possible. 

Why?
Because it is simply just not done that way. 

That's has always kind of blown my mind. Thank goodness I am stubborn and didn't listen. My accomplishments would be few if I had listened to them & life wouldn't be near as interesting.

Best advise: Came from my gut & logical reasoning, after a year of internet education and examples of methods that work in actuality, not just theory. German youtube videos were the best.

Worst advise: Came from those without vision and were satisfied with low expectations.


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## clyderoad (Jun 10, 2012)

Lauri said:


> People have told me my *whole life* what I am doing is not possible. Even when they are _looking right at the finished successful item_, they will _still_ insist it is not possible.
> 
> Why?
> Because it is simply just not done that way.
> ...


inch: No support from anyone? Time to surround yourself with a different set of people.

For me-
1. best advice: spend the time to understand the bees. 
2. worst advice: ? not sure I can choose 'one'


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## Oldtimer (Jul 4, 2010)

Great thread and some excellent insights, a lot of wisdom in some of those short sentences.

1. As per others, learn from the bees, observe closely, don't dismiss anything as a mystery or "just bees", if there is a problem work till you solve it, there are no mysteries and there is a reason for everything. Choose a mentor who is successful. If he does not have tangible success, look for another mentor.

2. Major trap for new players is reading stuff, then deciding on a course of action and blocking off other advice, before they even have bees. Instead, keep a totally open mind for the first 3 years of having bees so you can learn from the bees. But preferably keep an open mind permanently.


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## snl (Nov 20, 2009)

Best....

1. Don't try to go treatment free from the start. You most likely will lose your bees and worse, your interest in keeping them!
2. Find a local club, join and attend.

Worse...
1. Start treatment free.


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## drlonzo (Apr 15, 2014)

Best....

Start with as many hives as you can possibly afford, you'll have more resources to fix problems, and you'll see and deal with more problems than most beekeepers do in the same time. 

Worst...

You don't have to worry about your bees swarming in the first year... I call B...S... on that one for sure.. Good bees are hard to hold back, gotta stay on your A game all the time.


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## missybee (Sep 6, 2014)

Like the worst

Our new nuc swarmed within seven weeks of installing it. What was weird they swarmed out to a tree 10 feet away then swarmed right back to the hive they had left.


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

I didn't get a lot of advice, but the best advice I can give is to read Michael Bush.

From Michael, the best advice was all mediums.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

>1. What is the one best piece of advice you were given as a beginner?

As a beginner all the advice I got was from books... much of it was good. Much of it was not.

>2. What is the one piece of advice you were told but was wrong or didn't really apply?

When I started losing bees to Varroa the worst advice I got was well meaning, but it was to treat. The best was to get off of large cell foundation.


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## georgiabees (Feb 2, 2010)

Best 1
A Thousand Hives is a Lot Of Work ALWAYS Start With 999 Or Less

Best 2
ALWAYS Stay With 1 Box Size Deep Or Medium

Worst
Ignore Best 1 & 2


John Pluta http://GeorgiaBees.blogspot.com Street Smart Common Sense Beats Book Taught


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