# new Member from San Diego County CA



## Mike McCright (Jan 6, 2014)

Good morning all, I am Mike McCright and live near Escondido, CA. I have a little farm where I produce and market mainly animal products (dairy, eggs and meats) and some fruit from my farm. I am against processed sugars and honey is my sweetner of choice. With raw honey going for $20 a quart, I have decided to get back into bee keeping to keep my family in honey. 

I used to keep a few hives in Maimi, FL about 30 years ago, so I am really rusty and am realizing that a fair amount of change has occurred in the bee keeping world. Colony collapse, parasite problems and different hive configurations. When I looked around, it looked like nobody ships package bees anymore, so I do not know where to get my bees to from. I have a couple of boxes to start but wanted to use the avocado bloom in March to grow out the hives in prep for the citrus and peach bloom later on.

Any recommendations on were to get package bees? From what I gather Russians are better able to deal with the mite problem. Do any of you guys use the "new" screened hive bottoms? How does that work out?

Mike McCright
in Southern CA


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

Mike: Welcome To Beesource. You are going to find Beekeeping today a lot different than it was 30 years ago. It was a simpler time we did not have to deal with Varroa mites, Small hive beetles, and the frequency of colony collapse disorder. Although many things are the same. you will find keeping bees to be far more involved than it use to be. 

Try Selby Apiaries They are in southern Ca. Too. Chico to be sure, they have packages and will ship. But order soon as they sell out quickly. Selbyapiaries.com

Regards Tenbears


----------



## J-Rat (Dec 10, 2013)

Hey Mike.
J-Rat here, I live nearby in Ramona. New to beekeeping. I became interested in bee's after a swarm of bee's took over one of my owl
nest boxes about three years ago. ( I didn't mind because my neighbors had just put in a vineyard of grapes. )
The bee's left the owl box in early summer this year.
I took the box down, and cleaned it out. it was full of empty comb, wax moth's and the left overs from the owl's.
I built a top bar hive, and plan to order a package of bee's from queenbeesforsale.com

J-Rat


----------



## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

Hi from the High Desert Mike, There are several places to buy packages from. All in NorCal due to the african honey bees down south here. I have a great success with CF Koehnen Cordovan Italians and Tabers Russian hybrids. The latest strategy for backyard beekeepers is two hives and a nuc going into winter. Beekeeping through attrition. Keeping nucs at the ready to recover from the high winter mortality. It is still a lot of fun beekeeping, jump on in!


----------



## dynemd (Aug 27, 2013)

I'm also looking to buy some package bees shipped to Santa Barbara. CF Khoehnen is no longer shipping packages. Has anyone dealt with EB Lucas Apiaries near Ventura? Their website is bees4u dot com I think I could pick up from them directly if they would respond. Anyone know of any more source for shipped packages in Southern California?


----------



## Tenbears (May 15, 2012)

J-Rat said:


> Hey Mike.
> J-Rat here, ( I didn't mind because my neighbors had just put in a vineyard of grapes. )
> 
> J-Rat


 J-Rat Nice top bar. Just for the sake of information bees make very little use of grapevines, they will utilize fallen overripe grapes, but not the blossoms.


----------



## samoadc (Dec 15, 2012)

Very nice looking hive to me but not knowing that much about the top bar hive will you have a 1/4 inch cover board to prevent the bees from trying to build comb above the bars?


----------



## merince (Jul 19, 2011)

Welcome Mike:

I cannot offer advice on packages, since I am way up North. Your best bet would be to locate a bee club nearby and see who is their supplier.

Welcome to Beesource!


----------



## 22DPac (Jun 24, 2012)

Welcome to Beesource!


----------



## J-Rat (Dec 10, 2013)

There is a follower board on the other side of the mason feeder jar. it will keep the bee's inside the hive.


----------



## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

merince said:


> Your best bet would be to locate a bee club nearby and see who is their supplier.


Yes, I should have mentioned that. There ia usually a member of our local bee club takes a trip to CF Koehnen to pick up several packages for members. Maybe there is a local association in the San Diego area (I am sure)


----------



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome Mike!


----------

