# What are your plans and goals for 2014?



## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Every winter beekeepers reflect on the last season and make their plans for the next. Sometimes this reflection is painful, frustrating, enlightening or very satisfying. Many times, all of the above.

There are a lot of things to think about before the next season starts. Cold rainy winter months are a great time to further educate yourself to strive for more success next year.That's the beauty of Beesourse!

The first few years you have bees, It's hard to make plans for the next year, when so much depends on how your bees over winter and next season's weather. A person need to see how it goes and 'go with the flow' That's difficult to do, when you need to be making your equipment during the winter months, Prior to the next season. If all your bees over winter well, how much equipment will you need to accommodate spring growth? If you build a bunch of equipment and most of your bees perish, then what do you do? Are you willing to 'buy back into it' next spring with new packages or nucs? 

How does a beginner order queens six months before they know what they will need the next year? When ordering queens from producers, many times if you don't place your order early, you'll find queens are sold out for the season.

These are questions a beginner faces, the uncertainty of the future. But it does get easier with experience and the confidence that goes with it.

Here is an example of how I 'went with the flow' this year:

2013 ended up being a year for expansion for me. Instead of selling all the queens I reared as I had planned, I kept more colonies, let them grow to overwintering strength and increased my hive numbers. I would have done this anyway, but did it on a _much larger_ scale because of one very important thing.

The price of sugar dropped dramatically from previous years. 
From $15.50 in 2011 to $9.89 in 2013 for 25# C&H sugar at Costco. That was a big unexpected price decrease and I took advantage of it as well as I could.

It was a good year to make a lot of nucs. 
When you make nucs, you have to feed. And have to be prepared to make more equipment. Lots of work and expense. 

But in my opinion, your dollar is well spent when investing in a hive. You also invest in your ability.

I now have 80 nucs overwintering instead of about 25. In 2014, I will have the choice of keeping these nucs and allowing them to become production hives,making mating nucs and raising more queens or selling the overwintered nucs in early spring to generate some revenue to pay for more equipment and supplies. I will likely do all three.

I also took the opportunity to feed some colonies aggressively after the flow in order to get more new frames drawn out for use next year. Many times, I have found the lack of drawn frames was the only thing holding my back from progress. Getting frames drawn is still one of my highest priorities for good management and growth.

Although it wasn't planned, I took advantage of the low sugar prices and slightly changed direction for the year. No, that isn't quite right. I didn't _change_ direction, I _continued_ to progress After the flow was over and hives are generally doing nothing more than existing.

Your products from the hive can vary from year to year once the hive is well established, Some years it can be honey production, possibly pollination services, some years colony increases, selling nucs, raising and selling a few extra queens, harvesting wax for cosmetic or candle production. You can't be set in stone before the next season presents itself. I guess what I am saying is, If it ends up being a bad year for honey production, look for other opportunities to make the hive work for you.

Managing your hives is not only keeping them healthy and productive, but getting the biggest bang for your buck. 
Remaining flexible and taking advantage of sales or seasonal opportunities. Make your hives work _for_ you, not _against_ you.

A hobbyist has the luxury of flexibility. One doesn't necessarily have to make a profit, but you can easily make your hives pay for themselves. No need to be a drain on the old bank account. A hobby that at least pays for itself makes for a happy supportive spouse.

My 2014 plans are to simply continue with building my hive numbers for both queen rearing and honey production. Apply what I figured out last year. Buy as many 8 frame deeps, black rite cell and unassembled frames as I possibly can afford, in bulk during Mann Lakes Black Friday sale. With the inevitable price increases and value of the dollar declining, those prices will likely never be seen again.
With the fact I am only three hours from commercial apple production in Eastern Washington State and my hives have reproduced like rabbits over the last few years, I have to also consider pallitizing my hives and getting into pollination on a small scale (50-100 hives). I already have the truck and trailer to do the job and it would fund my bees for the rest of the year, pay for II equipment and allow me to continue research and developement. I already have this many hives, but am not palletized yet and won't jump into pollination until I have researched the in's and out's. 2015 would be the year for that if I do it.

(Although this thread is directed at hobbyist's, you commercial guys please chime in. We know the scale of your business is quite different, but we would be interested to hear of your challenges and goals for the upcoming season too)

I'll keep on making swarm traps...


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## rhaldridge (Dec 17, 2012)

Nice thoughts!

As a beginner, I'm mostly concerned with getting through the winter, but I do have plans for the spring. I started out with one hive this spring, and now have 6 colonies. One is the original, from a local nuc, one was from a package, which went laying worker and took 6 weeks to requeen, two are splits from the original colony, one was a swarm I trapped, and one is a colony I brought back from NY because it didn't have enough stores in October to winter. All are doing well, with a couple of frames of brood left-- it only rarely freezes here-- last winter no freezes at all, and this has been the usual pattern for the last few years. I don't know how these will do, since I don't treat, but so far so good. I keep expecting them to die, but they haven't yet.

My plan is to split these early and build them up on the early flows here in NW Florida, and then take a number of nucs north to NY. Last spring, I didn't get any northern nucs until late May and they missed out on a lot of the nectar flows, partly because they weren't real nucs, they were packages on comb.

I'd also like to try some of the Russian hives as detailed in Fedor Lazutin's book. Three of my hives here in FL were long deep Langstroths, and they are a delight to work, compared to a vertical Langstroth. The Russian hives are similar, but the comb is much deeper-- two deep frames fastened together. The idea is to have a honey dome above the nest, without the complications and disturbance attendant on conventional vertical lang equipment.

I'm going to do a lot more swarm trapping in NY, because that's fun, and because I need the locally adapted genetics. I also hope to acquire some bees from a treatment free beekeeper a few miles from my NY yard, but free bees are very attractive.

Naturally, I intend to keep reading BeeSource, and annoying my betters...


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## imthegrumpyone (Jun 29, 2013)

My plans are to wait out winter, keep reading Bee source, take what I've read and start my first hive in April, clear my head a couple times before they get here (information on this site gets overwhelming at times) and just have fun with the girls. Just hope I don't make too many mistakes.


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## TWall (May 19, 2010)

My plans are to raise more queens next year. Producing more comb honey would be a second goal. 

Hopefully there will be a good black locust flow. Most local people sell the locust honey for a premium. I found it to be too mild in flavor for my tastes. It is my wife's favorite to eat on toast. Most of my honey costomers prefer something with more flavor too. However, locust comb honey is very attractive.

Tom


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## christopher (Nov 5, 2013)

my goal is to find a hot beekeeping (single) chic


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## Mike Gillmore (Feb 25, 2006)

Over the past several years I've been able to try out quite a few different setup styles and management strategies. I think I've finally settled into a comfortable place that works for me and for the most part will stick with it.

One new thing I will finally be trying this coming year will be overwintering nucs for 2015. I have all winter now to prepare equipment and get things ready. I really like the idea of having extra queens available in early spring to fill in the gaps on dead outs. And who knows, there may be a little money to be made selling overwintered nucs. I'll start out with a handful and see how it goes.


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## Pete O (Jul 13, 2013)

Already ordered two nucs for the spring. If the present hives survive the winter in good shape we'll try our hand at splitting and making new queens. This doesn't sound like much to the experienced and long term beeks but we are still novices, learning by mistakes and successes.


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## rweakley (Jul 2, 2004)

My plan is to get a good handle on grafting queens, better success in getting those queens thru emergence and mating, expand my nuc sales to 25+, increase honey production to over 200lbs, and my hive #s over 25. I know this doesn't seem like much, but I'll work on my ambition.


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## Michael B (Feb 6, 2010)

Plan to next year as follows:

1. Get better at grafting and raising high quality queens.
2. With high quality queens, make more splits.
3. Sacrafice honey production for more hives.
4. By end on the season have 40-60 hives.
5. Further woodenware business buy reaching more new and experienced beekeepers.


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## Alpha11 (Oct 6, 2013)

I love to read and the bee bug has bitten me hard. Next spring *I* will own my first hives. I'll finally be able to practice the art of beekeeping and counting down the days till my first two packs arrive. I'd also like to add to the fore mentioned goals, to get my kids making their own candles, soap and lotion. So far my youngest is liking the idea of making her own items to sell and I'm pumped for her. To get her in the yard with a veil would be better than awesome.
Andy


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## hideawayranch (Mar 5, 2013)

I'm in the second half of my second year of keeping bees. I have 4 langs and 2 top bars. My hopes are to learn to graft queens and have some on standby for club members who find themselves without one. Happens all the time! I really want to grow my apiary to about 16 within the next couple of years. Though we will have to move, to make this happen, because the apiary as it is has outgrown my neighbors. I am treatment free and hope/plan on remaining so. My husband bought me a chop saw, so I hope to use it often building nucs etc etc. As our future club President (next year) I hope to be able to help and encourage other beekeepers, esp newbies, so so much info to process as a newbie, not saying I'm not still one, but just remembering what it feels like to have so many questions and twice as many answers.


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## Tommy Hodge (Jun 4, 2013)

Nice insight Lauri…!
My 2014 plan is to increase from 2 hives to 6-8 next year via splits in the spring/summer. I plan on ordering at least 1 new package in the event my 2 first year colonies don't make it overwinter. I plan on buying 2 or 3 high quality queens for the splits and allow the others to raise their own queens…can't wait until spring…!
Tommy


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## TheBuzz (Feb 8, 2012)

10 hives
10-20 spring nucs for others. 
Using my new Maxant 20F extractor to its true potential.


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## Broglea (Jul 2, 2013)

I recently purchased at auction 2 acres of wooded land right next to some prime bee forage. Wildflowers galore almost all spring and summer. 

My plans through the winter is to clear the south 1/3 of the property of the trees so I can move my 4 hives out there. I would like to split at least 3 of the hives assuming they all make it through winter. The 4th will be strickly for honey. I also plan on have 5-6 bait hives at the property to hopefully catch a few feral swarms.

I also hope to trap some pollen in 2014 and see if I can't tap into this market a bit.

At least this is the plan.


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## TheBuzz (Feb 8, 2012)

Broglea said:


> I recently purchased at auction 2 acres of wooded land right next to some prime bee forage. Wildflowers galore almost all spring and summer.
> 
> My plans through the winter is to clear the south 1/3 of the property of the trees so I can move my 4 hives out there. I would like to split at least 3 of the hives assuming they all make it through winter. The 4th will be strickly for honey. I also plan on have 5-6 bait hives at the property to hopefully catch a few feral swarms.
> 
> ...


Why do you need to clear the trees? The bees don't mind. You'retaking out pollen sources for them too then?


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

My plan is to have more bees at the end of summer than I started with. *grins*

Try to start feeding/brood building sooner in the year with external pollen feeders and internal/top syrup feeders with pollen sub mixed into the syrup.

Replace most of my pine woodenware with cypress. Sourced a local sawmill and bought a bunch of 1x8x12 cypress boards at 4bucks per. 

Try dipping woodenware in rosin/wax mixture and 2 coats of exterior paint. I want these boxes to outlive me. *grins*

Order a few packages, queens, and possibly a pile of queen cells to test that out. 

Build a bunch more mating nucs and post hangers to mount them on and I'll strap the lids down this time around. *mumbles about raccoons* 

Try checker boarding/nectar management to see if I can get larger hives that are less inclined to swarm early during the nectar flow.

Build new hive stands that are mounted on 6x6 posts concreted in the ground. I'm tired of dealing with sinking concrete blocks and leaning towers of honeybees.

Depending how all the splits go, I'll look at going into winter with significantly more nucs for other wintered queens/earlier build up.

Might buy an II breeder queen from VP or Latshaw, still weighing the benefits on this. I mated/sold ~100 queens last year and it was half hearted attempt. I'd like to do 5-6 times that, but will have to see how work treats me on travel.

Probably more things that I need/want to do, but that's a lot of work...


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## Randy south MS (Aug 7, 2013)

IF everything goes well this winter and I make it thru with 2 healthy hives as planned, my plans are to split, I have 2 more nucs ordered already and 10 queen cells. I have a great mentor and we are looking to increase numbers as much as possible.
Its going to be a fun learning spring. I am looking forward to it as a 3 year old would Christmas morning.

IF everything goes well this winter..


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## Broglea (Jul 2, 2013)

TheBuzz said:


> Why do you need to clear the trees? The bees don't mind. You'retaking out pollen sources for them too then?


That is true, but I need the logs for my Shiitake Farm.


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## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

I plan to work on what sounds like a common goal, making splits to compensate for the winter losses. I will work with store bought queens since I am south of the AHB line. As a hobbyist, I am comfortable with four hives, not interested in a profit with minimal manipulations. Next year I would like to go into winter with six hives.


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## PAHunter62 (Jan 26, 2011)

Part of a post I put in the Colony Update (PA) thread. 


*For 2014, I plan to:*

Establish a new apiary in Western PA on a family Farm - We already prepared the site for a 25x25-ish fenced in area (bear country)

Move many of my local hives to the new site. I have 17 hives going into winter. Hives making it to the spring flow will be split once the flow gets going to get the new apiary up and running.

Get more swarm traps built and deployed. I was lucky enough to capture 9 swarms using traps in 2013. 

Sell more 6 frame medium NUCs with good laying queens. (I make my own custom NUC boxes).

Venture into queen rearing. I have done spring splits basically using the mdasplitter.com OTS methods, but want to give grafting a try.

Put the queen castle I built this year to use. I built a four bay castle (medium frame size), but have not cut the entranced yet. I will get this ready to go over winter and give it a go in the summer.

Find a new Apiary site in the West Bradford Township area of Chester county (small farm preference) where I can establish some hives and NUCs.

Take many more hives into honey production, but leave more honey behind.

Focus on making more robust hives late in the year. Pay more attention to my queens and replace my weak ones with daughters from my booming hives.

Bring in a couple new high quality queens to extend my genetics. Was part of a group buy this summer and got a couple FULL Bloom Carniolan queens (http://www.fullbloomapiaries.com/). I would be up to do something again in 2014 and maybe get a couple VSH queens.

Have a couple queens on reserve in mating NUCs for the end of season if I find a hive has gone queenless in September. It would be nice to know I have a couple on reserve. I needed one this year.

Do better record keeping.

Creep closer to going into the black. Seems I can always find something to spend money on to support the hobby.


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

So far my plans are to get 11 nucs and 9 additional hive through winter. I may send 8 of my hives to California for almonds. In the spring efforts will be multi fold. First will be to manage the full size hives for swarming and honey production. We are also prepared to take advantage of any queen cells that are produced. The nucs will be moved to full size equipment that we are in the process of making now. This will eventually result in 20 full size hives and leave us with equipment to make up to 40 nucs. IF nucs are not a result of salvaged swarm attempts they will then be produced from grafted queens. we have 20 mini mating nucs or Queen Castle compartments at this time and I hope to increase this during our queen rearing efforts next spring. Of the 40 nucs I hope to produce half will be sold the other half will be kept for backup to our full size hives on a 1 to 1 basis.

As for expansion attempts for next year. I do not know for certain. We will bees to expand to 40 colonies at that time and that does not include any swarm captures or colonies acquired by cut outs. This alone expanded our apiary three fold this past year. Much will have to do with how much money we end up with once nucs queens and honey are sold. I may roll it all back in and shoot for a goal of 200 hives or so. My single biggest problem at this time is locations to put them. Second woudl be the ability to transport them once I do have them. If I do start pollinating almonds I woudl like to just shoot for 400 hives or so and make it a Semi load that needs to get to California each year. It is a couple hours trip from here.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

My plans for 2014, I'm training one of my devoted employees to work the brood nests throughout the season, my hive doctor. The problem I have is as the honey flow starts, all brood nest work ends and the focus on honey dominates the day. I'll have hives fail through the flow which get zero attention til fall, to which I'll find 10% un salvageable and shake them out. 
I'm also going to bring in as much local stock as I can find bees to make up nucs. These nucs are the key to rejuvenating failing summer stock. My focus this to shift the operation off this dependence of imported queens. 
So with a beekeeper devoted to make up nucs, and attending to flagged hives throughout the honey production season, my aim is to have just as many full producing hives ending the flow as I put into the flow. I can keep my focus on the honey flow where it needs to be and direct attention to my bee stock as I see fit. 
It's the next step of my beekeeping operation evolution.


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## Ddawg (Feb 17, 2012)

My Primary goal for 2014 is not to purchase any new package bees, and increase my apiary with my existing resources. 
I may purchase a couple queens though.


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## JoshW (Feb 5, 2013)

Ian said:


> My plans for 2014, I'm training one of my devoted employees to work the brood nests throughout the season, my hive doctor. The problem I have is as the honey flow starts, all brood nest work ends and the focus on honey dominates the day. I'll have hives fail through the flow which get zero attention til fall, to which I'll find 10% un salvageable and shake them out.
> I'm also going to bring in as much local stock as I can find bees to make up nucs. These nucs are the key to rejuvenating failing summer stock. My focus this to shift the operation off this dependence of imported queens.
> So with a beekeeper devoted to make up nucs, and attending to flagged hives throughout the honey production season, my aim is to have just as many full producing hives ending the flow as I put into the flow. I can keep my focus on the honey flow where it needs to be and direct attention to my bee stock as I see fit.
> It's the next step of my beekeeping operation evolution.


Ian does that mean you will be making up queenless nucs at the beginning of the season?


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Ian said:


> beekeeping operation evolution.


Beekeeping...'OPERATION EVOLUTION'

I think that should be the official theme for 2014


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

Lauri said:


> Although this thread is directed at hobbyist's


Hobbyist's? You kidding Lauri? What hobbyist has 80 nucs to overwinter?

Anyway, my plan is to enjoy my bees while I have them and if I should lose them I will get more. I am toying with the idea of splitting next year if my bees make it and giving one of the hives to a friend that is a gardener. Giving hives away makes me feel good and it increases the chances that I will always have a source of bees in the future.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Acebird said:


> Hobbyist's? You kidding Lauri? What hobbyist has 80 nucs to overwinter?.


A hard working Introvert that sees an opportunity and runs with it.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Lauri, you hardly seem introverted, but I guess everyone's an extrovert on the interwebs... Ace, I think she can call herself whatever she wants, I have more flytying material than most fly shops but I'm still a hobbyist.... I like the premise of this thread, there needs to be a follow up next year.

Mine are up in the air. I'm going to mainly focus on bringing in genetics and expanding. I plan on doing an early round of splits and increase from my best hives and some of the stock I brought in last year to evaluate locally mated daughters from them. I'm trying to set myself up to evaluate queens in the next few years and start looking for lines that do well without treatments or minimal treatments here and maybe send a few hives to almonds. I'm going to try to overwinter a bunch of nucs as well.


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## wheeler88 (Mar 6, 2011)

Acebird said:


> Giving hives away makes me feel good and it increases the chances that I will always have a source of bees in the future.


 I'll second what Acebird said, Enjoy your bees and help someone else. Thats what I like about Beesource someone will always help you......Good thread Lauri..


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

I have a spring flow that lasts a little over 2 months and the fall flow about 1 month, in between these 2 flows is hot dry weather which produces little to no surplus so I have been working on a 3 deep system of management for next year that will help control swarming and provide me with more field bees when the spring flow arrives. Last year the hives drew out the comb needed for the third deeps so I am itching to give my new system a go in 2014.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

WWW said:


> I have a spring flow that lasts a little over 2 months and the fall flow about 1 month, in between these 2 flows is hot dry weather which produces little to no surplus


This sounds like a timing problem. Pull the honey after the spring flow and feed just enough to sustain the numbers in the hive and then stop feeding for the fall flow.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

Lauri said:


> that sees an opportunity and runs with it.


Hobbyist and opportunist are usually not one in the same. Most hobbyist have a negative return on investment.


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

> Most hobbyist have a negative return on investment.

What about those that do not spend one thin dime? 



Acebird said:


> It is the only hobby that I know of where you literally do not have to spend one dime to get into.


:gh:




(click the blue arrow in the quote box to see the original post/thread)


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

To make new mistakes and repeat fewer (or at least different ones) than last year.

I'm planning to sell nucs in the spring and regrow the resources used in that - to see how that business model compares to small scale honey production. I really enjoy working with small hives more than big ones I think.


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## WWW (Feb 6, 2011)

Acebird said:


> This sounds like a timing problem. Pull the honey after the spring flow and feed just enough to sustain the numbers in the hive


Ace, The problem that I encounter is a big spring build up triggering swarming, my new system will have these issues addressed, I do not feed my hives anymore.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

JoshW said:


> Ian does that mean you will be making up queenless nucs at the beginning of the season?


I'll be managing my spring work as usual, and will have nucs made up in June as the local queens become available
Those nucs will be used to requeen failing summer and fall time hives, drop it into the centre of the nest. Any left over will be wintered as 5 framers


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## grozzie2 (Jun 3, 2011)

are you using the saskatraz folks for the local queens, or something more local than that ?


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## SS1 (Jun 1, 2013)

heh... Operation Evolution!!!


10 Nuc's ordered. VSH/Carny Northern queens ordered 15 NEW hives prepared. Bee Vac operational, swarm boxes built.. more boxes to build just in case through the winter...
propogate my feral colonies, and build new ones, either from swarms, swarm boxes or splits. Requeen my standard itallian and carny hives with the VSH cross.. build bees!!!!.. end with 40??? strong hives, and see how next winter goes... make bees from the best survivors, cross the feral and vsh, and keep on with operation evolution!!!!!


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

I have 13 DBL. nucs and 12 DBL. deeps going into winter and did not lose any hives this year so i'm hoping to have a good winter survival . Hoping for 10 honey production hives and 2 hives to make queen cells 8 to make splits and have 15 DBL. deeps buy winter and 20 nucs hoping to sell queens buy 2015 and maybe a few nucs this year. I'm one of those hobbyist that has a negative return on investment but don't care. My total goal is to one day make 12000.00 a year on nucs /honey/ queens/ This year I made around 400.00 on honey and I never have to buy honey ever again we use 1 qt. a week. and that's 624.00 a year so that's cool.


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

Glock, you may not be bring in _cash _right now, but you also have to consider the assets you have accumulated. Hives, drawn frames, bees. You may have spent $2000. but may have $3500. in assets. (Not to mention your education. What is that worth?) And now that you have your smarts and your equipment, you'll soon end up in the black. And you can SEE where your money went. How many people blow their money and have nothing to show for it? 

Not on the losing end yet in my book. But I'm no accountant.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

I'm planning on filling up all of my empty pallets, to replace the dieback, to fill up all of my approximately 100 nucs, pollinate blueberries and apples, and make 60 or more lbs of honey per colony from 560 to 600 colonies. All along the way selling honey to stores in the North Country.


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

Lauri said:


> Glock, you may not be bring in _cash _right now, but you also have to consider the assets you have accumulated. Hives, drawn frames, bees. You may have spent $2000. but may have $3500. in assets. (Not to mention your education. What is that worth?) And now that you have your smarts and your equipment, you'll soon end up in the black. And you can SEE where your money went. How many people blow their money and have nothing to show for it?
> 
> Not on the losing end yet in my book. But I'm no accountant.


It is not about money at all the peace I get from beekeeping is priceless at my age. every thing I have learned and am learning I just love all of it . I know i'll make money one day but till then I don't really care I have healthy bees and honey and great bee yards and a lot of bee equipment to play with .


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## Lauri (Feb 1, 2012)

sqkcrk said:


> All along the way selling honey to stores in the North Country.


Think you may have been a Snake Oil Elixir salesman in your former life??? LOL, I can see your horse drawn wagon custom paint job


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## Tgill (May 23, 2013)

2013 goal - to get enough honey for my daughter to give honey as Christmas gifts - done!
2014 goal - 1. To go from 2 to 4 hives via splits
2. Have enough honey for daughter to make honey stand in neighborhood for a day
3. Have enough honey for daughter to sell honey at church bazaar and then donate money back to church


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

grozzie2 said:


> are you using the saskatraz folks for the local queens, or something more local than that ?


Funny thing, I'm looking at them as imports also, they come out of Cali also


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## Lburou (May 13, 2012)

Here is the list of things I aspire to next year Lauri:



See my 9 hives through the Winter and ready for splits in Spring
​That means preparing woodenware for ten more hives
Make splits using queens I have grafted



Assemble & Set out more swarm traps than this year
Looking for that special queen



Be ready for & Improve my recognition of the early signs of the swarm impulse
Get smart about Demaree method to control swarms
Get smart about wcubed's checkerboarding method to control swarms



Refine MY philosophy of Integrated Pest Management
​Using mite sampling techniques -not mite drop counts
​Utilize soft mite treatments first, then
Get smart about oxalic acid vaporization


In general, get used to my location and how it supports the bees
Be ready for the local mid summer dearth
Be ready for the Fall flow
Take off any honey before broom weed bloom next year



Sell splits, end season with 6 or 8 hives, provide queens to my friends along the way. 
I have purchased queens from treatment free producers, that is my (and your) best insurance against varroosis.


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

Rearing my own queens without grafting.

Selling some nuks with my new queens, and keep my beehives at 30 (stop buying more woodenware). 

Do more cut outs for money. 

In other words, more money in than out.


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## Sour Kraut (Jun 17, 2012)

Catch as many swarms and do as many trap-outs and cut-outs as possible.

Then split and distribute the offspring to as many new beekeepers as possible...three of my four sons want to get back into it, plus place them anywhere there is a request.

It is my belief that unless we save these 'survival of the fittest' colonies and their swarms, and allow them to spread their traits around, the industry is in a genetic dead-end.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

bevy - You are on the right track. When you stop investing in more equipment it gets a lot easier to realize some income. It's easier to make a good honey crop when you decrease your hive count - even if it's just by of reducing some of them to nucs - because it frees up drawn comb.

It's one of the upsides to 8 frame mediums - you can go between production hive to "nuc" just by rearranging supers.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

David LaFerney said:


> It's one of the upsides to 8 frame mediums - you can go between production hive to "nuc" just by rearranging supers.


I think the configuration fits well with a hobbyist.


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

I'd say my only regret is that I have so much mix of deeps and mediums. I prefer mediums. 

I'm thinking, maybe if I start selling bees I can sell off all my deep frames and convert to medium frames that way. I often put medium frames in deeps, and when I need to, I just carefully cut off the comb they've built off the bottom of the medium frame to convert it back. I could eventually get to all mediums and then convert deep boxes into mediums. It would take a long time as I have about 350 deep frames.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

Bevy's, why do you say w/o grafting? Is it that you don't have good success with it or do you think you get better queens letting the bees do the work?


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## bevy's honeybees (Apr 21, 2011)

Grafting requires good eyesight, and also from what I've read, another collection of equipment of which I would need special glasses with a headlight. I bought a 4 bay queen castle, and my sweetie made me plenty of 4 and 5 frame nuks. That's the only reason I'm doing it via forcing them to start queen cells and then I will move them to castle, on to nuks.

Acebird and Wheeler88, you gave me an idea for a challenge for anyone interested. 

I've been on receiving end and giving end of bees, and I'd like to put out a challenge to anyone with 10 or more hives to give away a starter nuk to either a brand new beekeeper or someone within their first 2 years. We all can be momma's or papa's to newbeekeepers, just like the bees do.


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## christopher (Nov 5, 2013)

howdy Bev. Hopefully its a big double. mske it queenless as youmake a 2 frame nuc. 6 days later very carefully make up 3 more nucs or 4 if possible. reduce the entrances, feed, and separate. put them on a honey flow and make your splits on the almanac date for favorable grafting. its the last qtr i believe. introduce comb and foundation as they plug out snd move to 10 frame equip as well.


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

I'm going to set four swarm traps. There seem to be lot of feral bees in the little town where I reside. My second goal is to harvest honey from four hives. And lastly, I intend to sponge advice off the forum members and my other geek pals. That's so much easier than learning the business.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

bevy's honeybees said:


> Acebird and Wheeler88, you gave me an idea for a challenge for anyone interested.


I got to tell you it makes you think about what you are doing because you inadvertently become a mentor. You mind can go blank over the simplest questions when you are asked by a newbie. I don't write anything down so it is not like I can go back and read any notes on what I have done and whether it was a good idea or not.

Edit:

Bev, I can't see anything either so I just split by the box. Find the nest in a stack of mediums where the bees are going gang busters and split. Put another empty box on top with drawn comb. Just about every week you can split again during a good flow. You can even throw that box of pollen on top so you have 3 mediums. When you see the brown dust in the bottom of the tray you know the bees went into that box. Another great advantage of the SBB.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

You do that Brian? How many hives do you have now or have given away or sold after doing what you wrote above?


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Acebird said:


> Bev, I can't see anything either so I just split by the box. Find the nest in a stack of mediums where the bees are going gang busters and split. Put another empty box on top with drawn comb. *Just about every week you can split again during a good flow*.


No you can't. OK, you can. But most of them will fail miserably.


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

Well if ya ask me there is no need for a mentor if you really want to be a beekeeper .
It is like any hobby if you really want to learn you'll catch on and now days with the internet and all the great beekeepers and not so great beekeepers that come to BEESOURE and all the web sites and blogs just so much info. and hands on is the best info you'll ever get. I have been at it for 4 years now and have not bought bees in 2 years and i am honey independent with 25 hives and have not lost any this year. I never was in a apiary or been around a hive till I made my own.
I was taught by/ bee source/ books/ you tube/mags./ and HANDS ON/
If ya want it bad enough you will succeed I am 
I did beekeep with one guy one time and that was the inspector on my hives great day.


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## GLOCK (Dec 29, 2009)

sqkcrk said:


> You do that Brian? How many hives do you have now or have given away or sold after doing what you wrote above?


:applause:


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

So my primary focus will be to bump my numbers hopefully up to 600. I will also attempt to gather together enough strong bees (semi load) and get them on the Almonds this year. If I can do the above two then I should also be able to make up 1 - 200 NUCs for sale or me this coming spring. I kept back almost 100 NUCs for myself this summer alone so we will see how January comes along.

Ian I am with you. I need to focus more on brood work during the year regardless of honey flow. This coming summer I am going to try and dedicate 1 day per yard after my normal job and focus on breaking apart and looking at brood and queens.


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## beejeezers (Oct 17, 2013)

This is my first year beekeeping so my immediate concern is to get the bees through the winter ok. I have left them with full supers of stores plus whatever is in the brood boxes. I have the intention to feed some fondant when required. Last spring, here in the UK, was really cold and a lot of beeks here lost colonies as a result. I imagine swarming control will be a big challenge. Apparently the bee strain I have is very "swarmy" ! However I hope to manage this and increase my stocks as a result. I have already bought spare equipment for this and hope to knock all this together over the winter ready for the spring. I have already started to make some nuc boxes. I hope to attend some practical beekeeping sessions with my mentor and get some certificated qualification. Overall, quite modest plans compared with some but OK for me with my ( little) experience.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

sqkcrk said:


> You do that Brian? How many hives do you have now or have given away or sold after doing what you wrote above?


I have given away one and I have 3 now going into winter.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

David LaFerney said:


> No you can't. OK, you can. But most of them will fail miserably.


Why. How many will I lose?


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## westernbeekeeper (May 2, 2012)

My goal? Expand to 200-500 and make it to the almonds next season (2015). Palletize my current operation. Make my sideline business full time.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Acebird said:


> I got to tell you it makes you think about what you are doing because you inadvertently become a mentor. You mind can go blank over the simplest questions when you are asked by a newbie. I don't write anything down so it is not like I can go back and read any notes on what I have done and whether it was a good idea or not.
> 
> Edit:
> 
> Bev, I can't see anything either so I just split by the box. Find the nest in a stack of mediums where the bees are going gang busters and split. Put another empty box on top with drawn comb. Just about every week you can split again during a good flow. You can even throw that box of pollen on top so you have 3 mediums. When you see the brown dust in the bottom of the tray you know the bees went into that box. Another great advantage of the SBB.


I find myself reminding myself to be careful what I write that others less experienced might read. People read what I write and might just do something they shouldn't.

"Just about every week you can split again during a good flow." Really? Your queens must lay a lot faster than mine and your brood must mature a lot faster than mine. Unless you didn't mean the same hive. It isn't clear.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Acebird said:


> Why. How many will I lose?


Most if not all of them.


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## KevinR (Apr 30, 2010)

I do quite a number of splits... Assuming that you do it correctly and early enough in the year, it's easily possible to split them one more times with a good queen by the end of the year...

I never do a box by box split. I believe MB does that, but I don't have the Cojones to do the walk away split like that.

I always take the time to find the queen, move her, and some brood to a nuc. Then I shuffle the combs and bees as evenly as possible. They get taken to another yard. The weakest one gets left in the original location catch the return foragers. I then add a ripe cell to the queenless splits.

Now with all that said, I'd expect you to be feeding them until they are fat dumb and happy. If you don't, then I agree with Mark 100%, they won't have the field force to store enough honey for winter and will go belly up. I've lost nucs during winter that I would have thought they'd make it.. And I have had the smallers little sad nucs make it through... 

It's always a learning process and you need to be willing to learn and pay attention.


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## David LaFerney (Jan 14, 2009)

Acebird said:


> Why. How many will I lose?


If you split both halves of a split that are one week old one will have a queen and the other will not - the queenless one will not contain the resources to start queen cells. If you were to get lucky they could both have queen cells in progress, but if you split again in another week that would not be the case and all of the then queenless splits would fail. But even ignoring that they would not have time to build back up to a viable level for splitting. 

It might (and often is) be accurate to say that you can take resources from queen right nucs every week during the spring nectar flow to make more nucs, but to imply that you can split the same hives every week is not correct at all.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

I have started a new thread.


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## Metropropolis (Feb 15, 2012)

I've decided to start treating my bees for mites.



Having have demonstrated to myself that I can do my own loss replacement, increase survival rate, and ultimately increase colony count and without treatments is sufficient for me. 

I know it can be done, and know what it takes to do it. The quest to get here has been a massive learning experience for me.

But what I've come to realize is that my bees are permanently sick, as demonstrated by their lackadaisical honey production. They might be survive, and they might be alive, but they are white-knuckling it. 

And I've come to realize that that is not the kind of animal husbandry I want to practice.

So, come the spring I am going to start experimenting with treatments by treating half of my hives with organic fumigants.

Like every year, I am excited to see what learnings the new season holds.


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## urbanoutlaw (Nov 19, 2012)

My goals depend on how many colonies overwinter. This being my first year, I'm planning for 100% loss and hoping/managing for better. Goals for Year 2:


Less anxiety
Be proactive in managing swarm impulses on overwintered colonies (betting I'll look back on this and laugh)
Have enough hiveware so I can expand/make nucs/split _MORE_ aggressively (could've easily gone to 9 hives if I'd had equipment)
Resist the temptation to grow insurance nucs into full size colonies
Head new hives with VSH and local or Northern queens
Learn about queen rearing and grafting
Learn to recognize the onset of dearth and feed in a timely fashion (found out that package Italians can and will completely shut down, not just slow down - even with plenty of stores in the hive)

I can't wait to look back next year and see how everything turns out.


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## R Dewhurst (Dec 22, 2012)

I am hoping to go up t 50 hives this coming year. I only lost one of my Russian hybrid packages from Kelley, and they refused to take any queen they were given. I have 3 2 story nucs I am trying to get through winter. Looking to give grafting a spin also in the spring. I have noticed this type of bee attacking the varroa in my observation hive. Hope all goes well.


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## Honey Hive Farms (Nov 1, 2012)

Here are our farms goals and stuff to be done, if your asking.
1. Finish up helping farmers and beekeepers in Arizona 
2. Finish selling honey at farmers markets in Arizona about Jan.
3. Get bees moved and ready in Cali for pollination Feb
4. March be back at our farm in Missouri to get packages shook out into cages
5. Get inspections and quarantine process done and start loading
6. Drive our routes from Missouri to California, etc
7. Check on our pollination bees and queen stock
8. Load up for other beekeepers and or bee suppliers to help and head back to Missouri farm.
9. Repeat #6 and #8 about 6 times
10. May, finish up nucs that we haven't sold or delivered for local beekeepers & for us
11. Start / finish up on hive bodies and all wood ware for us and customers
12. Also start putting together double hives ready to go for customers
13. Classes for beginner beekeepers start in March to July so have that all set up
14. Get bulk honey deliveries out of the way in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma
15. Keep farm up for customers coming by
ETC, ETC, never ending. Just a peek on some of the stuff we have to do for 2014
Good help is welcomed


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

New Queens in every darn box by the middle of May............. Preferably by May 1. Mo more of the old way of thinking like............These look good enough so I will leave them alone attitude.


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## JRG13 (May 11, 2012)

That's an interesting goal Honey-4-All, I'm thinking of putting my hives on a rotation as well after having a couple very late supercedures due to older queens (3-4 years). It was in the back of my mind it may happen at a bad time but it happens when it happens...


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

JRG13 said:


> That's an interesting goal Honey-4-All, I'm thinking of putting my hives on a rotation as well after having a couple very late supercedures due to older queens (3-4 years). It was in the back of my mind it may happen at a bad time but it happens when it happens...



Last night I checked Koehnen's website after not seeing it for quite a while. It is vastly improved... Looks great. Kudos to them.

Regarding my "new queen every year " comment I came across a great admission on their website about queen longevity. Hate to say it but these aren't the old days and queens just don't last. Anyone who promises you otherwise either knows something the rest of us don't or is just a blatant liar or just misinformed. To quote them : "Most queens these days lay 1 1/2-2 years--in rare cases they can last 4 years or so." Stunning admission but true. Follow the link and look for the Faq's and see #11. 

http://www.koehnen.com/#!bee-resources/c1z36


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## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

Honey 4, What queens are you planning for 2014? Do you have a preferred race? If you are above the AHB line why not walk away splits?


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

ccar2000 said:


> Honey 4, What queens are you planning for 2014? Do you have a preferred race? If you are above the AHB line why not walk away splits?


That choice is determined by the testing data we get back from the Beeinformed project. Some Italians, some Carni's. and a lot in the middle. Regarding walk away splits........ Are there any commercial people willing to put their whole year on the line with such a risky move? Never heard of the term or concept till beesource. If raising queens was "walk away split" easy the price of queens would be 60% of today's price. It may work elsewhere but to do so here one would better take the risk of jumping from the Golden Gate bridge. Can it work? yes. Will it work. Put it this way...... You can try it on your own dime.....Not here!


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## ccar2000 (Aug 9, 2009)

Good to know. I did not realize that your livelihood was beekeeping. Requeening is a much more important decision for you than for a hobbyist like me, I am just trying to stretch out a $200 investment on a couple of packages. I will have to look at Beeinformed for their data. I was just looking there for information on pollen substitutes. Excellent resource.


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

ccar2000 said:


> I did not realize that your livelihood was beekeeping. Requeening is a much more important decision for you than for a hobbyist like me,


We all love bees but a hobbyist and a commercial beekeeper have entirely different goals. You can't expect a commercial beekeeper to even consider walk away splits because there are unknowns AND there are schedules to meet. Commercial beekeepers are going to do what ever is accepted number 1 and what ever gives them the results they need with the lowest amount of risk. Let's face it they are looking for efficiency because they have to compete with other commercial beekeepers. They are not competing with hobbyist.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

Walk away splits is how it's done by many including myself. It's not as simple as just taking away the box


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

ccar2000 said:


> Good to know. I did not realize that your livelihood was beekeeping. Requeening is a much more important decision for you than for a hobbyist like me, I am just trying to stretch out a $200 investment on a couple of packages. I will have to look at Beeinformed for their data. I was just looking there for information on pollen substitutes. Excellent resource.


Not looking to sell more queens cause that's never an issue........ Requeening should be a top priority for those with one hive as well as those with 70k+. Keeping enough out of the sales loop early on when I should use them myself is always a hard pill to swallow at $20 +

The bee informed data is used as part of the breeder selection process. 

We narrow down the selection from all our hives to about 100 "potentials." 

After that occurs its a multi-day process were they rate brood patterns, temperament, Hygienic behavior,Frame counts, Varrroa loads, and some virus stuff although the latter is a little irrelevant for breeder selection currently. With the data we graft from about 20 of those selected although the first 10-12 are the most commonly used ones.

The goal in all this is to get back to the days when not every hour of every day was either spent keeping bees alive or at least contemplating how to make that happen. I personally would rather get $50 bucks in the Almonds if we had a 7% dead out rate from split till splits each year. Would still be broke but at least the time would be better spent than the perpetual treadmill of "keep them alive at all costs" venture of the last 10 years.


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

Ian said:


> Walk away splits is how it's done by many including myself


in some locations that works well. Others its a bomb..... When it comes to the answer here we look like Downtown Warsaw after a Blitzkreig..


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

It has to be done during periods of growth, and done without finding the queen


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## Keith Jarrett (Dec 10, 2006)

Honey-4-All said:


> "keep them alive at all costs" venture of the last 10 years.


lol...


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## Acebird (Mar 17, 2011)

Ian said:


> It has to be done during periods of growth,


I ask the whole beesourse community, is this a secret?


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

As in a discharge? Ewwww!


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

What do you mean Brian ?


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## Daniel Y (Sep 12, 2011)

NVM you where speaking to Brian not Barry.


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

In 2014 I plan on sending 4 teenagers through our clubs beekeeping classes and setting them each up with a working hive. 
We will be setting up a new avery in the field behind our church. (Electric fence and all.)
I am also going to teach them how to make there own hive equipment this winter.
I am also going to increase my hives to around 20 I hope.
These kids all come from single parent homes and they need all the help they can get.
Me two for that matter.


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

Hoot Owl Lane Bees said:


> We will be setting up a new avery in the field behind our church. (Electric fence and all.)


Is the Lectric' fence to keep the birds in or out of your avery?


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

That what happens when you have auto spell checkkk. 
The fence is to keep other kids and bear out.


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## lazy shooter (Jun 3, 2011)

Hey Hoot:

We all need all the help we can get, and you're a good servant of the Lord to take an interest in those kids from single parent homes. Good on you.


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## Hoot Owl Lane Bees (Feb 24, 2012)

Thank You for the compliment lazy shooter.
It is second nature any more, I have been in Royal Rangers close to 20 years.
I am even working on developing a beekeeping merit.:scratch:


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## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Plans for 2014 --

Finish the beekeepers course

Finish the bear cage. Our hives will be in black bear, raccoon, skunk, etc. country and we're gonna keep the rascals out! Also will feature an ant-resistant platform presently under construction.

Finish, install and register the two hives just bought today.

Obtain local NUCs, put them in their new castles, and treat them like what they are intended to be ... pampered pets.

Instrument the hives with thermocouples, electronic scales, etc, because I'm a techie and I just have wet dreams thinking about this sort of opportunity to do science on my pets.

Leave the honey for the bees this year, except for maybe just a teensey little taste.


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## NewJoe (Jul 1, 2012)

2014 plans....take whatever hives that make it and split like crazy....Hope to go from 7 to at least 20. then maybe help someone new (or a few folks) with a nuc to get them going. Also plan to try and raise some extra queens to help some others with.


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## wmsuber (Apr 4, 2011)

1. Get ahead this season with raising queens so they are on hand when needed, I was always behind last year every time a need came about.
2. Officially provide (limited) pollinating services to a 360 acre organic farm. I will be setting up only 10 hives at first to see how well this works out. I say officially as the farm is across the road from our property and the bees are flying over there anyway. 
3. Continue finding more customers for our honey crop, it is nice to start seeing a return on what we have been working hard to develop.
4. Stop buying as many premade hive bodies, supers and accessories. We already have a commercial wood shop that is fully equipped, I just need to schedule in slow days for the transition better than I did last year.
5. Build a 40' x 100' shop and office which will be used both for our primary business and our beekeeping concern.
6. Continue "Evolving" in the direction of balancing beekeeping with our produce growing, fish ponds and shutter business.


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