# New member from Lithuania



## Dave Burrup (Jul 22, 2008)

Welcome. I am in the western USA in eastern Idaho at about 43 degrees north latitude, and almost 4300 feet elevation. We are going into winter with snow flurries today, and high temperature near 36 degrees fahrenheit. Our hives are ready for winter. What is your season like in Lithuania?


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## Mortalas (Nov 9, 2015)

Hi, Dave. I live in the west, so elevation here is only about 100 feet ( to be honest, Lithuania is a plain area, biggest "mountains" are only 1000 feet elevation  ). We look forward for snow in next week, till now weather were quite chill, without any stronger cold, althought normally at this time mild cold is usual. Our hives are ready too, we finish preparation for winter in the end of september ( start feeding in the end of August) and only treat them in ~October end from varoe. New season starts in the end of March.


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## heaflaw (Feb 26, 2007)

Welcome. please let us know about beekeeping in Lithuania


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## tech.35058 (Jul 29, 2013)

Again welcome. Very interested in methods, strain of bees. etc.
I am southern U.S. (state of Alabama ) approx. 33 degrees latitude, rolling terrain, 500-900 feet ASL.
average agricultural use ... grazing land, not many weeds.


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## GaryG74 (Apr 9, 2014)

Welcome to BeeSource! Conditions here in west Alabama are close to what tech.35058 has in his area. I'm in zone 7B temperature wise.
Will be looking forward to hearing about your experiences.


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome Tautvydas!


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## Mortalas (Nov 9, 2015)

Thanks everyone  

Lithuania is in Humid continental climate, so climate is quite good for flora, our lands are fertile, so lands of crops are really usual in our landscape, especially in western and central area ( I live in western). The season stars ( bee fly out from hives for first time after wintering) on ~ March 20 and bees fly out for the last time before wintering on ~ October 25. Although Lithuania is kinda agraculture country ( ofc our IT and other modern science is moving further with whole world), but farmers sowing mainly crops, which bees can't use ( peas, grains), the only cultures, that farmers sowing and bees can use are rape and buckwheat (buckwheat is quite rare though), so it's hard to handle big bees farms ( that's one the biggest bees farm in our country is 1000 bee hives, me, with 165, considered as a big one already). The main nectar resources are dandelions, summer and winter rapes, limes, heathers and buckwheats. However professional beekeepers get ~100 kg from a hive, so we try to keep beehives strong, because plants blooming for a short time and beehives have to be strong enought to get 10-20kg nectar a day, if a day perfect ( what is really rare, ofc  ).

The old lithuanian bee line is gone, we are working with Buckfast and carnica mainly. Our hives are dadant blatt beehive, it was used in SSRS for many years, so even after liberation from SSRS we still are using it ( i think ~70 percent of beekeepers use it). I use it too, just my all frames are the same ( 145 height) and I am beekeeping with boxes of 10 frames, while 70 percent of dadant blatt beehives in here are stacionary ( 16 frames, 20 frames and 26 frames stacionary dadant baltt beehives are the most popular among them). 


So if you have more questions about beekeeping in my area- ask me, I will try to answer


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## radallo (Oct 28, 2015)

Welcome Mortalas, 

nice to read something about Lithuanian beekeeping. For your knowledge my area export about 800 italians queens/year to Lithuania. Maybe not a great number.. but I think not neglectable at all (how many hives do Lith have overall?) 

I would be interested in getting some single-origin honeys from your country, so I might plan a trip to watch a Zalgiris EL game in Kaunas and they have a bee-tour in the countryside!!


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## Mortalas (Nov 9, 2015)

Hello, Radallo ☺

The number is about 100 000 hives at all ( quite a huge number per person  ), but 800 it's quite a good number, because as I know, we import queens mainly from Italia, Denmark and Luxembourg.

I think, that won't be a problem, we could arrange something


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## radallo (Oct 28, 2015)

Mortalas said:


> Hello, Radallo ☺
> 
> I think, that won't be a problem, we could arrange something


Good to know,

I will keep you updated!:thumbsup:


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