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  • Author Author: ralphjy
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Backyard Beekeeping: Bee Class

ralphjy

I just completed my community college beginning beekeeping class - 3 hours of classroom instruction and 1 1/2 hours of bee hive maintenance demonstration at a suburban backyard apiary.  I discussed this class in an earlier post: Backyard Beekeeping: Back to School.  The field trip to the apiary was this past weekend.  The apiary supports the instructor's business, Bridgetown Bees, which sells bee hive NUCs (small self-contained bee hive starters (nucleus) with fully populated frames), bee packages (bees without the frames - queen, workers, and drones), and bee products (honey, wax candles).

At one point he had 80 populated hives and there were dozens active in his backyard.  He said it takes about an acre of forage to support one hive and that bees tend to stay within a 2 miles radius of their hive - so, he must be servicing all of his neighbors Laughing.  The average hive honey production in the Portland metro area is about 40-45 lbs per year, but he said that one year he had a hive that produced 360 lbs!

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Workers returning to the hive with pollen.

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Extracting a Langstroth frame from a box that he uses to raise bees for NUCs.  A Langstroth frame is a full 4 sided frame, usually with a backing sheet that bees use to build the comb.  On the bench is a hybrid frame that he uses to create NUCs with Warre frames which only have a top bar.  Bees create a free hanging comb on the Warre frame, as they would in nature.  The hybrid frame allows him to use the same box for both types of frames.

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A couple of short videos:

Workers with pollen

Bee taking a breather on white Clematis flower

The "Save the Bees Challenge" was a great learning opportunity for me.  I wish that I had been able to take this class before the challenge as I now have a lot more insight into how a honeybee hive operates and how a local beekeeper deals with pests.  And only one person was stung... (not me).

I'm still debating whether or not to have a hive of my own.  My wife also has to agree...

But, I did buy honey (2.2 lbs) for Mother's Day Relaxed.

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Parents

  • Bee keeping is so interesting.  We have a large garden that could benefit with full-time pollinators, so this is something that my wife and I have thought about for some time.  We do have a friend (local park's Nature Preserve Officer and Beekeeper) who might be able to help us get started, but I just have to get past those childhood memories of being stung.

  • in reply to genebren

    I don’t think it would be too bad with only one or two hives.  At this time of year the bees are pretty intent on foraging, so they are very calm.  It is unnerving to have them buzz by your head and occasionally land on you.  I think that the gal that got stung sat on one and got stung through her jeans.

    The instructor did say that he gets stung dozens of times a year, but he has 100s of thousands of bees and interacts with the hives daily.  I guess as long as you’re not allergic and wear the proper protective equipment you should be okay.  He said that his wife is allergic to stings, but she doesn’t help with the bees - and he does have epi pens.

    I think with your friend to help you, you should be fine.  I worry about being aware enough to prevent a hive from swarming.  That apparently is more visually frightening than dangerous in most cases.  These guys actually like swarms - because they can get free bees Smile.

    I worry mostly about bothering the neighbors, but they would also benefit from a hive.  Unless, of course, a swarm decided to settle in an inappropriate place.

  • in reply to ralphjy

    "I think that the gal that got stung sat on one and got stung through her jeans."

    I guess after being at the beehive, you need to remember to brush any bees off your rear end before attempting to sit down. 

    I think getting stung by accidentally standing on one in your bare feet is quite common though.

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Don’t think I’m brave (or foolish) enough to go barefoot around bees. Brings back memories of my childhood.  I also try not to wear loose clothing.  That guy in the background in the shorts was lucky or smart not to be in the front of the hive.  The bees were relatively calm that day, but there were a lot of them flying. And they were happy to land on you and rest for a while.

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  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Don’t think I’m brave (or foolish) enough to go barefoot around bees. Brings back memories of my childhood.  I also try not to wear loose clothing.  That guy in the background in the shorts was lucky or smart not to be in the front of the hive.  The bees were relatively calm that day, but there were a lot of them flying. And they were happy to land on you and rest for a while.

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