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Author Topic: New here from Puna Hawaii  (Read 1828 times)

Offline microage97

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New here from Puna Hawaii
« on: November 30, 2021, 03:53:09 pm »
Hey Forum,

I'm new here and I thought I would take a minute to say HI. I'm a backyard beginning beekeeper. I've always wanted to get into beekeeping but haven't took the plunge until now. I picked up a couple of Top Bar Hives on sale over at Mann Lake on black friday sale.

I'm located in Puna Hawaii about 15 miles south of Hilo on 3 acres of jungle rain forest.

Offline CoolBees

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2021, 04:42:29 pm »
Welcome to Beemaster.
You cannot permanently help men by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves - Abraham Lincoln

Online Ben Framed

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2021, 04:42:56 pm »
Welcome microage97! Glad you have taken the plunge to become a beekeeper and glad to have you join us!! I personally have not tried the Top Bar Hives, but we have members here that keep bees in that manor. Dig in and enjoy the forum! If you even need assistance, there are plenty of us who will be glad to help!

Sincerely,

Phillip
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline microage97

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2021, 05:34:18 pm »
Thanks Guys! Hawaii is pretty unique in that we get year round honey production. I'm next to a palm tree farm so the bees should be super happy.

Dave

Offline The15thMember

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2021, 07:25:08 pm »
Welcome to Beemaster, microage97!  We'd love to help you out as you begin your beekeeping journey!  We even have another member from Hawaii, which should be helpful to you, as beekeeping is very local.   
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Offline BeeMaster2

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2021, 08:19:52 am »
Welcome to Beemaster.
Hawaii is a great place for beekeeping especially up against a rain forest.
Jim Altmiller
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
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Offline microage97

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2021, 03:02:54 pm »
Thanks Guys! I'll post some pics when I get going. :-) Otherwise I'll just lurk and learn

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2021, 03:10:11 pm »
Your welcome. I am thinking the member that The15thMember spoke of in her post above is JurassicApiary. He seems to be the most active posting member here from Hawaii. He post some really good stuff! Check out his profile and read his post, you may find things there which may be of benefit to you. As The15thMember stated; "Beekeeping is local" and I agree in many circumstances.

Phillip
2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Offline JurassicApiary

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #8 on: December 02, 2021, 01:10:27 pm »
Aloha microage97 (Dave),

It's nice to see a fellow Hawaii beekeeper here!  I'm on Oahu, but do venture over to the Big Island on occasion as my wife was born and raised in Hilo and her sister still lives there so we visit sometimes.

Indeed, I think your bees will be very happy with the palm farm right next to you. :)

I am in a rainforest as well with my primary apiary.  I get less honey from our hives at this location than at my north shore locations.  I do a lot of live hive removals and the leeward hives that I remove often are highest volume producers.  Our frequent rain in the rainforest hampers production among other things (not all of our vegetation in the rainforest having nectar bearing flowers is another challenge which I've learned over the years).  You have some vegetation that I don't have over here though, such as 'Ohi'a Lehua (hopefully the deadly fungus that afflicts it isn't in your area) which can yield lots of nectar, so your situation may be different than mine.  That said, with it raining 300+ days a year here, I'm always amazed how hard the bees work as even in moderate rain they will forage.

You will encounter SHB in pretty much every hive you setup--manage them as best you can with blaster (oil) traps or swiffer pads or whatever method you prefer.  Mainly, however, try and setup your hives in an area that gets the most sunlight on your property--all day sun if you have it since you're in a wet climate like me; If all-day sun isn't an option, then afternoon sun is better than morning sun IMO. You may encounter VM on occasion, but from my experience, they seem to not be as prominent in wetter locations such as ours vs dry leeward locations.
 
I use Langstroth hives myself but there are many others here that are Top Bar users.  Wishing you the best in your beekeeping journey - keep active on the forum!

Matthew
« Last Edit: December 02, 2021, 01:36:10 pm by JurassicApiary »

Offline microage97

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Re: New here from Puna Hawaii
« Reply #9 on: December 03, 2021, 04:22:31 pm »
Hey Aloha Matthew!

Indeed, I think your bees will be very happy with the palm farm right next to you. :)

Thanks I agree. There is one super big commercial bee yard a 2 miles from my place. Sadly someone just stole a bunch of hives. :-( "Also detailed was that the thieves stole 22 single deep colonies from behind a locked gate."

Ya sadly we have the 'Ohi'a ROD and it is really pretty actually. I have lost a lot of trees, like a 100 or so. So I have been chopping and dropping them and then replanting fruit trees to replace them. Lack of pollinators are a big deal from my experiences growing veggies etc where I' am. So my short term goals are to alleviate that and get some honey and wax out of the set up. Hopefully I can sell honey on the side to help off set the costs.

I was thinking about setting up a "Pad" type area with cinder to give the ladies a leveled nice area to live in for easy access and management. My property wasn't fully ripped, just my house pad and a small area round the house. I've been perusing Michael Bush's website and I'm also thinking about moving my chicken coop nearby as well to see if they can help keep the SHB and what not down a bit. The local bee club has tried a couple of different things in the bottom drawers/trays of their TBH... they built a tray that slides in under the bottom screen to keep the bees out  - first they tried used cooking oil. Kind of worked but messy and eventually stinky when it went rancid. Then they went with diatomaceous earth, which worked pretty great. The SHB die when they drop into the dust as long as the dust stays dry. They also found that the hives will do their best at sealing the SHB into nooks and crannies if they can manage to get the hive sealed up and keep the SHB at bay.

  I use Langstroth hives myself but there are many others here that are Top Bar users.
Quote

I went with a couple of TBHs and plan to use one to create others with to fight the over all cost, but in the end I probably will get some Lang boxes that I'll run foundationless / treatment free.

Thanks for the warm welcome! I'm going to be on the mainland for until next fall for work, but please drop me a line when you come over to the BI. The local club also sponsors a yearly honey feast you might be interested in.

Dave

 

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