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Author Topic: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina  (Read 1718 times)

Offline Duc Duck Doc

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Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« on: January 21, 2019, 10:11:05 am »
Hi there! I'm taking my first beekeeping class with the Chatham County Beekeepers' Association and am excited to start tending honey bees. We live on 35, mostly forested acres have some large gardens. I'm struggling to makes sense of all the conflicting advice I read/hear. I'm a scientist, which makes the cacophony particularly painful. I'd like to hear from folks about where to buy the best packages - I think there are a few major suppliers but I've heard tales of weak queens at some of them. I've read about the wonders of disease-resistant Russian bees, but most of the beekeepers here have Italian bees and warn that the Russians are aggressive. Besides, if I am successful at beekeeping, my virgin queens will likely mate with Italian drones, there being a dearth of Russians here. A friend has offered me used equipment (medium boxes) but one source says NEVER use used and one chap here suggests putting the boxes in a deep freeze for a while to kill anything. I'll be posting these questions on the forum, but if anyone wants to leap in, come on in, the water's fine!

Offline paus

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2019, 11:48:52 am »
Welcome, I am an old timer and have had bees, and worked them with friends since I was a teenager in the forties.  Beekeeping  advice is like Texas weather "If you don't like it, wait and it will change".  I have never bought a hive except when I bought someone out.  I do trapping and cutouts and love both.  Trapping swarms is very addictive, like a box of chocolate candy, you never know what you will get.  Good luck and have fun.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2019, 12:19:53 pm by paus »

Offline iddee

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2019, 11:57:00 am »
Welcome to the forum I'm next door in Randolph county. Come visit us now and then. WWW.randolphcountybeekeepers.org.
For sure, go to and join, https://www.chatham-beekeepers.org/  They are full of friendly, knowledgeable beekeepers.
For packages and nucs, I suggest www.Beezneedz.com. They are local and they have an outlet for supplies at the Country farm and home store in Pittsboro.
You can drive and get everything you want or need.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2019, 12:31:01 pm by iddee »
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline cao

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2019, 12:01:09 pm »
Welcome  :happy:

Offline The15thMember

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2019, 02:19:01 pm »
Welcome to Beemaster!  While I am not a professional scientist, I am a VERY scientific person, and I experienced the same thing during my research phase, prior to actually getting bees.  I am in my first winter as a keeper, so I'm very new.  The best piece of advice I got regarding all the cacophony and arguing is this: Just get some bees.  Do your best to research what you need TO GET STARTED, not what you'll need or want 2 or 3 years down the road.  Look for bees you can keep alive easily in your area (which would probably be local bees) and use your first year to just learn about how to keep bees.  Once you have the bees at home, you'll encounter situations with them, and THEN you'll know what questions to ask.  Look for advice, but trust your gut.  Beekeeping is very local, with the differences in your yard, your goals, and your own style of keeping which only you can develop leading everyone to have a different approach and a different answer to every question.  If you are like me, then you probably feel like it's hard to not have a manual in front of you with the steps delineated out A-Z, but once you get underway the bees will teach you a lot.  And they are SO FASCINATING!  Check out Rusty Burlew's website Honey Bee Suite, and Randy Oliver's website as well.  Both are practical scientific minded beekeepers with loads of information on their blogs.  (Rusty's website is actually where I got that best piece of advice I mentioned earlier.)  Good luck and have fun!   :grin:
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Offline blackforest beekeeper

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2019, 03:13:00 am »
Hi there.
Here in Germany we got a lot of scientist digging into bees. I turned that way first cause I am a scientist, too. One of them - I now consider him a rather bad one - brought out a book on "keeping bees in a simple way". To be honest, thataway the bees will live.
But he has a lot of faults in it. Esp. he never told me (in his book) that beekeeping might be different in my place than in his (Germany ain`t that large, really, but micro-climates differ a bit). So I ended up with a mess.... till I noticed what I/he got wrong.

Other scientists tell different things. On how to handle things.

But: If you get the biological basics of bee and mite right, monitor the mites and the bees of course, you will be able to keep them alive. don`t be too idealistic. be "conventional" till you got the hang of them.
Rabbits, sheep and horses are a lot easier to keep.
Good luck! Have fun!

Online BeeMaster2

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Re: Newbee in Siler City, North Carolina
« Reply #6 on: January 23, 2019, 06:55:57 am »
Welcome to Beemaster.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin