My Great-Grandfather was the first beekeeper in my family (that I know about), then my grandfather. He and his brother had nearly a hundred hives at one time, but he never sold any honey. He thought that it should be given away. He and his brother had a plumbing business in our town and they had lots of friends and business buddies that they kept stocked up with honey. When he died, most of the hives and the business went to the brother, my great uncle. My dad continued to keep them as a hobby until 1988 when he hurt his back really badly. I took over then at the ripe old age of 14. I had been helping daddy with them since I was about 8.
I DID sell the honey, lol, out of the back of a wagon, door to door. I mowed lawns and it was easy to sell to my yard customers. If anyone couldn't afford it, I gave it to them, so my grandfather (whom I never met, he died before I was born) wouldn't be too ashamed, lol. I charged $3 a quart, and they got to keep the mason jar! When I left for the AF there were 3 hives left.
To be honest, not much was required of us from the bees. I didn't know anything about them. We never fed them, never requeened, never really even checked on them. They were the descendants of those hives my grandfather had gotten removing swarms from people's property. We would get a medium super from them every year, and call it good. They were black and mean, mean, mean, lol...
When I got back from the AF there was one hive left in a rotted out box. I tried to move them into a new box and it was more than they could take. In a few weeks there were so many SHB's that it was ridiculous. I felt so bad for killing a hive that had been there for so long, and that probably would have survived if I had tried to research and manage them.
Now I have some new Russian hybrid hives that I am gonna try and actually learn to handle correctly. Things aren't like they were for my dad, his dad, and his dad before him. The suggestions I get from my dad are usually wrong, at least according to what I read. The old practices just don't take into account the struggles the bees have today. I want to be chemical free so as to have stock that can survive, and if they can't survive, well then I will just keep trying until I get it right.
Topic: Another East Tennessee Beekeeper (Read 2004 times)