Hey everyone. This covid craziness over the last year has seen me start new hobbies here at home (abstract painting, rock painting, sourdough bread) to add to my current hobbies of brewing and photography. I also decided to keep bees and took a local class in October and now have hives and equipment for the 2 packages I'll be receiving on 3/20. I'm as new as this equipment I have and there are so many things to learn/worry about before you even start!
Envious of you folks with land as I'm in a subdivision and have the standard subdivision backyard which will house these two hives. No subdivision rules on insects/bees so hoping I don't run into any issues downstream. At least we have a 6' wooden fence around the backyard for bees to come out and then fly up.
Ordered hives/frames from a local woodworker/beek and found out at pickup time that his 8 frame hives were actually 8 frames plus space for a frame feeder, or you could run with 9 frames, the later of which is what I chose. This 9 frame hive actually has the dimensions of an 8 frame hive so things like excluders will fit without issue. Weird but I'm rolling with it. Not a young man as I'll be 60 this year which is why I chose to go with 8 frames - had I known how it would turn out I may as well went with 10 frame boxes. Deeps for brood and mediums for honey supers. I plan on running double deeps for brood but have done some reading and watched folks with single deeps for brood and as I don't even know what I don't know yet will leave that open for a future decision. I will be building my hive stand(s) this weekend and still unsure if I want to build one stand for both hives or build individual stands. Yet another decision! Also need to figure out how I will provide water for the bees so they don't go into a neighboring pool. Boardman feeder with just plain water in it for each hive, bird bath with marbles/stones in it, etc.
Getting warm here with highs forecast in the mid-60's to upper 70's over the next 10 days. As I have no comb on any frames I planned on feeding 1:1 in 2 quart jars for each hive under the top cover, but with the weather not sure if they will drink it or not as there should be natural sources available.
Anyway as you can tell I'm a rambler. I'll be gleaning information from the forum which may answer some of these questions. I also have a mentor who takes care of the hives at the Clemson extension so he has proven to be a valuable resource as well. Thanks for the forum.