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sean
08-10-2009, 07:57 AM
Ok, so not sure if this applies...but does anyone keep bees along with their bananas?

Been thinking about getting into beekeeping as well.

cowboyup4christ
08-10-2009, 08:16 AM
around here bee keeping stuff is so expensive I have though about it for my orchards, but decided they seem to come around enough naturally. I do have hive that has taken up in the walls of an old building, they seem to drain my humming bird feeders and run off the humming birds.

sean
08-10-2009, 08:24 AM
it seems less expensive then my saltwater fish hobby...and I get to eat the resulting work of the bees. :)

cowboyup4christ
08-10-2009, 08:27 AM
make sure you have no allergies to stings, cause no matter how much protection you will get stung.

hammer
08-10-2009, 08:53 AM
You got that right cowboy I used to help a Bee keeper one time i got over 100 stings on my head legs face cuold not walk or see for two days. I hear bees are disaapering living in farming comuity and i used to farm rice-soybeans ithink pestesides is one of the killing the bees.

Jack Daw
08-10-2009, 09:19 AM
Also check out your local laws and rules, highly populated areas usually have forbidden bee keeping, because there ususally are lots of people who are allergic. :lurk:

lorax
08-10-2009, 09:42 AM
I keep 'em - in fact, I keep the same kind of stingless bees that the Incans used to; I'm part of an effort to keep the species from going extinct. I don't have hives per-se, instead I have a series of bored-out sectioned logs with slider-tray systems. Once a year, the bees abandon these to swarm up in the Acacia trees, and I take that opportunity to drain the logs of their honey.

This is ideal for me, actually, since I'm allergic to the larger, North American-style honeybee stings. The stingless Incan bees bite, but that's just a minor irritation, like being bitten by Army Ants.

Richard
08-10-2009, 09:45 AM
I have lots of support plants for bees. Trailing rosemary, perennial catmint, alfalfa (agricultural variety), patches of wildflowers. Bees like to visit my yard.

sunfish
08-10-2009, 09:56 AM
Last year I would seldom see more than three or four bees at a time in my yard.Now that the passiflora caruela is blooming there hundreds as many as five on a flower. And the carpenter bees make daily visits.

hammer
08-10-2009, 09:58 AM
lorax never herd of that kind of bees thats neat. i worked all though summer when i was out school i worked bees over the whole state of ark we had stack hives what they call supers in the fall they would produce over a 1000 55 gallen drums:nanadrink: of honey.

sean
08-10-2009, 09:59 AM
Nice Lorax...I am doing lots of research and my community will allow small hives to be set-up in my backyard..I am definitely not allergic nor are my neighbors.

I also have a vegetable and butterfly garden that brings in all types of insects...Figured I would try and do my part to ensure a healthy honey bee population.

lorax
08-10-2009, 10:12 AM
Hammer - check out the bees from the genus Melipona. That's what I keep. They're considered to be of minor commercial importance, since the honey yield is nowhere near that of the big Africanized bees that are normally kept for honey production. I don't care, however - I'm keeping them for my own honey supply, for which they are more than sufficient.

momoese
08-10-2009, 10:29 AM
Hammer - check out the bees from the genus Melipona. That's what I keep. They're considered to be of minor commercial importance, since the honey yield is nowhere near that of the big Africanized bees that are normally kept for honey production. I don't care, however - I'm keeping them for my own honey supply, for which they are more than sufficient.

Sugar Cane and now bees......it sounds like you have quite the sweet tooth!

lorax
08-10-2009, 10:32 AM
Yeah, growing up Canadian will do that - we're just as bad as the British. The one thing I lament about living down here is that Maple trees don't grow here, so I have to try get people to bring Maple Syrup through customs in Bogota whenever they come to visit. Which is hilarious, because in Bogota, customs always steals at least one bottle of it.

All kidding aside, I grow honey primarily for its use in wound dressings and other traditional medical applications. Maybe 2lb of the 10 or so the hive produces each year actually gets eaten - the rest gets steeped with herbs and gacked on people when they cut themselves, because it's an excellent antibiotic and antimicrobial salve.

browndrake
08-10-2009, 10:38 AM
you seem to have a wealth of knowledge. I would like to pick your brain some day.

aaron

lorax
08-10-2009, 10:46 AM
That's also due to being Canadian and easily bored. I practically lived in the reference section of the big library in my city all winter long for about 20 years.

conejov
08-10-2009, 10:54 AM
Anything else you want to share with us Beth?

Bananaman88
08-10-2009, 11:34 AM
Beth could have her own encyclopedia set. Instead of Encyclopedia Britannica, we could have Encyclopedia Beth!

lorax
08-10-2009, 11:46 AM
LOL, guys, I'm more the sort of "receptacle of random useful facts" than a comprehensive encyclopaedia.

Richard
08-10-2009, 02:40 PM
LOL, guys, I'm more the sort of "receptacle of random useful facts" than a comprehensive encyclopaedia.

You also have ying-yang memory disease: once you read it, you rarely forget it.