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your bucket list

Started by billy rubin, March 18, 2020, 03:09:12 PM

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Kusa

Quote from: billy rubin on March 19, 2020, 09:42:58 PM
Quote from: Kusa on March 19, 2020, 12:21:03 PM
That doesn't make me want to run out and buy a bee hive. Any other reasons to get started in the bee business?

well, i made my living with a bee outfit in california for ten years, and i'm looking for a source of additional income here in the eastern united states over the next few years. where i am now, a healthy beehive will make something like 140 pounds of honey per year. varietal is un usual, mostly the best you can get is a spring mix from the trees and a later season wildflower honey from goldenrods and asters. unprocessed raw honey sells at farmers markets for ten bucks a pound or better.

its also possible to do some commercial pollination around here. that was the lion's share of my income in california, where i rented bees to pollinate fruits, vegetables, and seeds. ere there isn't much except the melons down on the ohio river, but there's a significant acreage there for a small beekeeper.

i also made money raising and selling queen bees. that's where most of the money is, but you can't do that in ohio. you have to have pollen in february and good flight weather in march to get the market.

if you have fruit trees or a garden, saturating your area with honeybees will pollinate the stuff that needs insects. that's most of what we eat. i'm mostly vegetarian during a lot of the year, and i'd like to produce more of my own food here at the home ranch. so having the nbees around will increase yields of some of the perennials i already have in the ground.

and bees are also just interesting livestock. they require minimal care, if you stay on top of the diseases and parasites. and they have the capacity to increase quickly. my wife and i started with one hive. th enext year we had 30. the year after that 100-something, then 300, 500, 600, 700, and 800. their behavior is fascinating, and you can't mess with them without learning something every time you open a hive, if youre paying attention.

and something else that is really a plus. i live in the country, way out, with no neighbors. but the hayfield to the north has a nice building site on it, and i don't want to see a house there.  a yard of beehives on the property line is a great way to scare off potential homebuilders. the more the better.

we'll start with the four i've got coming, and see about building up to a hundred or two.
Ok that does sound interesting in a therapeutic way. I don't know how they would do in the mountains of NC though.

billy rubin

northcarolina imports bees every year from florida to pollinate their apples. after the apples the bees go to maine to the blueberry barrens.

itz a very good place for bees, with lots of honey plants and fairly mild winters. certainly better than here.

tha american south is one of only five places in the world where you can raise queenz commercially.

bears would be an issue. lots of electric fence. and bullets.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

billy rubin



"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Kusa

I couldn't shoot poo bear.


No one


billy rubin

lots of money in thatif youre big enough


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

jumbojak

Quote from: Kusa on March 20, 2020, 12:18:04 AM
I couldn't shoot poo bear.



But, that's all part of the plan. You get to keep the honey and stick your freezer with trichinosis laden bear flesh.

"Amazing what chimney sweeping can teach us, no? Keep your fire hot and
your flue clean."  - Ecurb Noselrub

"I'd be incensed by your impudence were I not so impressed by your memory." - Siz

Dark Lightning

^ Properly cooked, the weerms are just more protein!

billy rubin

a beekeeperfriend of mine in californiashootsbears every year
last yearirememberhekilled 26 of them

lots of paperworkinvolved

he calculates everybearvisit costs him about $1000


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

Kusa

I believe I could do it for much less. The cost of one 308 round and a little bit of diesel fuel to power the tractor while digging a hole should do it.

billy rubin

no thatz $1000 in deztryed beehives per bear visit.

he digs a hole every year and just drops the dead bears in. he cannot harvezt anything from the bear, no skin, no bonez, no gall bladderz, nothing. all of it goez into the hole, then when it gets full he covers it up and digs another.

bears are tough on beeyards, especially grizzliez. you cannot touch them without a depredation permit.

electric fences work, but often the bears walk through them before they notice that the fence iz there. or people steal the fencing units


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

No one

Get to know beyonce's pooper, intimately.

Kusa

Quote from: No one on March 20, 2020, 08:25:16 PM
Get to know beyonce's pooper, intimately.
Since this thread has gone inactive, I'll ask you sir, please describe your intended actions with this pooper.

Icarus

Billy; How much of a threat to your, or others, bees are the Murder Hornet beasts?  That is an item that has been in the news lately.

billy rubin

#29

so far theyre localuzed in the pacific nw, at unknown densities.

how many have actually been found?

not many apparently

QuoteThe facts are, experts said, two dead hornets were found in Washington last December, a lone Canadian live nest was found and wiped out last September and no live hornets have yet been seen this year.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/07/us/washington-state-gypsy-moths-proclamation-trnd/index.html

but thats how varroa got here. introduced in one place and then it zpread.

we already have pretty big hymenoptz here

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecius_speciosus


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."