Natural Beekeeping International Forum

[Newtnn]

Hi all,

My name is Nick, I live in southwest Michigan, and I plan on getting into beekeeping this spring/summer. I'm really intrigued by the Top-Bar hive design, so I'm planning on starting with that. I'll update when things start happening, but I wanted to make my plans known.

Hope everything goes well for you all!

[ccarrington]

Hi Nick,

How many hives do you plan to start with, and what kind of bees do you intend to use?

[DurangoKid]

Nick,

Please keep us posted on how things go. Where are you in Michigan? I raised bees in western Michigan and the bees did very well. I've always wondered if an English Black Bee would do well in MI as they are able to fly in wet, cool conditions. I was close to Lake Michigan and fog and mist were one of the few inhibitors I encountered.

dK

[Newtnn]

First few seasons of beekeeping I kept one to two hives, each time I lost them either just prior to winter or during winter. I'm guessing it was mite loads and/or the weather in the winter that did them in.

Hives sat empty last year because I was on a waiting list for a package of Michigan Survivor bees, but those absconded a week after install. I'm hoping to catch swarms to restock this upcoming spring, currently have one hive that was a caught swarm earlier in the year. I'm keeping them treatment-free, so I expect I'll have high losses until I can get some good survivor stock going.

Currently using Top Bar Hives and will start using Layen's Hives in the spring as well. Going to also insulate all of my hives year-round so that hot summers and cold winters impact the bees less.

*edit: I'm located in Southwest Michigan in Fennville.

[Barbara]

Hi

Thanks for updating this. I am sad to hear that you have had so little success. It would be difficult to comment about those losses without having much more knowledge of your situation but my gut feeling would be that being started with packages had a lot to do with it.
I hope I am right because if so, your swarm should have a better chance of survival.
I currently have 10 colonies, one of which is a trap out that was given a queen cell from another of my hives. That trap out has been targeted by wasps at both the trap out location and now here at home where my other hives are not being bothered, even though there is a wasps nest very near by. They have the smallest entrance to defend and whilst they are still managing to rear young and forage, they just don't seem to challenge the wasps at all.... they will however have a go at me when I inspect them, so they are not overly weak or feeble. My feeling is that because the queen is not related to them, there is a lack of coherence and ability to identify each other and intruders, whereas all my other hives have queens that they have raised themselves or was already their biological mother. I have had small cast swarms that have done far better than these trap out bees.

It would be great if you could update us with how the swarm compares.

Good luck with them.

Barbara

[Newtnn]

Oh for sure, all of my bees so far have been from packages, the first two were from ones driven up from Georgia (doomed to fail from the start). That's why I'm banking on catching swarms, going to place traps around my property, and a couple further away as well.

If I can get colonies to survive through their first winter I will then expand from them by doing splits, as well as continue catching swarms to increase hive numbers.

[Barbara]

That sounds like a much better plan. Good luck with it.
I love working with swarms. No need to feed them, they just get on with it as nature intended.