Honey Bees

[ramminghard]

Have an offer from a relative to set up a beehive on a farm just outside the city. Been doing some research online and found a few places that are selling some of the hives/equipment needed to keep bees and harvest the honey but have not been able to locate any in Calgary. Also found sites that will ship bees online however some seem to be done shipping for the year so I am not sure if its too late to get started for this summer.

Anyone have any experience with beekeeping? Any advice or first hand experience would be great. They seem fairly low maintenance however I would like to have a reasonably good idea what is involved before jumping in.

[speedog]

Maybe talk to some of the local honey producers who sell their wares at some of the local farmers' markets.

[nzwasp]

This place was on cbc about a week ago http://www.calgarybeekeepers.com/

You should contact them.

[firebane]

Originally posted by ramminghard
Have an offer from a relative to set up a beehive on a farm just outside the city. Been doing some research online and found a few places that are selling some of the hives/equipment needed to keep bees and harvest the honey but have not been able to locate any in Calgary. Also found sites that will ship bees online however some seem to be done shipping for the year so I am not sure if its too late to get started for this summer.

Anyone have any experience with beekeeping? Any advice or first hand experience would be great. They seem fairly low maintenance however I would like to have a reasonably good idea what is involved before jumping in.

Bee keeping is a extremely ardous and time consuming hobby. Remember you are looking after the lives of little insects and you can easily kill a hive off.

If you have never done bee keeping before I'd suggest talk to local bee keepers and do your research first. Calgary is a very cold place in the winter and if you don't protect those hives well enough you'll lose your entire colony.

Bee keeping is a very cool and neat hobby requires a lot of work, money and time.

[davidI]

I've got a buddy who keeps bees at his place out near Spruce Meadows and he seems to enjoy it. Tons of work though and he has had a number of nasty stings.

If you have any specific questions I can pass them along...

[cancer man]

I'd recommend donate a weekend with a beekeeper and see if you like it.
Expensive hobby to get into.

Try this site.


http://www.worldofbeekeeping.com/free-kit/

[ramminghard]

Thanks for the help guys! Going to do some more research before jumping into this one.

[CanmoreOrLess]

I worked for a summer at a solar company, the owner also had a hobby / company that was a honey producer. Once you witness the labour involved in honey production, you stop bitching about the price of honey. I buy local honey only, not that Chinese garbage that is repackaged to appear from a friendly and clean producer. And for the record, those bees can really stink up a vehicle, "The Honey Truck" they called it, you could smell it a block away. I was told it was basically bee shit covering the interior and exterior.

The beekeepers all were members of a local bee club. Passionate group those types.