Any Beekeepers?

[skinzner]

Woods bee company out of centralia does nucs, super nice and helpful people,  heres a link to his website

https://woodsbeeco.com

[jackelope]

My friend in the Methow ran about 25 hives this past year. He lost a lot to mites over half.

This was a weird year I think. Not a lot of honey produced and lots of mite issues I've heard about.

[!Xabbu]

There's a guy in Duvall that is doing a bulk nuc order from down south somewhere. He's going to drive down and pick them up. Snohomish Bee Company is selling nucs and 3# packages that usually show up around April. I think down south by you, Lori Miller isn't selling anymore. @Come Get Some  ??
You could reach out to the WA Beekeepers. I'm sure they could point you somewhere.
https://wasba.org/

Ordering bees is good that it brings in bees and more people keep bees. Ordering bees from anywhere afar, looking at you California, is bad as their genetic stock dilutes the local hardy stock that are wintering over in the PNW and probably resisting Varroa better than most.

We have the county extension agent as ex officio member of the club and that can open some doors and gates to new places for traps and hives.

I had some Cali bees last year. Not this year though, the little ungrateful wenches left me right at the start of fall. If I dont catch a swarm, I'll borrow a pound of girls and maybe get a locally bred queen (or let them go at making a new one).

[boneaddict]

My Dad got some bee nucs from a member.  I dont think the member is still active.   I want to say Buckman.....

[jackelope]

My Dad got some bee nucs from a member.  I dont think the member is still active.   I want to say Buckman.....

Beeman

[3nails]

 I'm a beekeeper and am very interested in catching swarms. I watched several videos last summer on how to do it. There are a ton of commercial guys who come into my area so I've been thinking about picking off a swarm or two from them. Two different times we had swarms come into the barn we keep our gear in.

[Idabooner]

Last winter I had two hives, come through OK, no losses.  In mid April I made up a nuc from the strongest hive and bought a Queen.  By mid July all 3 hives were ready to harvest, I got a good amount of honey, and from then on let them store up for the coming winter.  I do treat for mites in the spring and fall with Api-Var.  Yellow jackets are my biggest problem.

[Humptulips]

I have I think 32 colonies right now. All my colonies come from swarms. I catch swarms here at home but I trap most of the swarms I catch. So simple and easy plus it is great fun going to look at your bait hives. During the summer I always keep an eye out for bees working the flowers. Those are good places for a bait hive. Spotted a couple new places this deer season. About the middle of May I place an empty hive in these spots wit at least one old comb in the hive. Very important to have and old comb as this is the attractant to lure a swarm. You can use a nuc box but I think it better to use a single story hive. Even at that I catch swarms at time that are a tight fit. I have quite a bit of old equipment which is what I use. I have lost a few to bears over the years but mostly they just chew up the frames and the rest of the wooden ware remains usable.
Most are placed along the way to town so I don't have to go out of my way to check them. Look at them every couple weeks until July when I pick up any remaining. You can hide the things along the road in quite a bit of brush. Doesn't seem to matter to the bees. Some places produce good swarms every year and when you find such a spot you are golden.
I catch most swarms at home but I have another apiary and miss almost all of them there but I have found a few empty bait hives out about a 1/4 to 1/2 mile away catch them. It does not seem like empty hives in the apiary are very attractive. The new swarms instinctually want to move away from the parent colony.
Back when mites first appeared my Dad and I had bees and we were wiped out. We restarted with packages and treated with apistan,  then amitraz, then coumaphose (sp?). We both thought the medicine was having an adverse effect on the bees. We had noticed some of these survivor bees and started collecting swarms. Eventually stopped treating in the early 2000s. The thought being let the weak die and end up with a very resistant strain that did not need mite medicine. Typically we had losses of 50% but replaced them with swarms. It seemed to be working until there was renewed interest in bees and the non-resistant package bees started arriving which seemed to dilute the gene pool.
Any way two years ago I decided I had to go back to treating and started using formic acid spring and fall. Losses have been about 10% so far. Short time frame but seems good so far.
I'll never be more than a hobbyist but have had up to about 50 colonies at times.

[jackelope]

Last winter I had two hives, come through OK, no losses.  In mid April I made up a nuc from the strongest hive and bought a Queen.  By mid July all 3 hives were ready to harvest, I got a good amount of honey, and from then on let them store up for the coming winter.  I do treat for mites in the spring and fall with Api-Var.  Yellow jackets are my biggest problem.

@Idabooner  what blooms do they primarily hit over there by you?

[Idabooner]

Jackelope!  My bees feed on mostly wild flowers, wild rose and some wild fruit trees, some alfalfa before the hay harvest.  There is no orchards around and I harvest the honey before the barnaby starts blooming.  I don't supplement them. The honey tastes great.

[danderson]

I'm going on my 3rd year raising honey bees something I always wanted to get into, my first year with the help of my lady friend she been raising bees for over 10 years, we started our own bee company with 6 hives we extracted a total of 165 pints of honey that year, unfortunitly none of our bees survived the winter due to what I think was moisture and partly inexperance on my part I didnt keep the snow off the entrance the bees couldnt get out for cleansing flights during the long winter here we live in the mountains above Cle Elum at 2500 feet. last year we had 6 hives it was a horrable year for yellow jackets we lost 4 of the hives the 2 remainig hives are doing good even today at 28 degrees snowing hard I see them looking out the upper entrance with some bees actually coming out for a peek at me. we treat for mites with deluted wood bleach and powered sugar in the early spring and again in the fall. we extracted 156 pints this year. we get our bees from Snohomish bee company nuc's last year were 190.00 we just ordered 8, 3 pound packages supposed to be in around mid May. we call it Wildfower honey but since were in the mountains but I see them on all sort of flowers including thissels and knapweed as well as snowberry lupin, I have a massive Mint plantation and Lavender, but bees can range up to 5 miles so they get around, this year our honey was real dark compaired to the last few years it was light.