Our Little Sugar Factory
(Page 5 of 5)
March/April 1970
By the Mother Earth News editors
The next morning I got up at 5:30 A.M., spread a sheet on the ground in front of the newly set up hive, shook the bees off the branch and watched them stream into the new hive. Two hours later the last of them were marching into the hive and I now had two hives of bees, for there was quite a colony still left in my original hive.
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Right here I'd like to say that Mr. Whitehead has since taught me a lot about bees. Incidentally, one of the real pleasures of bee-keeping is get - acquainted with other folks who keep bees - they are a fine bunch of people.
If you're really interested in starting in with bees, visit a beekeeper in your locality - tell him you're thinking of getting a hive of bees and see if he won't invite you over to his place to watch him open his hives. If you can, spend a few hours with a beekeeper and if you will read First Lessons in Beekeeping you should get along fine.
It wasn't until some time after we got our bees that we found out that we could not expect much honey from them the first year particularly because we let them swarm. The reason for this is simply that the bees have all they can do to draw the wax foundation into cells plus raising the young bees and storing enough honey for themselves. Our bees had stored up over 60 pounds of honey their first year which we left them to eat over the winter. We took only four or five pounds for our own use. The second year we had about 60 pounds of honey for our own use.
Bees are one of the most fascinating things you can have. They require only a few feet of space, gather their own food, and need only 8 hours care per hive a year. You can have bees even if you live in the city. I know of a beekeeper who lives in Brooklyn.
Suggested Reading:
First Lessons in Beekeeping, $1.00
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