I have been keeping bees (part time) with my Father for the last 7 years or so. I have not had a hive in San Francisco because frankly dealing with extraction in our small handkerchief back garden was more than I could face. Even storing the extractor or borrowing my Father’s from Sacramento was just toooooooo sticky a mess to deal with.
When my daughter stumbled onto the campaign she knew I would want one and sent me the link. I ordered the next day and I am so happy that I will have a hive of my own hive, finally, in my own back yard!
I am looking forward to Meyer Lemon honey twice a year and Victoria box honey as well.
I may wind up with an empty super above the flow frames for comb honey. I love that stuff and it makes such nice gifts! But I hope to never have to touch an extractor!
Hi Sara!! We’re in Bernal Heights and would so love to hear your opinion on a few things in our hive (such as, do we or do we not have a queen!!!) …do you make house calls? maybe we can entice you to come visit with fresh eggs from our backyard hens… we also have a hot tub and a trampoline… I’m just sayin!
I am not an ub er experienced beek. I’ve been helping my dad off and on for around 8 years now, so this is my first all ‘mine’ hive. That said, I feel plenty confident saying that if you have a bee hive with bees coming in and out the front door you have an excellent chance of having a Queen, even if she seems like she has a cloak of invisibility. Queens are stealthy and I have often had a hard time in the past spotting the little witches.
Most hives have a queen or there wouldn’t be bees in the hive, and most new bee keepers fret about if they have one and where she is and how she is doing. You are in good company!
While there is plenty of understandable concern about new Flowhive bee keepers not taking good enough care of their bees, my personal experience has been that far more hives have perished from an over abundance of ‘care’ than from neglect. It took me two years to convince my dad to ‘leave the bees the hell alone, Pop!’ before he ceased messing with them all the time and they settled in and really began to thrive. I think bees do best with a system of benign neglect, where we provide them with what they need to thrive and then get out of their way.
The good news is the bees are flexible and what exactly they need is a pretty flexible paradigm. So no one way is the best ; -)
And I would love to get together! We have a hot tub also, but ours, sadly, is standing on it’s side waiting to be installed ; -)
I can’t believe I’m only seeing this now!!! SO sorry, for some reason I had forum notifications off
Thank you very much for the reassurance— and it’s great to hear that we’re not the only ones worrying about whether or not we are queened. And thank you also for the recommendation, it’s very timely, I’ve been thinking we’re probably messing with them too much… (we still haven’t seen the queen )
RE: hot tubs, do come over and join ours- AND my fiance is a pro at installing them, he’d be happy to help with yours!
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