Washington State Bee Keepers

Hi everyone. I’m Emily, a second year beekeeper in Sumner, WA. My friend and I keep four hives in Buckley. I have another two just getting started from nucs here in Sumner. Our first year hives were doing great until a shrew got in and ate a queen. That was the end of that swarm. Now we have a year old hive, two new shaken CA swarms, and three new nucs. All of the bees are carnies, though one of the new nucs might be Italian. No word on flow yet. We didn’t take honey from the first year flow so the bees would last the winter. When it’s consistently warm and dry we might grab some from the older swarm. Good luck newbies. Join a local club.

Hi, Ecosanda. I’m in Port Angeles. We just started one hive in spring 2014, which did great last year but is struggling now. We have a club, the North Olympic Peninsula Beekeepers Association. Here is link to the last newsletter which has a good swarm bait recipe: http://www.nopba.org/uploads/The_swarm_May_2015.pdfa

Hi! I joined the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association and they are a fantastic resource. You can get all kinds of education (hands on and lectures) and find a mentor there. They meet monthly at the arboretum. There is so much to learn and it’s a huge help to find people willing to teach. :smile:

Last week I purchased a nuc from a Kent, WA, commercial beekeeper for $100 to set up as a second hive. (No packages or nucs available out on the Olympic Peninsula, as it’s too late.) The beekeeper has an ad on CraigsList and said he’d have nucs for another couple of weeks. The nuc was very strong and seems to have revived my failing hive somehow too, so now I have two strong hives going. Can recommend the Kent source if you want to spend $100 on a nuc which has three frames of brood, two of honey/pollen, tons of bees and a young queen. The bees seem are carniolan/italian mix, I think. Gentle and very very busy!

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I noticed the PSBA annual (?) field day is May 30 in Seattle and requires registration/fees, but looks really great: https://www.pugetsoundbees.org/events/#!event/2015/5/30/psba-apos-s-beekeeper-field-day

Hello Zoediak. I too live in Graham and would be brand new to beekeeping if I start. Are there any beekeeping clubs in the area that you know of? Hopefully we can keep in touch and maybe learn from each others experiences. Sounds like you are off to a quicker start than I am.

I personally know next to nothing about beekeeping, yet. My father in law kept bees here on our property in Tenino, WA and even though he passed years ago, I’m still enjoying some of his sweet harvest! I’ve thought about starting back up here again and when I saw a video about the Flow hive, that sealed the deal for me. I’m saving up for the full hive while I learn about beekeeping between now and Feb. when they start shipping.

Hi Washington keepers,

I’m looking forward to my flow system arriving later in the summer. I’m totally new to beekeeping so busy researching and preparing my garden. I’m based out in Woodinville so hoping to find a good community and mentor that I can learn from.

I’m new to beekeeping. Next year I plan to get bees and put them in the complete flowhive that I ordered. I plan on attending some meeting with puget sound beekeeping association. I live in Renton just south of Seattle. I have a question. will 1 brood box and 1 super last the bees through the winter? I heard I should have 2 brood boxes so the bees have enough honey to last through the winter here.

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VASHON ISLAND: Hello Washington beekeepers!
I am new to beekeeping. I have one hive, a Langstroth 8. I received my FLOW FULL today!
The package came damaged and is missing the “key” that you use to open and close the comb. Do any of you have your Flow Frames yet?
I’d love to find someone nearby who might have a key I could borrow. I’m eager to swap out my frames for the flow frames and I need to get them in the closed position to do so. Thanks!
Mary Margaret Briggs

Hello from North Seattle. Not beekeeping yet but very interested in helping to save the bees. Wondering if we start beekeeping, do we need to be concerned about bees stinging our neighbors? Lots of children living on our street and we don’t want to endanger anyone. We live in a suburban neighborhood. We grow food organically in our front and back yards and have planted many flowers bees love to attract them so we already have a lot of bees visiting our yard. If we set up a Flow hive, what should we think about in deciding where to locate it on our property? All advice/guidance appreciated. TIA.

Depending on breed of honey bee you choose plays a part in their demeanor. Italian honey bees are known for being the most laid back of the honey bees. For the most part though, honey bees just want to do their work. Away from the hive, the only time a bee will sting is if it thinks you are trying to kill it. You step/sit on it or squish it some way, it will sting. Otherwise, all she wants to do is go out, collect food and bring it back to the hive. At the hive is where demeanor comes more in to play. Italians are, from my experience, the easiest to work with. I’ve been keeping bees 2 years and (knocks on wood) I have not been stung yet. So long as you are respectful of the hive, treat it gently while working on it, you will be fine with Italian honey bees.

Long story short, bees just want to do their work. Away from the hive, they typically only sting if they think they are in danger. So the kids and neighbors around your place should be safe so long as they aren’t in your back yard messing with the hive itself.

As far as location goes, we keep ours towards the back of our yard where the bees are shelter from wind and most of the worst of the weather and it allows us to use all of our backyard without disturbing them.

We keep 2 deeps on to provide enough room for the bees to store enough food to make it through winter. Better to be safe than sorry.

Hi @Mary_Margaret_Briggs, Sorry to hear the package was damaged :worried: I see we have an email from you, our support team will send out a new one soon. If the honey comb is all aligned, looking like the proper honeycomb shape, you should be able to use them with out touching them and hopefully we will have a key for you by the time you are ready to harvest.

Hello Washington Group! I am patiently awaiting my Full Flow Kit to be delivered in December. I have no experience with bees, but when the flow hive idea came about I decided to take the plunge. I’ve got 4 young kids and I think raising bees will be a great learning adventure. I hope to make it to one of the Snohomish meetings this fall/winter to gain some local knowledge.

Figured I would post in here, I’ve been keeping for the last 4-5 years after researching and figuring out what I wanted to do, I bought the 4 frame pack and should have this month at some point. Currently I have 6 hives, and have lost 3 so far this season.

I am located in Kitsap county near Poulsbo if anyone is near. Not really a part of any association just kind of wing it. I normally check my hives in the afternoons in shorts, flip flops and tee shirts or no shirt. People think I’m crazy but I figure if I get stung I probably deserved it. Did get stung a few times this season but last season was the most. did manage to catch 4 wild swarms this year, one being downtown Poulsbo, cops even showed up to talk to me about it, but had caught the queen within 20 minutes of just watching the swarm. I make some YouTube videos and hope to do more in the coming season. I will be doing a daily vlog of the flow frames next spring, Currently building a TopBar/Dadant hive (think that’s what it’s called) for these frames. But if interested in the upcoming videos just message me and I can send the link First video will be of the construction of the hive. But that won’t be until I receive the frames of course. Anyways enough ranting Good to see others from WA on here.

How did you lose three, nels?

Hi everyone! We are from Buckley, WA and are very new and the more reading I do the more lost I am…

My husband has always wanted to do bee keeping and I had always said no because of my fear of being stung. But when I watched the videos and read up on the flow hive I told him I would be willing to go on this venture with him if we could purchase one of these setups. So here we are and are scheduled for a December delivery, yikes!

It’s a wonderful hobby. Reading is one thing but you won’t get lost if you join a beekeeping club of some sort. It makes the whole thing much easier. The flow frames are an extraction method. You still need to “manage” the bees. You will need to look into the brood box and have some sort of swarm control and you WILL get stung. It’s not so bad though.

Hi everyone Washington state,

I live at Coalfield 3.2 ms east of Renton. I
not new to beekeeping but it’s been 55 years since I work bees in Jr n Sr high school.

I have built 3 hive sets (10 frame Langstroth ) hives already in my small woodshop. I
Also have 3 Nuc’s ordered for Delivery April 2016.

Seems to be a lot more pests n problems than back in my school days but trying to bone up in info n vids here n there.

Seriously thinking of starting a couple or three five frame Nuc’s for swarm catching or reinforcement should thus three other hives need help.

Hope to finish up a couple Nuc boxes with supers soon in the woodshop. Hoping to chit chat with other Washington bee keepers here.

Hanging here in Coalfield,

You-tube: Coalfieldbeelover