What is everyones goals for this year.

[ronwhite3030]

I have 6 hives that are going into winter and I am hoping for them to come out I want to raise my own queens and split them and maybe buy a few more nucs to help expand. where is everyone at and what do you want out of this season.

[ronwhite3030]

This is for people to post on not just to view

[ShaneJ]

I want to expand my yard to 10 hives as this is what i am allowed. I plan to achieve this by doing a few more trap outs and attempting a split.

[ronwhite3030]

very cool thanks shane for your input, why is 10 what you are allowed? your county or your wife?

[ShaneJ]

The council has rules on how many hives you can keep depending on the size of your property. My limit is 10 but I do know people around here with more than triple what they are allowed.

[ronwhite3030]

ours just says ur no longer a hobbyist after 10 so please pay 10 dollars a year

[ShaneJ]

Thats not bad, we have to pay $11 a year for the first hive.

[hpm08161947]

My goal is to replace the approx. 125 hives I have lost this past year in my little sideliner operation.  We put bees in the blueberries at the end of Feb., so it is probably time to get organized. 

[AliciaH]

My goal this year is to better learn how to bring along a strong hive.  It seems that whenever my numbers get built up, they swarm, so I'm not doing something right.  I want to try and figure out what that is.

We have two beeks, in particular, in our club that are very good at it.  If I'm lucky, and maybe even figure out the right bribe, I'm hoping I can get them to help me with an inspection! 

[ronwhite3030]

Alicia I;'m sure the right bribe would be to just ask I'm sure they wold be willing to help.

[tedlemay]

Not many beekeepers around here so my goal is to get the word out , catch as many swarms as possible, do as many trapouts as possible and all the split i can to build up my yard!

[Bee Busters]

started last year with 2 nucs.  did a cut out of 2 colonies at one location, they didn't make it.  Picked up one small swarm; they absconded.  Purchased 3 more hives early fall. then one of my original hives died.  so now I have 4.
Plan is to split those, if they make it through winter, to make 12.  Catch as many swarms as I can.  Do some cutouts.   I'd like to end next year with 20 hives.
then in 2013 rent to local blueberry growers.

[Bee Busters]

for those wanting to catch swarms.  I took a jar of honey to the police officer in charge of animal control.  He said that he would be glad to send people with bee problems my way.  He didn't have anyone else locally to handle such issues.

[west end apiary]

i plan to get to 10 strong full hives, this should bring in ample honey, allow me to make some serious number of splits and have the nucs or eight frame deeps ready in the months before christmas.
I am also looking forward to establishing a stand at a local market after I buy my new house. I will get a spot and try to be there every week with honey, chunk honey, fresh comb, candles and hive bodies. With this I will hopefully establish myself as the local bee man and maybe teach some classes and possibly mentor people.

I am aiming to have te strong hives and ten nucs ready for sale by the end of Novemeber, they will have homebred queens and should give me a good inco,e for christmas.

[lenape13]

To double my hive count and, more importantly, wake up every morning!   

[Larry Bees]

2011 did not go well for me as I lost half of my hives. We did not have a good honey flow here all year.

I am hoping to double my hives this year to get back to where I was last year.

Larry

[buck man]

Just got the last of the bees down here to CA . Shipped them from the cold in eastern WA. They sure love the 50 degrees here. Went through them and only culled 38 out of 2300. Very happy with my winter losses. My goals for 2012 are to sell 600 hives, make up an additional 700 hives out of my new equipment, and make 700 five frame nucs to sell this April..and with a little luck from mother nature make a 100 # average honey crop.

[ronwhite3030]

buck where did you bring your bees to in california?

[Thebeebender]

My goals are by this time next year to have trapped 2-4 swarms and for hives to be happy health and productive my first year!

[gardeningfireman]

I went into this winter with 7 hives. Six are still alive. They are getting light on stores so I gave them candy boards and made some protein patties. I am monitoring them pretty close and plan on making more candy to put right into some deep frames. I also am going to do that with the mega-bee (held in place with hardware cloth). Therefore, my first goal is to keep these six hives alive!  After that, I am going to make a slew of nucs/swarm traps, and try to build up my colonies to around fifteen. I also do removals. One of the people who want me to put hives on their property has a three acre pasture that she is going to have disced for me to put sweet clover and buckwheat in. I want to get about 8 to 10 hives there.

[stanisr]

Last year I trapped two swarms, but lost one due to the drought. So I have wintered one and plan to increase to 4 hive this year. I have aquired 3 that I will be moving as soon as they begin building up.

[Vance G]

I have 12 hives wintering so far sucessfully.  I have five five frame nucs ordered.  I have 15 queens ordered and I plan to both make splits for the purchased queens and do the MEl Disselkoehn On the spot queenrearing described on mdasplitter.com.  My goal is to end the season with thirtysome to fortysome colonies and nucs to overwinter.  Any honey crop I get will be purely incidental this year though I expect some.   I have too many plans for my resources and hope to learn a lot and have a good time doing it. 

[MTWIBadger]

Vance
Sounds like you are planning on a serious bee business venture from your post.  Are you planning on honey production eventually paying for your investment because 30-40 hives gets expensive?

[Vance G]

I sell honey and next spring I may sell nucs.   I just bought the used equipment from an old gentleman winding down to run maybe fifty.  I am more worried about my physical ability to handle it than expense.  So far it is still cheaper than golf and seems to me to have more of a purpose.  But on a lighter note, when I read the original question of goals for the year, I wanted to say World Peace, the end of Global Warming Mythology and training my body to turn toxic waste into pennicillian.

[syphon1]

To go from 40 to 75 or 80 hives,  have them as strong as possible without swarming to maximize honey production.
  And also have 20 - 25 extra nucs going into winter.

[Jim 134]

More importantly for my wife and I wake up every morning!  And be able to have a few bee hives.




     BEE HAPPY Jim 134

[gardeningfireman]

Well, I have already passed my goal! Right now I am at 19 hives and nucs. Mostly from removals and swarms. Still have several removals lined up. Even gave a couple swarms away!

[ronwhite3030]

That is very nice to here gardening. have they been easy swarms to get too?

[gardeningfireman]

Mostly. Had to climb two spruce trees about 10 feet above the 24' ext. ladder and use my swarm bucket with one section of pole to reach them. Luckily, spruce trees are easy to climb with all the branches! Wouldn't have done it if they were in a deciduous tree. Five were in swarm traps, and the rest ranged from ground level to just needing a stepladder. Also smoked/Bee-Quicked one out of a stone pillar a day after they moved in.