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  • Can I raise my own bees?

    Created by J Dutton on October 1, 2017 at 10:22 am

    I am looking at starting a small mason or bumble bee hive for pollination this spring. I have a few fruit trees, flowers, and garden that needs to be pollinated and I didn’t have bees.

    The hives that you sell, only last a few weeks. I take it that they don’t have a queen to repopulate. I will need something that lasts longer than 6 weeks since the garden keeps flowering and growing.

    What is your recommendation?

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  • October 4, 2017 at 10:27 am #253948

    Emily Pendleton
    Member

    I would definitely suggest looking in to bee keeping quite a bit before you decide to keep a hive. Regular honey bees would work just fine for pollinating your trees, flowers, and garden, but there is more to it than just slapping a hive out and hoping they survive. They do require care, especially in the winter. Not only do they pollinate, but you get free honey!

    Finding a hive of bumblebees would definitely prove hard to find as they’re usually only used like how PN sells them (just for temporary pollination). There isn’t a huge market for them as most people want the honey they provide too.

    If you decide to go with honey bees, make sure where you live permits them within city limits if you live in town. Some people make a fuss about them (ours have never stung anyone and they’re in the city). We have some Italian honeybees that are very docile and easy to work with. There are some more aggressive types, so check in to that too.

    Good luck with pollination!

    July 13, 2018 at 4:51 am #283304

    Maxen
    Member

    Honeybees are typically purchased in one of two ways, a package, or a nuc. A package is generally three pounds of bees, with a separately caged queen, all in a screened box. The package bees must be moved into a hive. Hope this helps!

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