bee keeping!

[naturemama1]

We're putting in 6-8 more fruit trees this year, and, you know, one Google search has lead to another. : So now I'm really interested in keeping honeybees! Does anyone here keep bees? What is the time commitment? Do you find it rewarding?

We're on a small-town lot (between a third and a half of an acre, depending on where you measure from), and we're currently putting several large flat terrace levels into a sloping back hill, to expand our usable land. We want to put in a variety of food gardens, keep some space wild for the kids, plan an upper level with outdoor furniture and stuff, and I was thinking of keeping bees at the far end of one of the gardened terrace levels. Our neighborhood is pretty heavily landscaped with flowers and fruit trees. Do you keep your bees a certain distance from the house, or are they not a big deal with small kids?

I love discovering new things like this. Last month I was all : about the fruit trees and now I'm all : yay honeybees! LOL. There's always some new wacky thing around the corner that I never thought I'd be interested in.

[naturemama1]

Oh, also -- do you get stung that often? Bee stings are less painful than wasps, right? I'm good with needles so I don't think I'd mind a few stings as part of the process -- but I was stung by a yellow jacket two years ago and HOLY HOT OUCHY BURN! IIRC from childhood, bee stings aren't such a big deal, no?

[dziwozony]

my partner is a passionate beekeeper, though i haven't felt the urge to really get into it myself. however, i definitely enjoy all of the honey it brings :-) not only is it yummy, but the ultimate wound healer as well!

we have about 15 or so hives right by the hutt (where we live). they came before me, so it was just something i had to adjust to! i'm very used to it now. we have a toddler & he knows that "bees are hot!" and does not mess with them. sometimes he squats nearby to watch the bees buzz in & out, but knows to keep his distance. he drove his little pushcart into one once, but only got two stings out of it, luckily. so, potentially there is trouble if your kids end up being allergic, but generally bees don't mess with you unless you mess with them. (sometimes fumes or perfume makes them grumpy though, but you just learn about details like that as you go).

i've had my share of stings, but not heaps...maybe an average of 5 per year? my partner has been stung lots! we have wasps around & honestly i think it hurts about the same, sorry to dissapoint you! but the venom is different so some people react differently to each...maybe you react more to wasp venom? but i think yellow jackets are different than the wasps we have in NZ- not sure if the sting hurts more?? (i'm from the US originally, but never got stung by a yellow jacket).

most people i know who have dabbled in beekeeping get really into it, so overall it seems to be a satisfying hobby!

[naturemama1]

Thank you! That was very helpful. It's hard to get a sense of what, you know, "my daily life with bees" would look like from the how-to websites.

[Hibou]

We may get a hive this year too. I've never been stung by a bee, but had a weird reaction to a wasp. Our bee-keeper friend said that the best thing to do would be to allow myself to get stung on purpose to see if I reacted to it (api injector on hand, of course). This makes me a bit queasy to think about, but I really do want bees so I will do what I have to.