It's our 3rd year in beekeeping and we've sure learned a lot about bees and beekeeping!
The first year we started with 2 packages of bees from Georgia via Spille Honey in Kentucky. That first year was a real learning experience although we lost both colonies coming out of a really bad winter of 2013.
In 2014 we started over with several more packages along with 2 nucs that we purchased from Dan Williams of Williams Honey Bees in Frankfort, Ohio. We came out of another really bad winter with one survival colony from one of the Williams nucs that we had purchased.
Not to get too frustrated we committed to keep at it and not give up in 2015. We purchased 2 more nucs from Williams and added 3 more package bees. After going through this exercise now 3 times it has become abundantly clear to me that local nucs are the way to go. They are of much better quality and the bees just seem much better acclimitized to Ohio's harsher winters. We also used the survivor colony to make a few of our own queens and we used those to make splits off our package bees. Believe it or not we also captured 2 swarms in traps which was very exciting! Add to that the purchase of 3 more queens from Williams and that brings up to 13 colonies. I think it would be a good goal for us to have 20-25 colonies heading into next winter but in order to accomplish that it will be important that this years bees survive the winter.
There is so much more to experience and learn. A few recommendations for new beekeepers or folks thinking of keeping bees in the future:
1) Attend a beekeeping school. Southwest Ohio Bee School is a great way to start.
2) Start with local nucs
3) Join a local club- Brown County Beekeepers Association or Southwest Ohio Beekeepers
4) Don't get too frustrated or give up, keep at it.
All Natural Honey
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