Bee Keeping

[bystander]

Anyone here into making their own honey? I've been interested in this but was always afraid of the bees. I've seen several wild honey bee nests in trees around Puna and Hilo. Unfortunately the county seems to regard these as a safety hazard and will destroy the nest if on public property. I would love to have an apiary outside my house just for fun. This is one of those boxes for keeping bees and not a place for keeping apes.

[allensylves]

Hawaii is a good place for beekeeping. There are no varroa mites or Africanized bees, yet, and hopefully it will stay that way. The best thing is have a nearby beekeeper show you what to do at first. You will swell some with the first few stings, but for most people, that goes away. Not as bad as hitting a finger with a hammer.

I have bought several kinds of really nice honey in Hawaii.

Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[Hotzcatz]

All the parts for the beehive - the brood box where all the bees keep their comb with eggs and the supers where they make the honey for you to take will have to be brought in from the mainland since - as far as I know - there isn't anyone selling beekeeping equipment on island. You can not bring in used bee equipment since we don't have those mites so they don't want to chance bringing in infected equipment. It isn't very expensive, so new stuff would be better anyway. Dadant has a nice webpage and they are one of the bigger equipment suppliers. http://www.dadant.com/ If you had a brood box with a couple of supers on top of it, you'd be able to catch a swarm to put in it.

[Jared I]

If you want to start, just jump in. We raised bees on my families ranches, its really easy to learn. Another beekeeper makes it easier, but you could do it by yourself with a good book, a bonnet, a smoker, a hive and white painter's coveralls. We used to harvest honey in shorts with a long sleeve shirt and a bonnet and not get stung hardly at all. Harvesting wild stock is really easy too, it seemed like every year ours would send out a new colony and we would go get them. In fact we would sell our captured stock after we got them hived for good money. I have keep a hive almost everywhere I have lived, soon as we put down permenant roots here I probably will do it again. If you are interested look on the web, I am sure there is enough to get you started.

[haoleboy]

What WOULD you call a place for keeping apes?

Aloha
Richwhiteboy

"Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand!" –Homer Simpson

[bystander]

Thanks to everyone who replied. I never knew there were so many people here familiar with the practice. I've read that bee keeping has been going on in Hawaii for a long time.

[Nate SC]

I read of a large commercial operation in the Kau district. They were located in some large forest area.

[allensylves]

Today's Honolulu Star-Bulletin has an article about Hawaiian beekeeping.
http://starbulletin.com/2007/03/04/busin...ory01.html
It has a link that leads, among other things, to a list of the Hawaii Beekeeper's Assn. members: http://www.hawaiibeekeepers.org/list.php



Allen
Baton Rouge, LA & HPP

[Beachboy]

quote:

---

Anyone here into making their own honey? I've been interested in this but was always afraid of the bees. I've seen several wild honey bee nests in trees around Puna and Hilo. Unfortunately the county seems to regard these as a safety hazard and will destroy the nest if on public property. I would love to have an apiary outside my house just for fun. This is one of those boxes for keeping bees and not a place for keeping apes.

---

don't be afraid of Bees. They really won't hurt you if your intentions are good and you move slowly without eratic motion. I'm no Beekeeper ,but I've been handling bees since I was about 4 or 5 yrs old. With my job at the beach, Bees tend to come there alot during summer months. If I see them on the sand, I will offer a finger for them to climb up on. Then I put them in a coconut tree usually to avoid them getting stepped on in the sand by someone. It also gives them longer life because they won't use their stinger. In all my years I have never been stung by a Bee when picking them up. I usually get stung when I step on them when barefoot. I think Bees can sense fear in humans, and I have no fear of them. But Yellowjackets or Wasp, then that's a different story!