# Possibly to keep bees on property 2 hrs away?



## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

Hey everyone!

So here's the situation - the land we're going to settle on and eventually homestead is about 2 hours of where we plan to live for the next couple of years. My Dh is returning to school in the fall and so we'll do that for 4 years, so it'll be that long before we can actually LIVE on the property.

However, we've been discussing things we can do ahead of time. Planting fruit trees, etc.

One thing I wanted to do was keep bees. It's been low on my research priority list because I wasn't thinking we could do it until we actually live on the property.

But I guess I thought I should ask. Would it be possible for me to keep bees without growing any sort of crops (though my neighbors are organic gardeners so there would be crops growing in the area) and start them off while living 2 hours away? I know once you get things figured out and established you probably could do it that way but I just don't know about the learning curve and getting things all set up if it would be wise to do it while I lived so far away. I'm a WAHM so I could take time during the week to go up there, most likely, and we anticipate being there on most weekends during the summer.

So, is it feasible? Would it be too much? I've got plenty of time to learn this, I'm in no rush. But I thought I'd check


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## Beeman (Dec 29, 2002)

No problem. You just have to go when there are things to attend to. You don't need to plant crops as the bees will travel and find what they need.


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## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

Betho - right now we are in a somewhat similar situation. We have some property we put a home on and are planning to move to if our home in town will ever sell. In December, we picked up 6 hives of bees from a friend and moved them to our property. Like you, I posted to this forum and asked if the bees would be ok with us not being around for a week or so at a time. I was happy that all responses were about like what BeeMan told you. So we did it and so far, so good!

One thing I would mention is that this week we had about 3 inches of snow, topped of with 3 inches of ice. When we arrived at our homestead this weekend the bee hives were covered in ice - and the bottom entrances of the hives were sealed shut. They could still get in/out the top entrances, but I was really concerned at first. We removed all the ice and could hear our little Russians buzzing inside quite loudly. They seem fine - but you may want to make sure you can make it out during incliment weather, just to make sure all is well. I'm personally very nervous when we have high winds - but like I said so far, so good. I do have a question about what we found today, but I won't hijack this thread - I'll post it on another.

Good luck to you. I've really gotten quite enamoured with these girls. I think you'll be really happy you did it!

My 1 cent,
Penny


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## OkieDavid (Jan 15, 2007)

Have at it. The bees will forage for several hundred acres around you (a couple of miles in every direction) so you don't have to have anything planted for them. You mentioned being up there regularly on the weekend during the summer so that will provide plenty of opportunities to peform any hive manipulations needed. They can pretty much take care of themselves. A commercial buddy of mine has hives scattered along a highway for over 250 miles....He gets to inspect each hive once a month or so and does fine with them. I love keeping a few hives in the "home" yard just to watch them with my morning coffee so I would encourage you to try to make that work also.

David


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## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

Thanks for the feedback! I was actually talking to my dad this morning about it and he mentioned to me that he'd kept bees when I was too young to remember. He said he had 2 hives, they all died for some reason but that he'd be willing to help me out with that so I think I might just put beekeeping on my priority list of things to educate myself on.

Thanks!


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## Sunmo (Dec 29, 2004)

Betho,

I live in western Wa. Agree with what everyone said EXCEPT it depends on where you're gonna move to in eastern WA. If you're going to live on the eastern side of the Cascade foothills, or up in NE WA, where there are bears, you may come home and find a surprise. They can really ruin hives. When I lived at Ft Drum, we had problems with skunks and bears. Electric fences solved them. If you're moving to the Palouse or down by the tri-cities, not so big-a problem.


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## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

yeah we'll be up in Colville so I'm not sure. I'll have to see if there are other local beekeepers around. I do know there are bears around though, so I dunno. We're gonna also try and build up orchard bee habitat as well so we'll have pollinators in any case by the time we move up there, but it sure would be nice to have some honey & wax eventually also.


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## indypartridge (Oct 26, 2004)

Where are you living now that you can't keep bees? I know several beekeepers who live in cities and suburbs, even some who keep bees on the roof of their church. While it's certainly possible to keep your bees 2 hours away, it seems that would take most of the fun out it. Perhaps there's someplace nearby where you can keep bees for the next 4 years until you move?


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## Sunmo (Dec 29, 2004)

I live by Olympia, so the only problems I have are of the 2-legged kinds, and my own stupid mistakes. 

Colville--I fought wildland fires over there in 2004 & 2005. Pretty place. Great choice to move to. I'd wait, if I were you to keep bees there. But, indyp's got a great point. Keep bees where you live now. Find a local Bee Keeper's Association. Buy a hive and keep them in Colorado. What you learn there in the next couple years, may end up saving you lots of time, money, and trouble. Besides, honey bees need knowledgeable bee keepers to survive....they probably can't make it on their own.

Make some mason bee blocks and put them in a sunny, dry, non-windy place and nature will take care of those. By the time you get up to your new home, you'll have plenty of bees--of course you have to do regular, yearly maintenance on the bee blocks. You can read how to do it either on this site, or through the internet or your local library.

Good luck & keep in touch with us through this forum on how you're doing.


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## Mike in Ohio (Oct 29, 2002)

We have bees in 2 locations - our home and our farm. Our farm is 1.5 hours from our home.

The biggest issues we have run into:

1) Haul gear back and forth or have a set in each location. We are almost totally at option #2 now. 

2) One big issue is getting supers on in a timely manner when the honey flow is on. 

3) Responding in a timely manner if something (skunk,raccoon,etc) gets at the hive,knocks it over, etc.

It is doable. You just need to be a little dedicated. If you only have a few hives I wouldn't worry too much about forage.

Here's a picture of some of our hives. I'm giving a link instead of embedding the image because it is a fairly large image.

http://members.aol.com/export4/farm_hives.jpg

As usual, just my 2 cents.

Mike


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## MichelleB (Jan 18, 2005)

I asked the same question just over a year ago, and now with my first year under my belt, I suppose I have some insight. 

I'd do whatever possible to get established colonies on drawn comb. With packages, or even a nucleus ("nuc") you'll have a lot of foundation for the bees to draw, which--unless you install them on a heavy and consistent nectar flow--requires a lot of 1:1 syrup. There are many methods of feeding to consider, but frankly, you'll need to get out there at least once a week to keep them in syrup, and to keep them drawing out wax. 

A good bear fence is a good investment. 

And if it's your first year, believe me you'll want to have as much hands-on experience as you can, so if at all possible, get two colonies (or more) for your present backyard! (two colonies min. to have something to compare with, and for one colony to supplement the other if necessary). 

An established colony can fare better on its own for weeks at a time. 

As for honey supers: You should only stack a box of undrawn foundation at a time, but when anticipating a flow, you can stack as many boxes of drawn comb as you want. Find a local bee club to find out when your flows happen. 

You're gonna LOVE this hobby.


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## Betho (Dec 27, 2006)

indypartridge said:


> Where are you living now that you can't keep bees? I know several beekeepers who live in cities and suburbs, even some who keep bees on the roof of their church. While it's certainly possible to keep your bees 2 hours away, it seems that would take most of the fun out it. Perhaps there's someplace nearby where you can keep bees for the next 4 years until you move?


Well we're moving and we haven't figured out yet where we are going to end up yet  We'll stay with my sister initially until DH finds a job in the area and we can afford to get our own house so it might still be a month or 2 before I even have an idea of where we're gonna end up.

Edited to clarify - We are currently at this very moment in Colorado. We'll be moving to Spokane on March 1st and then we'll stay there for 4-5 years until DH finishes school. At that point we'll hopefully be able to move onto the land in Colville though that also depends on job and finances.


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