# First of the year.



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Got my first Bee Keeping supply catalog yesterday.

3 pound package is going to be $99.50 from Mann Lake this year.
Last package I bought was $40.00 and I just about didn't do it cause I thought that was to much.

Might make more money selling nucs than honey I'm thinking.

 Al


----------



## TxGypsy (Nov 23, 2006)

That's my thought as well. It is also more interesting to raise bees than honey...or at least it is to me. I have been having sticker shock over some of the package prices this year. Many of the normal package suppliers have so much demand that they are no longer shipping...only having pick up at their apiaries. Of course, I am starting over again and happen to need some packages. Sigh.

If I don't find something here pretty quick....I may be making a trip to Georgia to get bees.


----------



## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

last year i paid 90 for a 5 frame nuc .. got two . 
they wanted 85 for a three pound ,, i think i came out on the better side


----------



## GLOCK (Nov 22, 2012)

This will be the first year I sell nucs and I already have 2 sold and I have not advertised anywhere and I have not promised any one yet not till MAY I have 13 nucs right now and plan on selling 10 and I want 150.00 and I know i'll get it there is a big market for bees right now bee bubble you might say:grin: .


----------



## RThomas (Dec 27, 2013)

Splitting hives and catching swarms is the way to go. I hope I never have to buy bees again!


----------



## Beeman46 (Apr 4, 2013)

For years I've dutifully bought new queens yearly from a reputable queen raiser. Given the increasing challenge of mite control I've decided to start raising my own queens, using wild swarms as stock. After considerable research I've been able to identify isolated, abandoned homestead sites that had bees many years ago. Some of them still show feral bees today. I will set out swarm traps to see if I can gather swarms. Alternatively, I will take queen cells from the wild swarms I've caught and place them in nucs in these isolated areas, figuring the emerging virgin queens will mate with wild drones.
I hope to access earlier strains that may be more mite resistant.
I've consulted a university bee expert who says these earlier strains may not survive the more treatment resistant strains of mites prevalent today.
I'd welcome comments.


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

We raise our own queens with the cell punch grafting method. We do not use swarms for our stock because we do not want a swarm trait breed in our bees. We use two year old savors as stock and have set up colonies with good genics to raise extra drones using drone comb for our breeding program.

It was the older strains of bees the mites hit first and nearly wiped them all out of the wild. and nearly all colony's watched over by bee keepers. Most bees today are being raised to be more mite resistance not the old strains.


 Al


----------



## JRHILLS (Oct 27, 2010)

alleyyooper said:


> We use two year old savors as stock and have set up colonies with good genics to raise extra drones using drone comb for our breeding program.l


Thanks for the advice. What's a savor? And what are genics? Would like to use the same strategy.


----------



## Timber (Jun 15, 2003)

Al Look on the bright-side. Look at all the Bee Buck$ you get :grin: :happy2:


----------



## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

A colony of bees that have made it thru at least 2 Michigan winters, show very few mites when doing a sugar roll,. and a good laying queen. that colony will provide my next crop of queens. About the same thing as far as the colony we load up with drone comb for our mating of the new queens.


 Al


----------



## commonsense (Jun 1, 2008)

My not too distant neighbor keeps bees, and they swarm often. Just need to keep a lookout and grab any that come my way 

I paid $120 for a nuc last spring, and bought a queen midsummer for a swarm I picked up (long story) for $25. Happy with the bees I got in the nuc, and with the queen. Prices have already gone up from there, so I'm hoping to keep my ladies alive through the winter!


----------



## 1shotwade (Jul 9, 2013)

Y'all might want to check your swarms very carfully this year. I caught a swarm a few years ago and had a hard time getting them in a hive.They would go in and come right back out.Bees moving both directions. After giving up on the fight the bees settled in four or five different places. I slowly started moving bees to examine them and ended up finding 9 queens which I hived seperately and added frames of bees from my stronger hives and they all made it.
I have also had multiple queens in the same hive for weeks without fighting each other so slpitting was rather simple.

Wade


----------

