# How much maintenance



## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

Wanted to get hives for the property for the pollination. Not going to harvest honey or anything. My question is how much maintenance is keeping a hive if your not collecting honey or wax from them. Can I just get bee boxes and put them on the property and they thrive or how does that work.


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## Steve in PA (Nov 25, 2011)

There will be others more experienced chime in, but here's my 2 cents...

Would you just put another animal in your backyard and not maintain it? No feed, bathing, medicine, etc. That's essentially what you are wanting to do. Honeybees are not native to the US. Yes, they have managed to survive and thrive in the past but there are so many new challenges that they've never had before.

I would guess your box of bees would be dead in two years or less. Mites, another non-native species, is decimating honeybees. There are some working on breeding natural resistance but right now there is no option other than to treat or manipulate the bees so that they manage to outproduce the mites.

If by some miracle the mites, or mite related disease, doesn't kill them you still need to worry about starvation. Bees don't "go for groceries" for up to 6 months at a time. From late fall until early spring there is no food coming in at all. A fluxuation on the weather at those critical times means they will not have enough food stored to make it through the winter.

Then, if you've managed to clear those hurdles, you have a healthy hive. But, since you don't want to do anything to maintain them the box of bees will swarm. 1/2 of the bees in your box will fly away to find a new home to live, possibly under the eaves of your neighbor's home. Those that remain will depend on a new queen hatching and flying off to mate. If she gets eaten by a bird or other bug then the hive begins a slow agonizing decline until the box of bees dies.

I hope I don't sound mean because that's not my intention. I'm just trying to explain why just having a box of bees and doing nothing is not a wise thing to do. The problems I outline above are just a small slice of why honeybees are disappearing in the wild. Again, I'm sure others will be along with their opinion.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Why don't you just forget the honey bees and let the butterflies, humming birds, bumble bees and yellow jackets.

Honey bees today require manintaince and if your not willing to put forth some effort your just throwing money away. 

 Al


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## ed/La (Feb 26, 2009)

If your place is big enough you might be able to get a local beekeeper to put some hives there as one of his out yards. 4 or 5 hives, he might give you a little honey.


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## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

I got ducks in the back yard I rarely do anything with. I thought more of this just to try and help the bee population out. If I could get someone that wanted to keep bees and didn't have room I would surely welcome them onto the property. I live near Altoona PA if anyone here wants hives but has no room. It's not that I'm lazy and don't want to do the work involved it's just I don't really have an interest in the honey or wax. To busy in summer months to add another hobby with taking care of a garden and numerous fruit trees and berry patches plus cleaning up 75 acres of over grown property.


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## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

O yea I have cats to outside I don't give them nothing and they do just fine. Even in the cold PA winters there just content milling around the house weirding off killing rodents and birds


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Ducks and cats are way different than honey bees. they don't eat pollen or nectar, could spray them with insecides and herbicides and it wouldn't bother them much either. will kill honey bees

 Al


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## Terri (May 10, 2002)

I used to keep bees out of town and I checked them once a week. +IF+ I had had more experience it probably would have worked, but as t was my bees did not do well at all.

With experience I could have set up the hives so that the mice could not have gotten in in the Fall, but as it was I never thought of it and that hive died during the winter.

With experience I would have known to reduce the opening in the Fall to prevent robbing, but as it was THAT hive died also. If the hive had been in my backyard instead of 20 minutes away I might have seen the trouble and stopped it, as I did last Fall for my backyard hive, but as it was the hive that was 20 minutes away was on its own. So it died

etc.

The good thing with keeping bees in your back yard is that a novice can see a problem when it occurs, while a person with a hive they only see once a week may well lose the hives unless they PREVENT trouble, and that takes experience and foresight.


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## solsikkefarms (Jun 1, 2013)

another suggestion is to get mason bees and set up bee houses


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## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

So how much maintenance does a honey bee hive take when your not worried about honey and wax. I try to look it up on YouTube but most videos I watch is about extracting honey and wax.


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## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

alleyyooper said:


> Ducks and cats are way different than honey bees. they don't eat pollen or nectar, could spray them with insecides and herbicides and it wouldn't bother them much either. will kill honey bees
> 
> Al


You didn't state that in your previous comment.


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## Steve in PA (Nov 25, 2011)

solsikkefarms said:


> another suggestion is to get mason bees and set up bee houses


Mason Bees sound like a great fit for what you are looking to do. They are very good pollinators, don't need honey or wax managed, unaffected by mites (yet), and all you have do is provide them a home similar to a birdhouse.


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## Bungiex88 (Jan 2, 2016)

Are mason bees aggressive at all.


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