Property Owners Mind Honey Bees?

[EthanLeeVita]

This is merely a hypothetical at this point, but I'm curious how many property owners would mind having 10+ honey bee hives on their property. If you wouldn't mind the bees, could you please reply with your location, property size, and how many honey bee hives you could accomodate? If you have an agricultural crop of some kind, that info would be appreciated as well(afaik I know, no one has one though...). As I wrote earlier, this is a hypothetical for some brainstorming I'm doing.

[Russell Kanning]

we would want many .... up to you how much you want to house here

[dalebert]

I'm already looking into having bee hives on my property. I'm looking into what it takes to manage. I wish I had made it to Brian's presentation.

[EthanLeeVita]

Well, I'm slowly learning beekeeping from my grandpa. If all works out, I intend it to be an income source. I'd probably work for a local beekeeper(checking out the local bee association headquartered in Keene right now) at first though. However, once I get started I'd like a partner to share it with in case one of us is jailed for some reason that way the bees don't just sit around.

Russell, how big is your property?

[Russell Kanning]

big enough for plenty of bees
you could bring lots here
10acres of open fields ... with a big garden and some wildflowers
200 acres of woods
we would appreciate bees for free .... farmers will pay you to bring bees to their place

[EthanLeeVita]

Any sweet clover by chance? Bees LOVE that stuff. This is good to know. If it all works out, I'm hoping to put established hives at your place(its quite a drive from Keene) and the newer hives(queen raising) at places closer to Keene for more frequent monitoring. Bleh, I can't wait for next year now.

[Kat Kanning]

Yes to clover.  The place was just hay'd though, so a lot of the wildflowers are gone.  There's tons of stuff blooming in the gardens though.  In the early spring, there are tons of apple blossoms.  I'm with you, I like clover honey.

[dalebert]

I'm still trying to get confirmation or correction on this, but my understanding is that "clover honey", at least most of what you see in stores, is mostly not honey at all. Someone (try and guess who might do this) lobbied for FDA redefinition of "clover honey" so that it can be only about 5% real honey and the rest can be corn syrup or some such and still be called 100% "clover honey".

[EthanLeeVita]

I'm still learning a lot at this point, but my understanding is that clover honey is honey whose nectar was harvested from clover.

[Kat Kanning]

Dale, much of the standard honey you see in stores contains high fructose corn syrup.  They don't have to tell you on the label.

The health food store South of 101 on Main in Keene sells a real nice local honey. 

[KBCraig]

I thought Clover Honey was a New York drag queen.

[Pat McCotter]

Many Europeans will not buy clear honey because it is probably corn syrup. They will only buy the granulated kind.

[dalebert]

I'm still learning a lot at this point, but my understanding is that clover honey is honey whose nectar was harvested from clover.

In a world where lying and redefining of common sense words have not become commonplace, that would be a logical conclusion.

[Kevin Freeheart]

I'm terrified of bees, but I'd certainly be interested in seeing more bees in the hands of porcupines. If the bee-shooting cannons don't work out, I can always buy up honey and turn it into mead and melomel.

Message from the lawyers: The bee cannon thing is a joke.

[EthanLeeVita]

I'm not sure my types of bees would be conduce to bee cannons. I don't have a bee suit so when we were harvesting honey on monday, I was just picking up the frames and shaking the several hundred bees off, then flicking off the remainders. Never got stung.