30,000 bees

[Lotus]

I would love to keep bees. I'm excited for you.

[Lotus]

Cool! Such a neat learning experience for the kids too. I wish my dh wasn't allergic, I'm jealous.

I would love to have bee's as well. My partner keeps shooting the idea down.

[Deleted User 670]

I wish I felt better and had more energy. I'd love to have a small beehive in the corner of our back yard. I'd trick it out with a little picket fence with a gate to keep the dog out. I'd only want one hive, though. That'd be more than enough to pollinate my and my neighbors' yards and have a few jars of honey to gift out.

I'd like to have some chickens too. But I'm not sure how they'd do with my dog. She's part Belgian Malinois and chases every damn critter in the yard, including my cats in the house. But it sure would be nice to have fresh eggs right out my back door.

[Deleted User 1039]

Ugh! I don't like bees. They bother us when we are trying to enjoy our pool. They do us a favor when they end up drowning themselves. Otherwise if they're too pesty my DH will swat them down into the water and kill them. They've stung both my husband and my son before in the pool. I don't want to be next.

You could try setting out a bowl with marbles and water in it. If they find a better water source, they might leave the pool around. But honeybees have no interest in people, so unless their hive is very close, they wouldn’t bother you. They might try getting a drink from the pool, but they would be stinging unprovoked. I’ve stood in the middle of an orientation flight- thousands of bees buzzing around right outside their hives (unsmoked, no veil). They had zero interest in me.

Different varieties can have different levels of aggression, but that’s unusual behavior for a honeybee.

[Deleted User 1039]

I wish I felt better and had more energy. I'd love to have a small beehive in the corner of our back yard. I'd trick it out with a little picket fence with a gate to keep the dog out. I'd only want one hive, though. That'd be more than enough to pollinate my and my neighbors' yards and have a few jars of honey to gift out.

I'd like to have some chickens too. But I'm not sure how they'd do with my dog. She's part Belgian Malinois and chases every damn critter in the yard, including my cats in the house. But it sure would be nice to have fresh eggs right out my back door.

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with dropping them in a hive and just enjoying them. If something goes wrong, get new bees next year. They’ll probably run out of room and swarm, but that just means more wild hives. People who really want honey do things to prevent swarms, but if production isn’t your goal, there’s no concern.

I have some hens, too. They just finally started laying a few days ago! I don’t let them free range much because we have so many predators (I lost 4 babies to a hawk, and they were in a dog kennel). My dog doesn’t have a super high predator drive- she will kill opossums and chase squirrels and such, but leaves cats and chickens alone. I let her spend time with them as little chicks, which I think helped her understand they aren’t prey.

[Deleted User 1039]

I hate bees

Cool. Glad you aren’t a beekeeper, then!

[Deleted User 670]

I wish I felt better and had more energy. I'd love to have a small beehive in the corner of our back yard. I'd trick it out with a little picket fence with a gate to keep the dog out. I'd only want one hive, though. That'd be more than enough to pollinate my and my neighbors' yards and have a few jars of honey to gift out.

I'd like to have some chickens too. But I'm not sure how they'd do with my dog. She's part Belgian Malinois and chases every damn critter in the yard, including my cats in the house. But it sure would be nice to have fresh eggs right out my back door.

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong with dropping them in a hive and just enjoying them. If something goes wrong, get new bees next year. They’ll probably run out of room and swarm, but that just means more wild hives. People who really want honey do things to prevent swarms, but if production isn’t your goal, there’s no concern.

I have some hens, too. They just finally started laying a few days ago! I don’t let them free range much because we have so many predators (I lost 4 babies to a hawk, and they were in a dog kennel). My dog doesn’t have a super high predator drive- she will kill opossums and chase squirrels and such, but leaves cats and chickens alone. I let her spend time with them as little chicks, which I think helped her understand they aren’t prey.

Yeah, we have hawks and owls here. There's a hawk that nests in a tree behind my yard. I've seen it up close once when it came into the yard and was perched on the crossbeam we have up over the steps of our deck. It was cleaning its claws so I'm guessing it had just finished a meal. I suppose if Heidi was in the yard and I could keep her from scaring the bejeezus out of the hens, she'd keep the hawks and the owls away. She'd probably love to spend more time out in the backyard too if she could keep the chickens company. We can only legally have 4 hens and no roosters, though. But like I said. I don't have the energy for all of that. A hive would be cool though. Maybe next year.

[Traci_Momof2]

Ugh! I don't like bees. They bother us when we are trying to enjoy our pool. They do us a favor when they end up drowning themselves. Otherwise if they're too pesty my DH will swat them down into the water and kill them. They've stung both my husband and my son before in the pool. I don't want to be next.

You could try setting out a bowl with marbles and water in it. If they find a better water source, they might leave the pool around. But honeybees have no interest in people, so unless their hive is very close, they wouldn’t bother you. They might try getting a drink from the pool, but they would be stinging unprovoked. I’ve stood in the middle of an orientation flight- thousands of bees buzzing around right outside their hives (unsmoked, no veil). They had zero interest in me.

Different varieties can have different levels of aggression, but that’s unusual behavior for a honeybee.

I don't know what kind they are but the stings have been, I guess, bad coincidence. One time my son was standing at the pool edge and reached down to pick up a toy boat floating on the pool water. There just happened to be a bee on the underside where he placed his hand and it stung him. Another time my DH was floating on a pool mattress and I playfully jumped onto his thighs. Just as I jumped up, a bee came in to land on his thigh and I landed on him right after. The bee stung my husband in the thigh.

But we jump and play and move a lot in the pool and I'm not going to have the whole family afraid of moving or grabbing something because there could be a bee. And there is a river not even half a mile away where they can get all the water they want. So no, I'm not going to feel sorry for the bees who end up dying because they are at our pool.

[AllofFive19]

Cool! Such a neat learning experience for the kids too. I wish my dh wasn't allergic, I'm jealous.

Dh and I are both allergic, still want a hive.

[Victoriousmom]

Cool! Such a neat learning experience for the kids too. I wish my dh wasn't allergic, I'm jealous.

Dh and I are both allergic, still want a hive.

Hey that's why God made the man that created epipens.