My bee-keeping Journey in South Africa Bee-gins here!

Hey everyone, I have had an affinity towards bees for many years now, as you may see by all the bee pics I take! Years ago my Mom had a farm in the Natal Midlands and she kept bees, nothing quiet says 'free honey' like producing your own. She had around 20 hives and I always enjoyed 'robbing the bees' sounds rather sinister does it not? Harvesting the honey if you will!

I have recently moved out to a plot on the outskirts of Pretoria, I am renting a very cozy little thatch roof cottage. Out the big city, peace like this is hard to find. A friend of mine used to stay here however he is a pilot and is never in the country so was not too happy about paying for a place he never lived in. I got really lucky and moved in. On the property is a tennis court as well as a swimming pool, I totally adore swimming and tennis so this really could not have worked out better for me.

The landlord has a few hives on the farm as it is a nursery and bees really do all the pollination so the flowers 'score hands down' The bees from what I could see are just here for the flowers so I got thinking, why not approach the landlord and get something tangible with these bees going? He 'jumped' at the idea. Currently there are two large hives that have not been touched or managed for months, the volume of honey in these two hives must be huge. I get excited at the prospect just thinking about it.

Here we currently have an un-used old hive which had bees however sadly they got this horrid moth called wax moth which wiped them all out. For those folks whom have never seen the inside of a bee-hive here it is!

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This tray used to have a wax layer on, these can be purchased at any bee-kepeers shop, this wax layer serves as a 'foundation' on which the bees build their combs! This hive as you can see is empty but I plan to change all of that soon!

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This picture I took at dusk, the landlord put this hive on an old tree stump in the hope of catching another swarm, I am quiet sure we will succeed with soon. I don't like the idea of having these hives all over the place it makes it tough and dangerous to work with the bees when harvest time arrives so I will have to consolidate them all into one area soonest!

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A close up on the inside of the hive and the 10 trays, those little wires if you look closely are to hold the wax layer foundation for honey combs, an easy way to install the wax layer is simply attach a battery to the wires for a few seconds to heat them up, the wax foundation will just melt onto the wire perfectly in place!

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Here I pulled out the tray to give a holistic overview of how it looks outside of its slot in the box.

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This hive is right next to the tennis court (bad idea) as I am quiet sure the shenanigans on court would disrupt the bees and cause us and them injury. Luckily and for now this hive is empty, but catching a swarm here soon is top priority once moved to a new location.

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Here we have the small entrance on the beehive one of two in this hive, the other sits at the other end!

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I pulled the lid off the empty box to give a general idea of how it all fits together. Rather simple actually. What does happen though in a mature and full hive is the bees from inside actually with wax build the lid closed, so upon harvesting that needs to be almost forced off, incredible to see their engineering.

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This is where it gets rather exciting. This hive is currently on the plot next door also owned by my landlord, we can literally catch swarms and put many hives on this piece of land as well as the one where I reside, exciting times indeed, this could potentially be rather huge!

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This pics I took of the same hive just further back. My landlord tells me that this hive was on that stand got so heavy that it actually 'dug' itself into the ground. The amount of honey in this hive at the moment must be enormous I can't wait to get it open and in here to see.

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This will be my first of many Bee-Keeping posts, be sure to stay tuned for more, it certainly promises to be a very interesting journey. I am also at some point soon going to install a camera into one of the hives from the outside to catch some awesome videos as well as still pics of the bees working inside the hive, that promises to be EPIC, be sure to stay tuned for that!

Have a super weekend.

Cheer$;)

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Way to go! I'm glad you're out of the city now.

Bees are great, raw honey is greater hahaha We like them on toast and oatmeal, use it (or maple syrup) for making bread.

Hope you catch a big swarm just enough for your boxes. Definitely not close to the tennis court.

Very cool! Way to take advantage of the opportunity!

Thank you my brother. Plenty more to come. I was telling my Dad today I am going to install a camera into on of the hives and take still pics and film can you just imagine how cool that will be. Amazing journey lies ahead. Cheer$;)

Yeah, odd placement of the bees. I guess the tennis court hasn't been used much.

Awesome that you are getting into bee keeping. I would like to also. but need to find a country friend, or move out of the city myself!

Hope you've been doing well!

Thanks!

Be sure to stay tuned for more bud. My Mom and sis both did and or do it. She hasnt quiet told me if they still do, but ye as I learn will post more.. DO IT MAN just do it promises to be exceptionally rewarding :) Cheer$;)

Hi craigcryptoking,

This post has been upvoted by the Curie community curation project and associated vote trail as exceptional content (human curated and reviewed). Have a great day :)

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@curie I am humbled, blessed and honored thank you so much ;) Cheer$;)

@curie you have my proxy, many thanks :) Cheer$;)

Great post!

Bud with respect, you have a rep of 57, surely by now you know that a comment like that is frowned upon? Cheer$;)

Mate, I'm Italian and I do not know English well, i'm beekeeper i have seen your work and I wanted to leave a congratulatory message. I will avoid commenting in the future...

Comment all you wish brother bee keeping really is rewarding. Based on this comment you clearly are able to articulate more than just two silly words that piss everyone off. INTERACT AS you have now. . .and clearly you can. I shall be your biggest fan ;) hang loose. Cheer$; )

We MUST be related.... I also prefer "harvesting". Robbing is just....so South African! I shared to @gogreenbuddy. Perhaps try tagging #ghsc for someone in @ghscollective to keep an eye on your beekeeping ventures

lol, you guys are funny. @craigcryptoking she's probably right about the GHSC tag. They would really get into this, especially talking free honey. They can also give you helpful advice for when you are mobbed by the bees and swell up like a marshmallow.

@coinsandchains are you referring to the bee sting event of a few weeks ago? My brother and I have had some more serious bee crisis than that, sadly. And we have the famous South African "killer" bee to contend with

Killer bees, that would not be fun. All i know of them is from movies and documentaries.

Sorry I was in a hurry earlier and hit post before I was ready.
I didn't know about the bee sting event, I was thinking about my one and only time working with a beekeeper. (one of my neighbors)
He was showing me the ropes, and had 11 or 12 hives. Somehow a bee got in my bonnet (don't think I had the flaps right) and stung me behind the ear. I swatted it and jerked the helmet off, which hit a hive he had not smoked yet. I guess it did not occur to me that there were more bees outside the helmet than inside. At that point the bees are mad I'm trying to run in all this gear, they are chasing me, and he is yelling at me. It ends with him spraying me in the face with a water hose, 5 or 6 stings from the neck up, and him laughing hysterically at me.

These things happen in beekeeping. Funny afterwards. But it could have ended really badly. The poor bees sacrifice their lives for their hive. Quite amazing, really. Hope it didn't deter you from ever working bees again

I have not had the opportunity to since, and it is a rather expensive hobby to start here. They do have a huge beekeepers convention at the local resort and they always have an amazing expo with all the gear and every kind of honey you can imagine.

Are those wild bees that you are catching a swarm of? My son has a bee ive in an urban setting ( one of the Flowhives) and the bees were really expensive to buy. Just buying a queen alone cost around $60.00. Funny how the farmer never thought to harvest the honey. Good thing you came along. I'm excited to see what honey you get. Keep us posted and thanks for sharing?

Seems you find yourself a really good place to live. And finally 'bee' able to set up your own beehives is great. I hope you catch the new swarm soon and set up the hive properly so you can harvest your first own honey. Looking forward to the next posts.

Wow! I am terrified of bees but this looks like hard work considering all of the steps you have to take. Thanks for such an interesting post and the step-by-step. Hope the honey turns out great!

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