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Any beeks who read this thread happen to live in the NJ area? I'm looking to get a hive or two started in my backyard next spring and just wondered if anyone might be local-ish and interested in sharing regional advice or meeting up at some point in the future to talk bees. Also curious about local equipment and bee sources for reasonable cost. Considered Mann Lake hive bodies/boxes but maybe there's more competitively priced gear around these days?
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Feb 6, 2023 04:19
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 12:41 |
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Thanks for the suggestions all, I ended up getting a Mann Lake hive, unpainted so I could check out the condition of the wood as I read some not so great things about their craftsmanship since the pandemic. Decided to just give in and start this spring. Definitely wasn't cheap, and I'm not entirely thrilled about the quality, more splintering and splits from staples at the joints than I had hoped for. However there were very few knots or imperfections on the wood itself so I suppose that it'll do. Filled stuff with exterior wood glue and started painting them. They also gave me 'natural' Rite-Cell foundation for the deeps, which is irritating. Going to have to get really good at egg spotting and fast. Nucs are definitely more expensive here in the northeast, which is also a bit upsetting but that's just the way things go. Unless I decide to catch swarms in the suburbs, which is probably not a good idea for first year with no real world experience. Definitely don't want aggressive overly swarmy bees going after my neighbors or my family. Also, I don't know of it's me or unlucky with the places I've researched but shipping costs for anything beekeeping related, no matter how small or light, are absolutely INSANE. Like just straight up making up absurd costs to compensate for a struggling business. One place, I think it was BetterBee or Blythewood (Maybe Premiere?), was estimating $140 for UPS ground shipping on something as small as a single super with frames. Definitely limited my search to a few places like Mann Lake and cheap Chinese brands on Amazon. Anyhow, I'm pumped for starting this hobby!
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Feb 28, 2023 21:56
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