MakerSpace Bee Hive would anyone be interested in making our own honey? We will find some place to put the colony out in a forest. Just want to gauge interest.
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I’d like this very much, but am here only about one week a month during the summer.
I’ve always thought this would make for several good Science classes.
- General Bee Keeping and local regulations (not all cities allow them)
- Bee Keeping: Hive health and honey collection, etc.
- Building hives: different types have the pieces and show how they go together, provide plans so folks can make them after wards.
One of our members, I believed moved to CA, tricked his out with arduinos that took temp and monitored/recorded the number of in and out activity of the bees. This would then be info that could be shared within science group.
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Carrollton has no ordinances against Bees so long as they don’t become a nuisance. I keep hives at my house, neighbors love the honey. There are several open fields in the vicinity of the Space the you might get the owner to let you use. They can claim a Farm exemption on the property and the promises of fresh honey is always a good bribe…
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When should we start this project? Should/Can we build our own in the wood shoop or buy it?
Do we need to buy a queen?
Two ways to start, Buy a swarm of Bees (R Weaver and B Weaver are both Texas bee producers) or you can catch a wild hive. if you go the wild hive route you my need to replace the queen depending on how aggressive the bees are. if you are going to buy bees now is the time to act.
For the Hive they are easy to build, might make a nice Group activity… I would buy the frames. Dadant is a Texas based Bee supply company out of Paris Texas.
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what do you think about honeyflow.com?
I don’t know anything about bee keeping, so we need to setup our colony now for the summer?
I’ve kept bees for about 20 years (until last year). I STRONGLY recommend DFW folks interested in beekeeping to check out the Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association. They are an excellent group, strong on teaching, provide a free mentoring program for kids from non-beekeeping families, etc. I’ve been there when > 100 people have shown up for the meeting. Both beginner and experienced beekeepers can learn a lot from this group.
Arrive early to network. Beginner beekeeper training starts at 6:30. Regular meeting starts at 7pm.
Collin County Hobby Beekeepers’ Association (CCHBA) meets on the second Monday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at the Collin College (Central Park Campus) Conference Center at 2400 Community Ave., McKinney, Texas.
I recommend beginners get TWO hives: that way they have a basis of comparison for determining strong vs weak, active vs not, etc. Also provides some disaster recovery one cannot easily do with only one hive. If you cannot afford two, team up with another beekeeper and keep your bees at the same location.
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I checked their website, didn’t see a schedule on there, did I miss something?
Check here for the meeting details - I quoted the relevant text off of this page.
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thank you!
would you be willing to be a “consultant” on this project?
IMHO, actual keeping of bees at the space is probably not a good idea.
We aren’t allowed outside storage in the parking lot at ground level, and the roof is awkward since there is no stair access (only a ladder). The landlord would likely not like the liability of frequent, multiple-people access to the roof which would be needed.
Having indoor hives with a pipe leading outdoors is an option, but we don’t have a suitable window, and regardless some “leakage” of bees inside the space is inevitable. Might be OK in a bee-aware/hobby-tolerant home environment; not so much in a space with 1000+ members.
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How would you arrange this so that the hives and bees would be far from pedestrian traffic and totally isolated from the inside of the building ?
I’m sure in a group the size of DMS there are one or more individuals with serious allergies to bee stings.
Others like myself want no part of bees. I stay as far from them as I can, as a matter of non-negotiable personal preference.
How will these concerns be addressed ?
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We aren’t going to have the hive at the space, it will be out in a forest or something.
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they were never going to be at the space
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Works. Sorry I missed that bit.
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I like the idea of DMS branching out into other teaching areas, but I feel that the educational opportunity here is already being well-met by the CCHBA. We don’t really bring anything new/novel/additional to the table.
What would DMS do re: beekeeping that the above-mentioned hobby group isn’t already doing very well?
ON THE OTHER HAND
We might be able to turn the idea on its head and invite either the CCHBA or the Texas Beekeepers Association to have a one-off presentation at DMS about bees and getting started in beekeeping. This would allow those potentially interested in beekeeping to hear what is involved, the time/money expenses, the benefits, etc. The Texas Honey Queen (yes, really) is an ambassador for bees and beekeeping and travels around making these sorts of presentations to schools, et al.
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Oh dear goodness. A Texas Honey Queen. No wonder I’m liking it here so much.
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My dad kept bees for years on our little farm. They do wonders for pollination and everyone that grows anything that requires pollination around you benefits.
I love the idea of keeping bees but they are a responsibility to keep healthy, harvest regularly and grow the number of hives. I visited the CCHBA Mike recommends and I can highly recommend them, too. They have all kinds of people there that would help a newby get started ranging from classes to starter hives. They are a great bunch of folks, too. And yes, the Texas Honey Queen is a real person. A very sweet person 
I would be interested in participating in a beekeeper project, but I agree with Mike that there is little we could add that the CCHBA folks don’t already. They might be interested in coming to DMS to teach/present though as they are always interested in growing the number of beekeepers.
Lastly, bees are amazing and can travel miles to find their pollen, but obviously making it easy for them is preferred. Having a site close to DMS with access to water and out of the way of humans, the pesky kind not the neighborly kind, is desired.
My 2 cents. I have not tended hives for many years, but bees are threatened these days and worth keeping. My father captured many a wild hive/swarm from the area I grew up. They are an amazing creature and vital to agriculture and even human existence.
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I would imagine that an, or even a series of presentations would bee a success, so long as you pick a sweet time, otherwise you could get stung by people’s sticky schedules. Our hive mind would lap up that sweet nectar of knowledge like… like. If only I could think of a simile.
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