Matketuke:
Well I can't help with the long wintering. Here are some URL's. There
is one more that I don't have handy.
http://www.suebee.com/http://www.airoot.com/http://www.nhb.org/honey/http://pw2.netcom.com/~griffes/beelink1.htmlhttp://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.htmlhttp://www.ifas.ufl.edu/~mts/apishtm/apis.htmhttp://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Beekeeping/
The other one is on my other computer. He has some great plans. One
for an observation hive that I just built for my son. He has plans for
hives and other equipment. His name is something like Brinkely.
As for the BVT. My sister-in-law has MS and tried the BVT with no
avail. I guess that I would suggest that before you invest what limited
monies you have, you might want to find a beekeeper that might donate
some bees to try the BVT and check for results. If a 20 year+ beekeeper
is having trouble I would think that it IS hard to keep bees there. Try
your local county extention office for any other beekeepers and clubs.
Best of luck.... Al Welk Altanta, GA Nice short winters....:)
Joseph "Two Shadows" Keto wrote:
>
> Greetings to all on this list. I hope to learn much here about bees &
> beekeeping. I have wanted to start keeping bees for at least 15 years but
> I now have an irresistable motivator. My wife who suffers from MS has
> started Bee Venom Therapy (BVT).
>
> Some background and questions:
> I live in the west central mountains of Idaho in a high mountain valley
> (5000 feet). The winters are looooooong and the snowpack averages 4 to 5
> feet here. A local beekeeper with 20+ years experience here says wintering
> your bees here is almost impossible. He further asserts that many years,
> there can be no harvestable honey.
> Problem is; I want to winter my bees and harvest a modest amount of
> honey. Any advise would be much appreciated. Would like to correspond
> with others who experience such conditions (email or snailmail).
> Would also like advise on what type of bees, hive setups, equipment to
> use. (I plan to start with 4 hives plus an observation hive. Would greatly
> appreciate advise on setting up an indoor (observation?) hive to facilitate
> obtaining of worker bees for BVT.
> I am in a very tight financial situation just now and am gleaning every
> bit of free info possible. Later on I plan to buy a couple of good
> reference books when I can. I have a need to inform myself as much as
> possible now though because I am told that I must get in my orders for bee
> packages and equipment as soon as possible. I am still in the process of
> searching the internet for info and any good URLs for a beginner would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks for allowing me to post this barrage of questions. You must get
> weary of breathless novices begging for advise. I will now sit back and
> listen and stay out of the way of the adults! :)
>
> Mitakuye Oyasin
> Joseph "Two Shadows" Keto
