In a message dated 8/14/2003 5:23:12 AM Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: > > I am poor, Kathy: I have a meager ten-acre lot on which I had dragged a > doublewide to homestead. Yoon, Ten acres sounds wonderful to me! (I'm on 1/3rd of an acre). And a double wide sounds spacious to me. We could afford only a 600 sq. ft. house. LOL It sounds like you are RICH with bees. <GRIN> I just happened to live on the edge between a > wooded area and a nearby > farmland, an almost ideal location, for which we > did our research before we purchased our land, something I will always do > if I were to move again. Your location seems ideal. How wonderful for you. Luckily, our area seems fairly good for bees, since I did no research when we bought our place 2 years ago. (I didn't know I was going to be a beekeeper!) We border 12 acres of apple on one side and 4 acres on the other. One guy tills the other doesn't. There is foraging here with mustard and wild radish. Eucalyptus, blackberries, star thistle and home gardens abound. The only crop with a dearth of nectar are the vineyards. The dirt is stripped free of any wildflowers. ANd more of the orchards are being converted everyday. > > To my best knowledge, there is one hobbyist keeping two colonies > near my home and several feral bees, whose locations I am well aware of. > In the future I am fix’n to split about 100 colonies evenly among these > three yards. Anything beyond, I will disperse to other locations. There is a beekeeper of 500 hives who has bees near hear within a couple of miles, although only a couple dozen. Of the 18 swarms I captured this year, only one came from around here. > Kathy Cox, Northern California, Italian, 18 hives :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and other info --- ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::