>
> Hi...
>
> Does anyone have any recommendations about the best breed of bees
> for a novice? I've never kept bees before, but I bought a hive
> this winter and have it assembled, painted and waiting in my garage.
> I've been reading Gleanings, ABC-XYZ, and the Hive and the Honeybee.
> >From what I can tell, if I want a gentle race, I should probably
> go for Midnight or Ruckfast, right?
>
> I've talked to a couple of people in the local beekeepers association,
> and they suggested that I might want to buy an established hive from
> someone in the area. I was kind of uncomfortable about this, since
> I wasn't sure if I would know what race I'd be getting. I figured
> that it would be best to deal with someone advertising for the kind of
> bees that I want. Am I worrying over nothing?
>
> Oh, I should probably mention that I live in central Ohio, in the middle
> of a rural area. There're lots of woods, corn, soybeans, tomatoes,
> pasture, etc. growing nearby. We also have a pond and a stream (the
> latter dried up during last years drought, but it's now flowing again).
>
Jeff: I live out in the country about 10 miles from Lafayette,
IN. From your description, I'd say we live in very similar
geography (farm country). I started my first bee colony last
april (1991) and I went with Buckfast variety which I bought from
Weaver's Apiary in Navasota, TX. I've been real pleased thus
far. The bees are gentle and I actually harvested two supers
full of honey last fall (this really surprised me - everything I
had read led me to believe that there wouldn't be much surplus
honey during the first season).
Hope this helps. Good luck!
====================================================================
Tom Fisher
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Phone (317) 494-6616 | other, it is beautiful." - F. Perls
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