Comment by lostlogin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lostlogin | Hacker News Reader

Beekeeping. It’s fairly inexpensive and most people love honey (you end up with masses).

You can find swarms pretty easily and it’s very satisfying to save them. A bedraggled clump of sad bees in the rain can be transformed into a productive monster given the right home.

You can learn it from a friendly beekeeper, a local club, or a good book. There is no substitute for seeing a skilled person work with them though.

And coffee. I don’t care an awful lot how it’s made (unless it’s instant or pod) as I subscribe to the Gruber rules [1], minus that weird bit about keyboards.

You can have a great coffee very inexpensively and it’s another one that is widely appreciated. I toast the bean and grind them in the grinder I restored and brew on a reproduction Faema E-61 [2]. It’s a massive luxury and is one of the more beautiful bits of engineering in existence.

[1] https://www.foursides.ca/keys-to-success-by-john-gruber/

[2] https://www.faema.com/int-en/product/E61-MONOFASE-ANNIVERSAR...

Interesting! I’ve always wanted to get into beekeeping. How big of a space do you need for a hive though?

About 1 square metre. For each hive you need enough space for it and then double it (for when you take boxes off) with room to stand. That said, bees work best in the sun and beekeeping is easiest with two hives.

Keeping it from messing with neighbours too much is a good idea, as dirty washing or stings wouldn’t be appreciated. Heaving the entrance to the hive close to a wall or fence is a traditional way to get them to fly high and away from people.

Do you need to take care daily? Or is it something that can de done once a week for example?

> Do you need to take care daily?

With the bees, no. It’s very variable among beekeepers. I open the hive once every 1-2 weeks in spring and maybe once a month in summer. The honey harvest is quite hard work in autumn and then I close them up until spring, not going in for 4-5 months.

Opening a hive should be done with an objective and is sometimes a quick 5-10 minute job (are there eggs?) and sometimes a bit protracted, like the first spring check which took me about 90 minutes last weekend (disease check, stores check, clean up frames. Look for eggs and the queen, treat for varroa, added a box and queen excluder to the hive).

The honey harvest is hot, heavy work and I have got a lot better at it but it still takes me 4-5 hours once a year, early autumn. It’s been as much as 250kgs of honey from my 2 hives and hot, hard work when organised so you can imagine what the first few times are like as it’s bees, sticky honey and heavy boxes and buckets.

I look at the entrance every few days, but that’s not required.

Watching a beehive on a warm day is a bit like watching a fire in winter, its slightly hypnotic.

> Do you need to take care daily?

With coffee, it’s much more rigorous and needs attention 2-3 times per day.

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