hives. I lost two this winter so I only have three right now but I plan to split a few hives and get back up to 4 or 5.

Once you get comfortable inspecting hives then an inspection can be done in less than half an hour per hive and you should inspect a hive every two weeks. One of the hardest parts is harvesting your honey. It can be an all day process if you don't know what you doing and the equipment can be expensive if you are going to buy it.

On a good year you can get 100 lbs of honey per hive, which is around 8 gallons.

The hardest part for me has been staying on top of the mite problem. All bees have mites now and so you have to be pretty aggressive with treating them. I've tried to avoid using chemicals in the hive to treat the bees but I've lost so many hives every winter that I'm considering.

One of the most enjoyable things is how many people are interested in bees. I can't tell you how many demonstrations I've given to people interested in bees. Once people find out you keep bees you will be bombarded with questions and people will want to see the process of installing a new hive, inspecting an established hive, and harvesting the honey crop.

Good luck and let me know if you have any more questions.