Free Beekeeping Equipment
Have you chatted with your extension agent
lately? I think that extension agents are one of the biggest
untapped resources for back-to-the-landers and homesteaders. The
extension agent is your one stop source for free soil tests, bug
identification, farming advice, and much more.
In our area, we just found out that "much more" includes $400 of free
beekeeping equipment! If you live in southwest Virginia (and I
understand there are similar programs in many other parts of the U.S.),
you can get reimbursed for spending up to $400 on hives, bees, and
other equipment --- the grant estimates it's enough to get you started
with two hives. We had been scrounging around, getting used boxes
and scrimping to buy one package of bees for this year, but if both of
our applications are accepted, we're now thinking we might be able to
get four free, brand new hives going this year!
Lest you be scared by the word "application", let me add that it
consisted of putting our contact information on a sheet of paper and
signing it. So, check your phone book or the online listings and
give your extension agent a holler!
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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(The Tobacco Commission gives away a lot of money around here as part of the transition away from tobacco growing, funded, I think, by a cigarette lawsuit.)
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