Beekeeping for Bee-ginners

One of the most interesting and beneficial things we have done on the ranch is practicing apiculture or as it is more commonly known - beekeeping. What is apiculture? It can be defined as the care and breeding of bees.  

If you are interested in biology, agriculture, entomology, or just plain spending time outdoors enjoying nature, beekeeping may be for you. Beekeeping is a fascinating and rewarding hobby or career; beekeepers along with their colonies of honey bees serve an important role in agriculture.

There are many, many plants on Earth that require pollination to reproduce or be fruitful. Although honey bees are certainly not the only pollinators, they are the best known and most widely managed pollinators. Washington State University entomologist, Walter S. Sheppard, has called honey bees, “the most economically important insect in the world”.  

Honey bees help produce one in every 3 bites of food we take by pollinating the plants that produce many our fruits, nuts, vegetables, legumes, and livestock forages, as well as seed plants. Without the honey bees much of the food available to us currently would be greatly reduced in variety, numbers, and much more expensive to purchase in the supermarket.

 Additionally, the honey bee hive is a smorgasbord of health products; it is the world’s only source of honey and beeswax, and serves as a source of propolis, royal jelly, harvested pollen, and bee venom. Many of these products are being employed in the areas of wound care and a variety of other human ailments. For more information on this subject, check out - apitherapy.com.

Successful Beekeeping

Beekeeping can be approached in several different ways – as a hobby, a sideline, or on a commercial basis. Beekeeping attracts people from all walks of life from children to senior citizens. For the hobbyist, beekeeping can be a venture into natural science, which includes the reward of a hive or two of honey for the family table along with robustly producing gardens and fruit trees. Beekeeping can be an enjoyable experience for the entire family.

As a sideline, beekeeping can be an additional source of income from the sale of honey, other hive products, and pollination services. And a few of the more hard working individuals decide to make beekeeping a full-time career.

Like many hobbies or careers, individuals venturing into beekeeping have a “learning curve” to overcome. Beekeeping is a skill; it requires knowledge of honey bee biology, honey bee behavior, and hive management practices. How quickly you become proficient in beekeeping is directly related to the amount of time you are willing to dedicate to education. The successful beekeeper dedicates time to a combination of reading books, Internet resources, and magazines relating to beekeeping combined with ‘hands on” time working with the bees and extracting honey.

Getting Started

Understand the Fundamentals - Many people venture into beekeeping only to find it was not at all what they expected, so take some time to understand the fundamentals required of successful beekeeping and then decide if beekeeping is for you.

For bee-ginners reading is an essential part of learning. There are many excellent beekeeping books and industry magazines on the market; each offers a wealth of information about honey bee breeds, honey bee society, beekeeping equipment and tools, protective clothing, supplemental feeding, honey bee pests and diseases, basics of the honey extraction process, etc.

Basic Equipment

Start with two hives, not one. Once you have gained knowledge and proficiency in beekeeping expanding the number of hives in your apiary beyond initial startup, if desired, will be much more successful.

Why two? Although it is certainly possible to start with one hive, two hives allows comparison between the productivity of the hives and provides resources to supplement brood and honey between the hives, if one is more productive than the other. After all, it is not as if you can run to the local market and buy frames of bee brood.

It is advisable to use natural components for your hives – woodenware and beeswax foundation. While there are other choices available beekeepers have reported mixed success with non-natural components, so, it is prudent to employ proven standards initially. There are also different styles of hives, but for the bee-ginner the Langstroth-style hive is the “gold standard”.

If employing Langstroth hives, each hive requires the following:

ü 1 hive stand or platform to keep the bottom board from coming in contact with the ground

ü A bottom board (screened bottom boards provide more versatility and are particularly desirable in areas with hot summers)

ü 2 deep hive bodies (10 frames each) with beeswax foundation (there are also 8 frame hives available, if weight is a problem for you consider the 8-frame hive body in lieu of the 10 frame hive)

ü 1 queen excluder

ü 1 inner cover

ü 1 outer cover (with metal top)

ü 1 entrance reducer

ü 1 feeder (top feeders are more versatile)

ü 2 shallow supers (10 frames each or 8 frames each) with beeswax foundation)

It is possible to purchase used hive components; however, UNLESS the equipment has been inspected and approved by the state Apiary Inspection Service to eliminate the possibility of disease transmission used equipment is not recommended for the bee-ginner.

As you become adept in beekeeping, and have a flair for carpentry, you may want to build your own beekeeping equipment from scratch.

Non-hive items required for the beekeeper:

ü 1 bee brush

ü 1 hive tool

ü 1 frame grip (optional, but helpful)

ü 1 bee smoker with smoker fuel

ü 1 pair bee gloves

ü 1 bee veil (or overalls with veil included)

 Note: This does not include equipment you will require for honey extraction or beeswax processing. It is possible to mitigate extraction costs, if you can share equipment through membership in a local beekeepers association or through another beekeeper. If not you will need to purchase harvesting equipment.

Deciding Where to Locate Your Hives

Do not forget to check on any local or state regulations regarding keeping bees in your selected location. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the nasty end of a legal battle.

 For bees to survive, much less make honey, they need pollen, nectar, and water. If there is not sufficient flora in variety, number, and different bloom periods in the area surrounding their hive (generally not more than a 2 mile radius), it will be difficult for your bees to survive much less make extra honey for the beekeeper.

Bees must have easy access to water. They use a lot of water for drinking, curing honey, and for cooling the hive during hot weather. The closer they are to a source of water, the less time they will spend transporting water rather than nectar and pollen.

Remember, no food, no water – no honey – NO bees!

For more information, read “Locating and Setting Your Hive in Place” in an upcoming blog.

Acquiring Your Bees

There are a number of methods to acquire bees for startup and I have listed them in order as to ease of startup for the bee-ginner:

ü Purchase an entire colony from a local beekeeper ( contains a queen, drones, workers, frames of honeycomb with brood, and some amount of honey stores for bees)

ü Purchase a “Nuc” also known as a hive nucleus (contains a queen, and several frames of foundation and accompanying worker bees – usually 3 to 5 frames)

ü Purchase a package of honey bees from a bee breeder (contains a queen and 3 lbs of worker bees only)

ü Catch your own swarm of honey bees or acquire one through a local beekeeper (contains a queen and some amount of worker bees)

While swarms are an option, keep in mind swarms are unknown entities – especially in areas known to be “Africanized”. Swarms may carry diseases and/or pests that the bee-ginner may have difficulty dealing with effectively. It is wiser to acquire your bees from a breeder; the breeder should guarantee the health and quality of the bees you purchase. Save catching and managing “feral bee swarms” for after you have gained some beekeeping experience. 

Startup Time

The best time of year to begin new colonies (hives) is in the spring – April or May. If you plan to order bees from a commercial breeder, plan to do so in the fall of the year for startup the following spring to ensure you can get the bees. Otherwise, you run the risk of not being able to find available packages, nucs or colonies for sale when you need them.

Purchasing bees later than June adds the risk of your hives not having time to build up sufficiently to survive the winter – a loss for both you and the bees!

Identify the Costs

With this basic understanding, proceed to the Internet and research the costs involved, so you can prepare a budget for your initial startup. Startup costs can range from $600.00 to $1,000.00 for one to two hives depending on the quality of equipment and bees purchased. This does not count harvesting equipment.

What to Expect

For the first year, do not expect a return on your investment. It takes time for a colony to build in size and strength. Unless, you purchase an entire colony, year one is for colony “buildup” – honeycomb and brood.

Not all beekeeping ventures are successful in year one – do not be hesitant to try again if things do not go well in the first year. Every day in beekeeping provides learning opportunities.

Join a Beekeeping Association

No matter how many books you read on a subject, there is no substitute for “hands-on” experience. Once you have done your research, the next step is to join a good beekeeping association, so you will have access to on-going education, mentoring and networking with experienced beekeepers – all worth their weight in honey!

Joining an association may also provide the opportunity for you to work with an experienced beekeeper on his/her hives before you make the final decision to become a beekeeper yourself.