Getting started with bees
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It seems like most of the questions we get are about how to get started keeping bees. Here are the answers to the most common questions we get on this subject.
I want to keep bees. Can you advise me on how to get started?
Here's one way to go about it:
- Get catalogs from the suppliers listed below.
- Snoop around your area and try to find a beekeeper or a local beekeeper's
association, and get acquainted. Here's a starting place to
find a bee club near you.
- Order a starter kit and video from one of the catalogs. Most of the starter kits have a
decent beginner's book. Some include a video. All have the basic equipment you need to get
started for around $130-140.
- Follow the advice of your video, beginner's book, and, if you found one,
that local beekeeper.
- Get your bees in Spring or early Summer.
If you wait any later to start a new colony, it probably won't have time to get
well established before winter.
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Is it a good idea to build my own bee hives?
If you are inexperienced enough with bees to ask this question, you
definitely should not make your own bee hives. We understand that you're an
acomplished finish carpenter or cabinetmaker, but that's not really
the point.
Bee hives are designed and built to exacting dimensions for very
specific theoretical and practical reasons.
You need to have a working understanding of those reasons before
you decide to build your own.
- Bee space
- About a hundred years ago, someone discovered that in a beehive,
the bees always preserve the spaces that are less than 3/8 inch but
greater than 3/16 inch wide for crawl space, or "bee space".
Spaces that are narrower are glued shut with a caulking material called
propolis, and spaces that are wider are filled with comb.
The discovery of bee space was the inspiration for the modern
bee hive, known as the Langstroth hive, after it's inventor.
The Langstroth hive is designed so that each honey comb is set in a
wooden frame, and all the frames are automatically spaced an optimal
bee space apart from each other and from the sides and ends of the hive.
The result is that the parts remain relatively free and easy to
remove and replace. Prior to the discovery of bee space, beekeepers had
to destroy the honey comb and the bees to get honey. But with the
Langstroth hive, it's easy to disassemble and reassemble a hive
with relatively little disturbance to the bees. This
allows you to easily exchange parts, removing honey and replacing it with
empty comb, or to inspect the health of the brood nest.
- Standardization
- In the early days of the Langstroth hive there were many variations
and improvisations. Now the design is highly standardized.
The frames that hold the comb are made to exact dimensions, as is the box that
holds them. All reputable manufacturers hold carefully to the standard
to ensure interchangeability. If you decide to build your own, it's
very important to adhere to the standard dimensions so that your boxes
and frames will easily interchange with others.
- Economy
- The companies that build bee hive components do extremely high volume
production, and it's generally very difficult to find the raw materials
at a significantly better price than they charge for the pre-cut but
unassembled parts. By the time you factor in the learning curve, and the
preparation and labor involved in your project, your home made bee hives
will probably cost you two or three times as much as the factory made
hives - at the very least!
If you're just plain stubborn and insist on building your own, we suggest
that you buy your first couple of hives and use them for a year
just to get a better working knowledge
of what's really important in the design.
Then, if you must build your own, you
can at least make informed design decisions.
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Where can I get beekeeping equipment?
There are quite a few beekeeping suppliers around.
Most have good beginner kits with everything you need to
get started.
Here are a few equipment suppliers we have used successfully:
Dadant & Sons
51 South 2nd St.
Hamilton IL 62341-1399
(217)847-3324
Dadant@dadant.com
http://www.dadant.com
Walter T. Kelly Co.
3107 Elizabethtown Rd.
P.O.Box 240
Clarkson KY 42726-0240
(502)242-2012
(800)233-2899
Brushy Mountain Bee Farm
610 Bethany Church Rd.
Moravia Falls, NC 28654
(800)233-7929
And some bee and queen suppliers:
B. Weaver Apiaries
Rt. 1
Navasota TX 77868
(409)825-7312
bweaver@mail.myriad.net
http://www.ipt.com/bweaver
Rossman Apiaries
PO Box 909
Moultrie GA 31776
(800)333-7677
Order 3 pound packages since they have 50% more bees and thus, build up
faster than 2 pound packages. That more than compensates for the increased
price.
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I'm a gardener. Would it be worth while for me to keep a hive for my garden?
If you have a good location for a hive, and the temperament to keep bees, the answer
is an emphatic yes!
This is especially true for vegetable gardeners and people who grow their own seeds.
1/3 of the food production in the world depends to some degree on honey
bees and their relatives.
Squashes, mellons, many kinds of berries, fruits, and nuts
such as almonds are totally dependant on insect pollination to set their fruit.
In recent years the wild bees have all but disappeared due to the
introduction of deadly mites from Asia and Europe.
Before you head to the garden center to get a stronger fertilizer for that mediocre
crop, check to see if your bloom is being pollinated. Your soil might not be what's
infertile!
In some cases you can keep bumblebees or Orchard Mason bees for pollination,
but honey bees are more economical and productive, and they give you honey too.
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Where have all the honey bees gone?
This is a huge question! The answer is so important and alarming that we have given
this question a page of its own.
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