5/18/09 - Bee Keeping 101

I've loved honey as long as I can recall, and have always thought bee's were incredible. Bugs with a purpose, how can you go wrong! For years Ive debated starting up a bee hive the thought alone seemed so scary and distant. But with the bee colony disorder scare, the need to self sustain and my over all love for the bee's and there honey made up my mind for me. It is not an inexpensive venture at all so I saved up for a year, there is alot more to bee keeping then I had anticipated. First thing I did was bought a book on bee keeping, The backyard bee keeper by Kim Flottum. Great book easy to read and I learned alot, I'm actually on my second time through it, theres alot of info to retain so twice always works best for me. Then you will need to figure out where to gather your supplies, I went to a local bee apiary, http://www.draperbee.com. They are so helpful, walking me through the process step by step, they sell everything from bee's, queens, complete assembled hives to do it yourself hives. Details of the hive are important to know before hand, here is a break down. I am a beginner so this is all new to me, my knowledge is book read right now, the best advice comes from a seasoned bee keeper.

First I need a stand or base for the hive to sit on. I've decided to use cinder blocks and cut 2x4's, I layed the 2x4's on top of the cinder blocks with enough room sticking out so I had somewhere to put tools on instead of the grass. I also set the blocks on a tarp.

Next is the floor which is a board between the stand and hive which also serves as the bees entrance, theres alot of options for this, mouse guards etc..

Brood box is next, it sits on the "floor" also called brood chamber or brood body, this box has a series of vertical hanging frames for the queen to lay her eggs. I plan on having at least two brood boxes.

Queen excluder, this sits on top of the brood boxes its made from wire mesh and the holes are big enough for the workers to get through but not the queen, this stops her from going into the supers and laying her eggs.

On top of the queen excluder sits the super. It has vertically hanging frames but are shallower than those of the brood box. Worker bees make and store most of the honey in these supers, you can stack several of them on top of the brood boxes. On top of the supers is a crown board, which acts as an insulator and can also store supplemental feeders when needed. Finally, a roof is placed over top of the crown board, it has ventilated sides and a water proof top. You may need a sugar syrup feeder to place in the entrance, to help the bees along when they are first introduced to the hive in spring when not alot of flower or pollens are available.

A bee suit, smoker and hive tool are all necessary in bee keeping, they even sell children's suits, I am ordering one for my son as soon as I can. How fun, right?

That is the basic hive set up, next you will need to fill it with bee's. Now it gets exciting!!!
There are different breeds of bee's which I never know before this, I thought all honey bees are the same which is not the case. Italian bees are what I have, theres other options, you can find them on the site I bought mine from. I'm not going to go into all that, its also in that book I mentioned earlier. You'll want to consider hive location also, I didn't want mine to close to the house or to far either, they need to be near some kind of water source etc.. There are variables to location. I put mine between my lilac bushes, near a spring fed swamp. I haven't fenced around it yet but I really need to get moving on that, I'm looking into solar electric fencing. Everything I have read tells me that if a bear wants your hive he will get your hive but the fencing will detour them esp when baited to bite or sniff the actual wire. I want to protect this investment but at the same time the fencing is a big investment, bee keeping costs alot more then I imagined but in the long run it will all be so worth it!!! I don't think I could place a price tag on the experience.

There is still alot more too bee keeping but this is a great start, I hope I have sparked someones interest!