Beekeeping 101        Lesson Two              

Getting Started:

The best time to start beekeeping is in spring time.  Fruit trees and flowers are in bloom and should supply the new colony with sufficient nectar and pollen.  If you have never kept bees before, do not start with more than two or three hives.  Having a few bees around doesn't make you a beekeeper.  Some people become bee-havers.  The difference lies in how much you know about bee behavior and how successfully you apply this knowledge!

Who can keep bees?

  Beekeeping can be undertaken by anyone who has enough ability and determination to look after the bees properly, enough courage to work with bees, and enough money to buy bees and equipment.  Please note:  Before you get into beekeeping, you should check to make sure local zoning laws allow you to keep honey bees and what your reaction is to bee stings.

Getting bees

Traditionally a person starts beekeeping by building hive equipment, buying packages of bees, and installing the bees into the equipment.  It is possible that you could purchase a nuc (a nuc is a small hive.  Generally it can be three, four, or five frames of brood and bees with a queen.  The bees have begun to build new comb and the queen is already laying eggs.  Or a person could buy a complete hive.  We will discuss each:

1)  The complete hive   This is the easiest way to get started.  It does have some drawbacks.

   Double Deep                     Story and a half                  Single 

Above are three typical configurations of bee hives that you might find for sale.    The price you will pay for a hive can vary considerably.  Don't pay more than what you would spend for brand new equipment and bees.  At present that should be no more $150.00 per double hive configuration.

• The hive will have to be moved to your location.  The question here is who is going to move the hive?  If it is your job to move the hive, you will need some means to pick it up, some means to transport it, and a method to prevent the bees from getting out of the hive. 
• Check for disease   You should also make sure the bees and equipment are free of American foulbrood.  The easy way to do this is to have the bee hive inspected by a state or county bee inspector.  Note:  Not all states have inspectors.  If your state does not have bee inspectors, then have someone who you can rely on inspect the bees before you purchase them.
• Check for condition of queen and bees   If you wait until spring to purchase a hive of bees, you have the advantage of being able to examine the brood nest.  Is the queen laying a good brood pattern?  Is there a good population of bees?  Do the bees have enough honey stores to carry them through a period of drought? If you can not answer these question, find someone to take along with you who can answer them.
• Condition of the hive  Usually the hive will not be made of new boxes or frames.  Frames that contain comb which is very dark and black are old. Older frames will often have damage from mice at one time, and the bees fill in the area of the comb eaten away by the mice with drone cells.  Frames like this will need to be replaced.   Boxes, lids, and bottom boards my also need to be replaced before long.   Wood that is not protected by a good coat of paint will rot in time.  This happens to the bottom board first because it comes into contact with the ground or blocks it rest on.

    The major advantage is that you do not need to do much.   The major disadvantage is you could be buying some else's problems.

2)   Nuc's   

 A nuc is nothing more than part of a  hive of bees.   It does not come in a full size hive body.  Often nuc's are sold in cardboard boxes which provide a temporary shelter for the bees.  The nuc will have a laying queen (usually a young queen), several pounds of bees, drawn comb in which the queen is already laying eggs, some honey and pollen stores and is roughly four weeks ahead in development than a package of bees would be.  The bee population in a nuc will not decline because new bees are emerging to replace worker bees that die.  The hive made up with a nuc will develop much faster than a hive made up with a package of bees.

   The major advantage is that you get a quicker start with a nuc than with a package of bees.  The major disadvantage is the possible spread of disease carried on the frames of the nuc.

3) Package bees/ swarms

   I have included both package bees and swarms together for one obvious reason:  They both develop at just about the same rate. Package bees are ones which are shipped in screen wire cages for the purpose of starting new colonies.  They are sold as 2 pound, 3 pound, and 4 pound packages with the 3 pound package being the most popular.   The major advantage of starting a package of bees is: 1)  you know that your bees are disease free, [bees shipped in packages must be state inspected at the point of origin]   2) you can install them into new equipment to insure that disease is not transported from other comb, and 3) you can follow the development of your hive of bees from its very beginning thus learning more about the development of a hive.    The major disadvantage is the new colony is going to take more time to develop and most likely produce little honey the first year.   To read about how to hive a package, go to:  Package bees 

  Swarms

  Swarms are found hanging in a tree or on some other object such as parking meter or maybe even a car.  Usually they are free for the taking because the person who owns the property wants them gone.  At one time swarms were plentiful but no more due to the mite death of many of the wild bees that populated trees in our  cities and forest.  They do occur though and you might contact your local fire department and let them know that you would collect such a swarm if the fire department is notified by a worried property owner.  

How to get a swarm

The very first swarm one attempts to hive is certainly a challenge.  The lack of experience is cause for much concern; however, once the first swarm is tackled the second is a cake walk, usually.

First,  when a swarm of bees (prime swarm) leave a hive it contains a number of older bees along with some younger bees, may have  a few drones, and a queen.  The queen is usually the old queen but some swarms have been known to contain a number of virgin queens and these are called "after swarms."    After swarms are usually much smaller than a prime swarm.    The swarm may contain anywhere from two to six pounds of bees.  It will develop and progress much like an installed package of bees.   Swarms are usually very gentle and not likely to be very aggressive.   The bees engorge themselves with honey prior to leaving the hive and thus have difficulty stinging.  A swarm that has exhausted its reserve honey stores will be more defensive.  

A swarm leaving the hive will often settle on a tree or shrub of varying heights above the ground some distance from its original hive.   If for some reason the queen can not fly far, it might be found very near the original colony site or even on the ground.    When a swarm is located, the following need to be addressed:

The beekeeper should have a complete hive with bottom board attached to the deep brood hive box.  This can be done with hive staples or straps of wood nailed into both the bottom board and hive body.  You will be carrying this hive full of bees home and the last thing you want is the bottom board to slip or fall from the hive body.

• Is it possible to get the swarm without danger to yourself.  For example, if the swarm settles in the top of a tree thirty feet above the ground, do you have a bucket truck that can lift you to that distance without risk of falling? Otherwise, it might be best left alone.  A safe rule to follow is:  the swarm should be within the  reach of  a step ladder or a ladder.  For A swarm located close to the ground can very easily be caught.   Sit a new hive with frames of comb directly beneath the swarm and quickly jar the branch they are on so the swarm drops down onto the hive.   On some occasions the bees will return to the branch.  The reason for this is the queen did not enter the hive and the process will need to be repeated.   If the branch the bees are on can be cut and removed (get owners permission to do this) the need to shake or jar the bees from the branch is not necessary.  The cut branch is then gently lowered and set on top of the hive body.  The bees will work their way down into the hive in a short time.  

 The person on the ladder must not stretch or reach beyond the safety of good solid balance.

It usually takes the bees 15 to 20 minutes to get settled down in the new box.   Once the bees are in the box and seem settled, the beekeeper can then place the inner cover, top cover on the hive and prepare to move it.

Moving the hive home without incident is just as important as getting it.   The entrance to the box should be covered with either grass to plug the entrance (if you are not going far) or a wire screen.   A neat trick taught to me is to cover the hive with a bed sheet for the trip home.  The hive is usually placed in the trunk of the car  or the back of a van for the trip.