What Do You Need To Start Beekeeping

What Do You Need To Start Beekeeping – You are here: Home / Beekeeping / How To Start Beekeeping The Beginners Guide To Becoming A Beekeeper

We started beekeeping in 2014 and when we first started, like all new beekeepers, we had to figure out how to get started. We don’t know what to do! We’ve learned a lot over the years from readings, courses, mentors, and a lot of hands-on experience. Here are some tips to help you learn how to start beekeeping!

What Do You Need To Start Beekeeping

This beginner’s guide to beekeeping covers all the basics you need to get started with beekeeping. I also answer some of the most common questions I hear from people interested in starting beekeeping. There’s a lot of information in this post, but I’ve broken it up into sections to make it easier for you to read and jump to the different sections that are more relevant to you. Good luck and happy beekeeping!

Beekeeping In India: A Complete Guide To Beekeeping For Beginners

There are many resources to help people get started with beekeeping. Here is a list of beekeeping resources that have helped us:

Learning how to start beekeeping can be a little overwhelming. There are so many decisions to make, gathering supplies and equipment, setting up the hive, ordering the bees, and figuring out how to care for the hive. We’ve totally been there!

To help simplify the process and make it less overwhelming, I’m going to break it down into clear, actionable steps to help you get started with beekeeping. Once you figure it out, it’s an amazing backyard hobby!

Determining the location of the hive is the first step before you order bees or collect supplies and equipment. Why? You may find that your HOA, neighborhood covenant, or town ordinance restricts the placement of beehives in your location.

Spring Beekeeping Checklist

Once you’ve determined that there are no laws or rules against keeping bees in your backyard, evaluate the space you have to determine the best location for the beehive. If you live in a cooler climate like we do in Montana, it’s best to have the hive face east and have full or mostly sunny locations throughout the day.

Beehives are best placed out of the way in the yard so they won’t be disturbed. If you place your hive near a property line, be aware of what your neighbors are doing nearby. Placing your beehives on the property line on the other side of your neighbor’s hot tub fence could cause some conflict and unpleasant neighbors!

Here is a helpful article with more tips on proper hive placement to help you figure out the best location for your hive.

We have been beekeeping since 2014 and have purchased pack bees and bees. There are pros and cons to both nucs and package bees, so you need to decide what you like and what suits your needs and budget better.

Set Up A Beehive In Your Garden To Produce Honey!

Here is our article comparing nucs vs package bees. This article explains what each type is and the pros and cons of nucs and package bees. I also explain which type we prefer and why to help you make an informed decision.

Once you’ve decided whether you like bees or package bees, it’s important to order your bees early before suppliers in your area sell out. Apiaries that sell bees and pack bees in our western Montana area typically open up reservations and waitlists in late winter. Some apiaries will have a certain number of bees or pack bees available for sale once their buyer list is full, that’s it, they sell out for the season.

How do you find where to buy nucs or pack bees? Our local beekeeping club has sent out a list of options for buying and packing bees. I also see ads for apiaries on Craigslist, Facebook, and local beekeeping Facebook groups.

Word of mouth is also a good option if you know of any beekeepers in your area. We have had experience buying nucs and pack bees from a few different suppliers, some of them have been great, others not so great!

Can You Make Honey In The Desert? This Beekeeper Can

Now that you’ve decided on a location for your hive and ordered your bees, you need to gather the rest of the supplies and equipment you’ll need for beekeeping.

We have an entire article dedicated to explaining all the must-have beekeeping supplies, tools, equipment and clothing a beginner beekeeper needs.

Buying all the supplies you need to start beekeeping can be a considerable expense. To save money, you can often find used supplies and beekeeping clothing for sale on Craigslist, local beekeeping clubs, or local sale ads in beekeeping Facebook groups.

You can also try to save money by building your own beehives. Here’s our article on how you can save a lot of money by building Langstroth hives and frames.

Beginning Beekeeping Supplies

When the day finally arrives when your bees are ready to receive, make sure you have your hives set up where you want them and your beekeeping tools ready.

Installing a Nuc: If you are purchasing a bee nuc, see our article on how to install a new nuc in a bee hive. This will show you our step by step instructions on how to install the new nuc in the hive.

Installing a pack of bees: If you are purchasing a pack of bees, read our article on how to install a pack of bees in a Langstroth hive.

Once your bees are in a new hive, it is important to return within a week or two and do a hive inspection. You want to find the queen bee, make sure she is healthy and producing fresh offspring.

A Step By Step Guide To Beekeeping In Edmonton

In the nine years we’ve been beekeeping, we’ve had several new queens that weren’t properly placed and needed to be replaced by the apiary, so it’s important to have a first hive inspection.

If you’re not sure what to look for during a hive inspection, read our article on probing the inside of a bee hive. This shows pictures of the stages of bee brood and growth development to help you understand what is “normal” and what is not.

After the initial hive inspection, you can perform hive inspections approximately every two to three weeks. You don’t want to go into the hive too often, as it will disturb the bees and possibly cause them to swarm.

Monitoring the hive is important, looking for queen cells can tell you that your hive may be getting ready to swarm, or that your queen is in poor health.

So You Wanna Be A Beekeeper?

To learn more about exactly what to look for when doing a hive inspection, here’s an in-depth article explaining how to do a hive inspection.

A few years ago, someone at the local beekeeping club suggested keeping a beekeeping journal, so I gave it a try. So useful! I use a simple lined notebook to keep a log of every hive visit I make and any other important things that need attention.

After I go to the hive, I take note of the date, what I saw in the hive, any observations (such as queen cells) or questions to follow up on next time.

This helps me keep track of the health of the hive and makes sure I follow up on any issues I notice during previous hive inspections. If I notice that the queen is not producing as many fresh offspring, I will definitely need to follow up with the next hive inspection in two weeks and possibly re-queen the hive.

When You Start Beekeeping, Regular Inspections Are Important — Beekeeper Central

In our western part of Montana, honey is harvested from late summer to early fall. Bees need at least 100 pounds of honey in the hive to survive the winter.

If you have a new hive that starts in the spring, the bees may not have had enough time to build the new hive and store enough honey for the winter. Or maybe they’ve stored enough honey to feed the bees over the winter, but not enough honey for you to pick.

The amount that bees are able to produce and store is also affected by weather and forage availability. In dry years, bees produce less honey because there is less forage available.

On our old homestead we are surrounded by hundreds of acres of irrigated alfalfa fields so our bees have plenty of forage and produce plenty of honey.

Beekeeping For Beginners (step By Step Guide)

If your bees produce enough honey to feed their colony and allow you to harvest the honey, great! But it doesn’t happen every year, so keep that in mind.

If you do have enough honey in your hives to harvest, read our article on how we harvest honey from your hives.

The cost of starting beekeeping can vary widely. if buy all

What do you need to start a ecommerce business, how do you start beekeeping, what degree do you need to start a business, what do you need to start a moving company, what do you need to start a clothing line, what do you need to start an llc, what do you need to start a painting business, what do i need to start beekeeping, what do you need to start an insurance company, what do you need to start a hedge fund, what do you need to start a home health agency, what do you need to start a checking account