The 8 Steps to Getting Started Keeping Bees

How to Get Started Keeping Bees

🔵Step 1 - Learn About Honeybees & the Hive

Honeybees are very social creatures. They live in what we call a colony. A colony is, essentially, a family
of bees. Within the colony, there is a queen bee. Every colony has just one queen and she is the mother
of the bees in the hive. Her primary role is to lay eggs. She is the only female in the hive that mates.

The majority of the bees in a colony are worker bees. Worker bees are all female, but they never mate
or lay eggs. They do the majority of the work in the hive - they feed the eggs and larvae and keep them
warm, they cool down the hive when it's hot, they produce heat when it's cold, they gather food, they
clean the hive and they defend the hive. Almost every job in the hive is done by a worker bee except one
- the reproductive part.

This bring me to the third member of the colony - the males. Male honeybees are often referred to as
drones and they are brothers of the worker bees and sons of the queen bee. Their job is to leave the
hive and wait in drone congregatong areas for a queen bee to fly by. If he spots a queen, he tries to
catch up with her and mate. When he mates, he dies. If he does not mate, the worker bees will kick him
out of the hive (and he will die shortly thereafter) once there is a lack of flowers blooming (what we call
a nectar flow ending). This is because drones are not necessary for a hive's survivial. The queen in the
hive does not mate with the drones in her hive (her sons). Once there is a shortage of food coming into
the hive, the drones are kicked out so that the hive does not lose the precious honey they worked so
hard to gather.

🔵Step 2 - Make Sure You're Not Allergic to Honeybees

You may have been stung by a wasp and not swelled up, but make sure you don't react badly to
honeybees in particular. Most people have a minor reaction to getting stung - they swell up and the area
is itchy for a few days – this type of reaction is okay.
Signs of a severe allergy are heart palpitations, itchy bottoms of the feet and palms of the hand, throat
closing up, heart palpitations and difficulty swallowing and/or breathing. Talk to your doctor if you're
not sure and see if they can conduct an allergy test. It doesn't matter how much protective clothing you
wear, you will get stung eventually. Bees can crawl up under your gloves or in little crevices where your
pants meet your shoes. Maybe a bee hitched a ride on your back and you accidentally squish her while
taking your suit off. The possibilities are endless...

🔵Step 3 - Try It Out! (Optional)

This step is not necessary in order to become a beekeeper, but can save you a lot of stress, time and
money in the long run. I strongly encourage you to find a local beekeeper to shadow or take an in-
person beekeeping class. Get your hands sticky and see if you like it. A lot of people don't realize how
hard beekeeping is and how hot you'll get until they give it a shot.

If you're having trouble finding someone to shadow, contact your local bee association and ask if they
can send an email out to their members asking if anyone is willing to let you hang out with them and
their bees. If there is a way you can give back, offer that as well. If you're strong, offer to help move
bees. Offer to help harvest honey or label jars. If you're a designer, offer to make them a honey label for
free. Get creative and think of ways to offer help in tasks that aren't fun to do.

🔵Step 4 - Find a Location

🌱When looking for a spot for your bees, you want:

🌱Lots of flowers, especially flowering trees

🌱Quiet and away from people and pets

🌱Level
🌱Legally permitted area

Far from areas that may be sprayed with pesticides. Learn more about the effect of Roundup on bees
and humans at consumernotice.org.

🌱A reasonable distance

Although you want your bees away from people and pets, you also need to consider the fact that you
will be carrying heavy honey boxes to your house when harvesting honey. These boxes, when full, can
weigh 35 pounds or more. You will also need to scrape away dead bees blocking the front entrance
every few weeks in the winter time and shovel snow blocking the entrance. Find that sweet spot that is
just far enough away but not too far away.

🌱What you don't want in a location for your bees:

🌱bright lights (such as your home at night)

🌱close to where pets and/or children spend time

near sidewalks and high traffic areas

🌱nearby pool

🌱steep

🌱far walk without ability to get there by vehicle

If you choose to keep bees at your home, make sure everyone that lives on the property, or who will be
affected by the bees, is on board and not allergic. It is up to you whether you want to talk to your
neighbors, but I will warn you - almost every beekeeper I know has a "neighbor story" about a neighbor
who was not so happy with their bees. If a pool is nearby, beware, pools often attract bees even if you
provide them with a water source.

If you can't keep bees at your home, there are a lot of other places to put them. Cemeteries, retreat
centers, office parks, schools, rooftops and botanical gardens are all great places to contact. Check out
our article, 10 Places to Keep Bees Other Than Your Yard for ideas & tips. I, personally, have kept bees
on my property, in a community garden, on farms, on private property owned by other people and at a
botanical garden and I prefer having bees on other people's property 10 times more than on my own.

🔵Step 5 - Beekeeping Equipment

A beehive is where the beekeeper puts a colony of bees. It becomes the bees' home and where they
store their honey and the baby bees (brood) are kept.

There are a lot of different styles of beekeeping equipment. Make it easy for yourself and start with the
hive style that is the most common where you live. Here in kitui, most beekeepers have Langstroth
hives. It makes buying equipment and finding help much easier.

🔵Step 6 - The Role of the Beekeeper

So far so good, right? Now you have to learn what the beekeeper does. This is a BIG topic. At the basic
level, the beekeeper has 5 main jobs.

🌱The jobs of the beekeeper:

🌱Manage space
🌱Protect the hive from robbing

🌱Manage pests

🌱Mange food storage

🌱Manage the queen

🔵Step 7 - Order Your Bees

Contact a local apiary to order your bees. Bees are sold as either a nuc or a package. A package of bees is
a screened-in cage with thousands of worker bees, one caged queen and a can of syrup. This is the
cheapest option, but more difficult to install and will take the bees longer to get established.

🔵Step 8 - Order Your Equipment

I like to purchase my beekeeping equipment fro.m my local vendors. Everything I have bought there was
high quality and lasted a long time. I also highly recommend the wax-coated beehives from Galena
Farms. Use coupon code LARYSSA for 5% off your purchase.

If you choose to use a langstroth style beehive, you have a few options in box sizes. 8 frame boxes hold 8
frames and 10 frames boxes hold 10. The benefit of an 8 frame box is that it weighs less. However, it
also has less room for the bees to build honeycomb, causing the beekeeper to need more boxes.

The size box you go with will detemrine how many frames you need to purchase.
There are also three different heights to the boxes. A deep box is the deepest and used for the first two
boxes of the hive where the baby bees are. The boxes above the deeps can either be mediums or
shallows. The difference is juist 1" in height. A medium box will weigh about 10lb more when full of
honey than a shallow box.

🔵Step 9 - Get Your Equipment Ready

Most equipment requires painting and assembling. You'll want to let the boxes air out after painting for
a few weeks before you put your bees inside. The video above shows you how to assemble a langstroth
style deep box and frame with foundation as well as how the hive works and the parts.

#AskGeoffrey