“I want to be a beekeeper.”

It started in early July 2023 when I remembered my father’s words telling me “You need to find a hobby” and that’s always stuck with me.  Over the past few years, I’ve taken up investing as a hobby, but I wanted something more hands-on to do as well as there is a lot of waiting involved in successful investing. We are working on transforming our property into a refuge for local wildlife, especially for pollinators. Since I was a child, I’ve loved insects so it only made sense to try my hand at beginning beekeeping. Every year, Steph grows a garden full of beautiful flowers and we have fruit trees planted on the property as well that would benefit greatly from the added pollination.

As an absolute beginner in July I did what many people looking into beekeeping would do, jump on Google and YouTube and start reading and watching.  As it turns out, this hobby (some may say lifestyle) benefits greatly from preparation and while I am still only in the academic phase I can understand why (our bees will arrive this Spring). I read a quote somewhere that described beekeeping not as a relaxing hobby, but a fascinating one. Indeed, the more I learned about it the more I realized that it’s not going to be a “set it and forget it” endeavor where I leave the bees to their work and harvest honey in the Summer and Fall year after year. Beginning beekeeping can be an expensive hobby to get started so I didn’t want to waste time and money by learning about the most common pitfalls and preparing myself accordingly.

Diving In

The first step I took before actually beginning beekeeping was to find some books, magazines, and websites to start to become familiar with the language and terminology used by beekeepers so I wouldn’t be completely lost in a conversation. There were several sources of information that I enjoyed reading and learning from. I’ll share the free and lowest-cost ones to help you determine if beekeeping is for you without much investment besides your time (and maybe a few dollars if you buy books). I’m still wanting to read more books through the winter to continue learning. The range of information available to beekeepers today is vast, but for now, I want to focus on acquiring a wide breadth of information to become familiar with and focus on deep-dive topics (like queen rearing) only after I have a good bit of experience under my belt.

Websites

Honey Bee Research Centre “How-To Beekeeping Video Series” – This is a personal favorite for absolute beginners as it’s free, very detailed, and easy to watch.
Honey Bee Health Coalition “Hive Management” Videos and Guides – This group works hard to provide the latest information for caring for honeybees.

Books

“The Backyard Beekeeper 5th Edition” by Kim Flottum – My favorite all-in-one book on getting started Beekeeping. It’s not massively in-depth on any one topic but it covers a lot of ground. The late Kim Flottum did a great job introducing this field to his readers.
“Beginning Beekeeping” by Tanya Phillips – Another easy-to-read book that’s a lot like The Backyard Beekeeper if you can’t get a copy of it. Note that this book was published in 2017 and may not have the absolute latest information on topics like Varroa Mite control (Honey Bee Health Coalition does have it for free, however).
Beekeeping Basics by Penn State – This is a digital copy of the book used in the Beekeeping 101 class that Steph and I took. It’s a great overview and at about 100 pages a quick read. At some point, the hosting site may remove it, but here’s the link for now. The instructor in our Beekeeping 101 class informed us that Penn State is working on an updated copy.

Magazines

Bee Culture Magazine – One of a pair of magazines covering the latest information available to beekeepers. The magazine is available in a digital or a print version and they’ll send you a free copy if you reach out to them.
American Bee Journal Magazine – This magazine is the other major beekeeping magazine and is very close in content and quality to Bee Culture. I have a digital subscription to both and find the articles valuable learning. You can get a digital sample here.
The Bee Supply Monthly Magazine (Free) – This is a free magazine that I was just made aware of. It’s provided by the Texas-based company The Bee Supply and includes a lot of information albeit often tied to the products they sell. The articles and information however are excellent especially considering it’s provided for free digitally.

Suppliers

Betterbee – They sponsor the Honey Bee Obscura podcast (mentioned below) so this is my preferred large supplier when I can’t shop locally. They’ll gladly mail you a catalog if you request one on their website. The catalog itself has a lot of information in it as well, so it’s worth reading cover to cover when you have some time. Additionally, they also have a getting started guide available online.
Dadant & Sons – Another large supplier with an informative catalog that they’ll send for free.
Blue Sky Bee Supply – Another large supplier with a classic feel that will send an informative catalog for free.
Mann Lake – The largest beekeeping equipment supplier that will also happily send an informative catalog.

Podcasts

Beekeeping Today Podcast – A more in-depth podcast covering the latest topics and news in the world of Beekeeping. Episodes are longer but packed full of information.
Honey Bee Obscura Podcast – My favorite beginning beekeeping podcast as it’s shorter in length, but each episode covers a single topic and the conversations are a great learning opportunity.
Note: Both of these podcasts used to have Kim Flottum as a co-host so you’ll hear him in archived episodes. He sadly passed away from cancer in December 2023.

Beekeeping 101 Class

After spending some time reading and listening to podcasts, the next step that we took was to sign up for a class at our local community college. This beginning beekeeping class was a very valuable experience and while it took a few hours a week commitment it was well worth the time. Two of the biggest lessons I learned was that beekeeping is not a passive activity and will require work as well as measures to combat the current biggest threat to honeybee colony survival: the Varroa Destructor mite. The time in the class also provided a way to be able to ask questions freely as well as learn the hard lessons that someone with (in our case) decades of experience has to share.

Getting Equipped for the Task Ahead

Preparing the Bee Yard – Our Essentials

Landscaping Weed Barrier

In the summer, I started walking around our property trying to determine the best location to place the bee yard. The book I referenced earlier, The Backyard Beekeeper, has a great section on determining where you should place your bee yard and I took that advice and selected a small patch near our garden. To help minimize future disturbances to the hives and for our safety, I laid down a landscaping weed barrier to prevent grass and other plants from growing up around the hives. I did this months before (actually in the late summer) we get our hives to have plenty of time to allow the grass to die off. I did have to cut out some pieces of cardboard to place under the seams to catch the very last of the grass.

Landscaping Pins

You’ll need more landscaping pins than you think you will, but once this is laid down this solution will be good for years (we’re still using our original landscaping fabric in our garden from 2019 and it shows no sign of giving up soon). Regarding landscaping pins, try to find 8-gauge or 9-gauge steel ones that are 6 inches as they won’t bend nearly as easily, and as my father always told me “You get what you pay for”.

Adjust-A-Gate

After the weed barrier had been down for a few months, I dug holes for some 4×4 posts to hold the gate to the bee yard. Steph was kind enough to get me an Adjust-A-Gate through a review program she is in and it worked beautifully for what I needed. I purchased T-Posts to prepare for the electrical wiring around the yard and had them set on the weed barrier for a month or two to help kill the grass (it was a windy summer). Just before the ground froze over, I drove the 6′ T-posts into the ground a few inches inside of the weed barrier to reduce the amount of weed trimming needed. Currently, I am waiting for winter to fully set in (pruning is needed) to run the electrical wiring around the perimeter of the bee yard before the 2 nuc hives are ready in the Spring.

Hands-On Experience

I have a friend locally who invited me over so I could have my first hands-on experience in honeybee hives. Just about every beekeeping book or guide will tell you to try to find a mentor and/or join the local beekeeping club. I can understand why as it’s an invaluable experience having the hands-on time working with hives of bees with someone to help guide.

Ordering Our Honey Bees

The last step in preparation to complete as 2024 begins was to contact a local apiary that raises nucleus bee colonies (abbreviated as a nuc – short for nucleus) and sustains them through the winter to be ready to move to our property in late Spring. The biggest benefit of a nuc is that you receive a honeybee colony that is already working towards preparing for explosive growth in the summer. Since they’ve survived the winter the colony is strong. You can purchase packages of honeybees in the mail that can be shipped to your post office or home, but I’d prefer to have honeybees that are acclimated to the area that they’re going to live in so the local apiary’s nucs are what we are choosing. You can bet that we will be following this guide from Betterbee when transporting them home!

I’ll be posting more updates as Winter progresses and Spring arrives on all of our beginning beekeeping efforts! Hap-bee New Year!

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