How do you start keeping bees?
Bees are fascinating creatures with complex societal structures. Besides offering honey, beeswax, and pollination services, homeowners can spend hours learning the unique architecture and organization of their colony. Another benefit of keeping bees is that once you set up the necessary infrastructure, bees will mostly take care of themselves.
To get started, you will need to purchase a beehive (see below for an explanation of three options), a beekeeping suit, a smoker, and the colony itself. When your hive and colony come in the mail, you will want to face your hive towards the southeast and position the hive so that honey can be easily accessible during harvest. If you live in a windy area, you will need to create an artificial windbreak at the back of the hive. In addition, search for areas in your yard with indirect sunlight as direct sun during the summer months can cause problems with overheating. With these underlying conditions, your hive will have the optimum temperature, sunshine, and ventilation needed to begin creating honey and beeswax for you and your family.
Once everything is set up, backyard beekeepers should expect to spend about one hour per week on colony management. During cold winter spells, there may be some additional work needed to help your colony safely overwinter.
Keeping bees for beginners
Once your hive is set up, there is relatively little work or maintenance on your part. Bees make honey from the nectar of flowers that they visit during their days of foraging. Of course, you can help your bees make honey by planting a variety of plants that will flower throughout the year. Check out this guide for how to plant a “bee lawn.”
During the first year of beekeeping, the chances are that you will not be able to harvest substantial amounts of honey or beeswax for yourself. It is vital to give your bees an opportunity to “get settled” before starting the harvest process. In subsequent years, however, honey and wax can be harvested whenever a substantial nectar flow is occurring (i.e., whenever the bees have access to lots of flowers). During these flows, your beehive will fill with cured and capped honey. Bees rely on honey to stay alive during the winter but will produce excess honey, which is what backyard beekeepers can harvest for their use.
During the middle of summer, check your hives every week or two. When you see several frames in your hive that are filled and capped with honey, you can remove that frame and harvest the honey. You will, of course, want to leave a few frames for the honey bees to survive during the winter. This helpful video shows how to harvest honey from your hives safely.