Starting Out In Beekeeping

First Things First

There are a few things that you must do before you actually go out and buy a hive and your bees. In fact, very few beekeepers would be irresponsible enough to sell you the bees without knowing that you had some idea of what you were doing.

The first thing is obvious, read everything you can get your hands on about bees and beekeeping. The more you know the better informed your decision to engage in this hobby. There are many very good books written on the subject. Some knew some old. The art of beekeeping has changed little over the years since the bee has changed very little over the centuries.

Get Advice on Beekeeping

The next thing to do is to get in touch with a local beekeeper. A local beekeeper will help you get everything you need and give you much needed advice while you are starting out. And no matter how much you read, you will need to work under the supervision of or at least with the help and advice of an experienced beekeeper.

Keeping bees is a bit like driving a car. It’s easy when you know how. It’s not as easy as it looks. It’s easy to do but hard to do well. And, everyone has an opinion on it.

One might think that it would be difficult to get a beekeeper to help, since they seem to be loners who spend all their time with their bees perfecting their skills, improving their productivity and making life easier for their bees. Well, actually the opposite is true. Beekeepers love to talk about their bees. Giving advice comes naturally to them. Don’t forget that they were once beginners too and only got started thanks to the help of another beekeeper. So don’t be shy about asking.

If you have difficulty finding a beekeeper in your area, just contact the local clubs and associations. Even if there is not a beekeeping club in your area the beekeepers there do not keep quiet about their activities, so the people in the sports clubs etc. in the area will know if they have a beekeeper in their midst.

Buying Your Beekeeping Equipment

Buy your equipment locally where possible. Again the local beekeeping clubs will help out here. Of course if you see a useful item on the internet, by all means buy it. But, I think that if you buy locally to start off with you will very likely have what the majority of the other beekeepers have and this will be an advantage when looking for their advice, since they will have had experience with that item themselves.

One important note: Do not swap or share tools with other beekeepers. If someone donates some of their old equipment, think carefully before accepting. The reason is that you may infect your bees with a disease that has not been properly cleaned from their equipment. You may through your inexperience, infect their hives. Therefore it would be better to get a new hive and any other porous materials from a dealer rather than getting them second hand. (in spite of the expense) Porous material is difficult to sterilise, so where possible you should use metal or non porous plastics.

This is a short list of things you are likely to need:

A Complete Beehive including Frames and Foundation. (The design used locally)
A Hive Tool.
An Uncapping Fork.
A Spur Wheel.
A Smoker.
A Feeder.
A Honey Extractor. (Optional)

If you are only testing the water and do not know if you intend to keep up your new hobby, I would recommend that you do not buy your beekeeping equipment until you have been out to work on someone else’s beehive first. Some people in spite of their good intentions are intimidated by the bees and decide not to go ahead. However, these people are in the minority so do not be discouraged. And if you do change your mind, it is better to do so before you set up than after you have gone to all the expense and have to find a new home for your bees.