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Friday, June 2, 2017

NEW TO BEEKEEPING – GETTING STARTED

Just wanted to give you a little insight on getting started in the world of beekeeping.  This is the first year for my husband and I, and it has been an exciting process for us. 
My first recommendation for anyone who wants to get started is to attend a local club meeting or a beginner’s class through your local continuing education program.  Fortunately for us here in the treasure valley the Treasure Valley Beekeepers Club meets once a month and they also put on the Beginners class thru Boise’s continuing education program.
If you haven’t been already, you should also be researching different aspects of beekeeping.  Whether is the type of hive you want, the way you want to get your new bees, where would be the best place to set up your hive or hives, etc…  This will always generate questions and there are lots of resources at hand to answer your questions.  
The Xerces Society is a good reference for conservation questions and also for learning about different types of bees.  The USDA has some good information on getting started, from building hives to different survey results over that past years measuring things like colony loss and honey output.  Their resources on getting started and building hives might seem out dated, but in actuality, things really haven’t changed that much.
Once you have decided that beekeeping is your new hobby, you need to get started on gathering the equipment needed and buying or making your hives.  We chose to buy ours, because one of the more reputable distributors has a complete package of everything you need to get started at a decent price.  As we continued to learn and read about beekeeping we were always finding additional things that we thought we needed of course. 
New bees are available in the spring, but you need to order them probably in January or February.  They come in what is called a package or a nuk.  There is a considerably difference between the two and for a beginner it was obvious for us which one we wanted to go with.  A package is just roughly a boot sized box filled with 3lbs of bees and a queen.  You dump those carefully into your hive and place your queen so she can join the group and they start supporting her and the colony becomes a working unit.  A nuk on the other hand is a box about 1/3 the size of a hive with 4 frames pretty much full of comb, brood, bees and a queen.  It’s pretty much a working colony already.  So for us it was an easy decision, start out a little ahead of the game with something that is already established and not from ground zero. 
It has been about 3 weeks now since we’ve had the bees and they are doing wonderfully.  We are about ready to put the second layer on each hive (we have 2 hives).  We check on them about once a week to make sure they have enough food (sugar water) but also have been enjoying just sitting watching them come and go with pollen covered legs and do what they do to maintain their home.  We are looking forward to the honey we can collect next year.  What they are making now will keep them fed throughout the upcoming winter.
If you are in the least bit interested in becoming a beekeeper, please check it out.  Educate yourself on what it takes and the joys and benefits associated.  You won’t be sorry.  J