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
