The Natural Life - Chapter 11 - Honey Bees
Written by Miss Farmer - Gypsy Mother
Hello Frens,
Welcome back to The Natural Life where we talk about everything out on the farm.
Today we have a very special guest, @bowtiedmissfarm and she is going to give us a quick run down of our beekeeping operation and how we got started. If you haven’t noticed already, she’s the brains and beauty of the operation. I’m pretty much just the manual laborer. I’m so glad she offered to tell us about her BEES!
BowTied Miss Farmer:
Hello all you beautiful jungle frens! Beekeeping is an interesting hobby with big rewards. If you love paying attention to detail and being out in nature, this will be a very enjoyable past time for you. If you choose to beekeep for personal supply you will love having your own natural sweetener coming from your own apiary. If your goal is honey production, you will be guaranteed to sell out of your product every year if you process your honey correctly and market smart.
First things first, “can I have them where I live?” To answer this question, check with your local bee club, local zoning board, or states Department of Agriculture. If that’s all green lights, lets get you set up with equipment. Of course, I recommend getting involved with a local beekeeping club and requesting a free mentorship. Nothing like hands on learning to give you a huge jump on the game.
Equipment:
Typically the start up cost is about $200-$300 to get started with a mentor. I order all of our supplies from either Mann Lake or Amazon if I need something fast. If you are able to find a local bee club, the members there will probably be able to sell you used equipment to get started. The first items you’ll need to purchase is a J hook hive tool, a smoker and a suit. Buy a ventilated suit. They are pricier but when harvesting in the summer, you’ll be grateful for the breezy suit and it’s optimum protection. These three items will allow you to work with a mentor by assisting with hive inspections and so on.
(Farmer’s Shameless Amazon Affiliate’s Plug)
Suits:
Here is a sweet looking jacket that has the breathable material you want. It also has a good hat and veil that will allow you to see better than the zip up round veils. This one is from Amazon - Link. This is what Farmer uses, I wear jeans with the jacket but lately I have been getting stung on my legs through the jeans so you may want to get a full suit. With a full suit, you can wear shorts underneath and it’s much cooler in the hot summer months. Here is the full bee suit we recommend from Amazon - Link.
Gloves:
Just a regular pair of beekeeping gloves will do, they are going to get dirty so I don’t see the point in buying expensive ones - Link
J Hook Hive Tool:
Here is the best and only hive tool you want to buy, period - Link
Smoker:
There are many different brands/makers of smokers, they all work the same, but you want to get one of the higher priced ones. For some reason the cheap ones seem to be harder to get lit and stay smoking. Your mentor will have one you can use.
Books:
Beekeeper’s Bible - Link
Beekeeping for Dummies - Link
This will get you going and allow you to ride along with a beekeeper and observe to see if it’s something you would like to pursue.
Back to Miss Farmer:
When you’re ready to set up your apiary, select a spot that’s protected from the wind such as a treeline facing east so they get the morning sun. The treeline will give a little added protection in case a strong wind comes through. I’ve had friends get their hives blown over and its not a fun experience having to reset hives of mad bees.
Decide what style hives you want. I recommend Langstroth because they’re the most commonly used, and easiest to get supplies for. Go ahead and purchase your bottom boards, deep boxes, frames and top cover. You’ll need two brood boxes for each hive with frames. Boxes and frames are sold separate. They ship in disassembled pieces and you’ll have to glue, nail and paint your boxes. (This is where Farmer Boy comes in handy). Here is the brood box with frames inside, this is where the bees will lay eggs and set up their home. You stack two of these on top of each other and this is their home. Once this is established and the hive is healthy, you begin stacking “supers” on top of the brood boxes. These are boxes that have shorter frames which the bees will use to store extra honey, which you will rob at the end of summer.
You can buy Cedar boxes, but they cost more. They hold up better and don’t require painting. Set up your yard by getting some cinder blocks and making a shelf to set your hives on. Not too high because your will be working them from above. Make sure its stable and it’s time to purchase your bees!
You should always start in the early spring so go ahead and plan to order bees towards the end of February. You can order through the mail or you can find a local beekeeper that makes nucs and purchase from them. Most people have Italian bees. They are relatively gentle and great workers. When you order a nuc, it comes with a mated queen, workers and drones, brood, royal jelly and honey.
When you get your nuc it comes with the enclosure taped. You simply open your nuc and carefully transfer those five frames directly into the center of your deep hive and fill with remaining frames on either side. Use smoke gently and make sure your smoker is never too hot! You don’t want to burn your new babies. Put your top cover on and give them space to adjust to their new home!
Check them every two weeks to make sure the queen is laying eggs and doing her job. Add your second brood box when they’ve filled the first deep. Add your honey supers when they’ve filled out that second box.
To harvest you will need an uncapping knife, an extractor and some uncapping tanks to catch honey after you’ve uncapped. Here is the quick thread Farmer did on our extracting job the other day- Link. You’ll want to do this away from your bees with a water source close by because it’s a sticky job! Most people eventually build honey houses but you can get by in your own kitchen or barn like we do.
Harvest when your supers are fully capped with white wax cappings. You can test for moisture content using a refractometer that tells you how much water you have in your honey. Too much can ferment and that would be unfortunate after all the money and hard work you’ve put into it.
That’s basically it! After harvest you store your empty supers and get ready for next year! A couple great books I would recommend are the Beekeeper’s Bible and Beekeeping for Dummies. Also, there’s a vast array of YouTube vids on beekeeping and I’d recommend watching plenty of those before doing any of these steps. Visuals help!
Well, that was an amazing breakdown on honey bees from the queen bee herself! I knew she would knock it out of the park. That’s going to do it for now frens, I’ll holler at y’all later, we all gone make it.
Your fren,
Farmer
What do you do to hedge against Colony Collapse Disorder or other bee infections?