I'm pretty excited about this post, my friends. This one has been a long time coming.
I've been lusting after the possibility of having our own honey bees for years now and as of this morning, that dream was finally realized.
Okay. Well, if we want to get technical, it wasn't full realized.
After all, there are still no actual honey bees inside the hives.
And in reality, no honey has been produced on Beatha Fonn thus far.
But still, as Stuart clicked together the last of the frames, the desire felt completed. Even though there is still much for us to learn, and much work for the bees to accomplish before we actually will harvest any honey, it's at least fun to be progressing towards a goal.
We've been members of the local Beekeepers Association now for a few months which has been very helpful in our quest to home the honey bee. Fellow members gave us much insight and advice into getting our hives set up and what equipment we should purchase (and where from). They've even hooked us up with a fantastic source for the bees that are from our very own Washington State. On top of that, they're hosting a series of beginning beekeepers classes for a few beginners (like us) in March which will be a huge asset to us novice keepers.
All that being said, let's talk equipment!
After all, if you ain't got the hives, you can't get the honey!
Beekeeping is like any other hobby – there's 1,001 different options and choices out there for equipment. What I'll present to you is simply a list of what we've acquired to get started based on our own personal research and the advice of many seasoned beekeepers.
Is it the perfect set up? Perhaps for our situation. Is it perfect for you? Maybe. Maybe not! There's plenty of freedom in this hobby so don't feel bound by what I or anyone else says. Find what works for your homestead!
Owen was a big help in figuring out what would work for our homestead, obviously:
Beekeeping 101: Getting The Right Equipment
Hive: Composed of the bottom board, hive body (where the bees will live and breed), queen excluder (to keep the queen from climbing up into the honey super), honey super (where the bees will store their extra honey), inner cover, and outer cover (upper lid). An assembled hive from Mann Lake (the company we ordered from) with the bottom board, hive body, inner cover, and upper lid is available HERE. We then added two supers onto each hive. Three boxes in total per hive. We opted for the large, 10-frame boxes.
Here's a helpful diagram for how the hive is set up:
Because of cost, we chose to purchase our hive in pieces that we would assemble. I think it was a good decision! It only took a few hours of relaxed labor on my dear husband's part (bless his heart) to get it all put together.
It started looking like this:
But then he did his thing with a few nails and a hammer:
Our boxes were made of raw pine and were purchased HERE. I'm extremely pleased with the quality of the equipment purchased through them – call me a skeptic, but I sort of expect everything these days to be made of chip board and come with a “Made in China” label. These boxes were nothing of the sort.
Frames and foundation: Each of our boxes (we ordered 3 per hive) holds ten frames and foundations. This is what the bees will build their comb on – comb that will house new baby bees and store honey! HERE'S THE ONES we opted for (except ours were unassembled).
Hive rack: Optional, but experienced keepers told us that having a rack to hold the frames while you inspect them is a real helpful tool.
Frame gripper: Optional, but very helpful in lifting full (and heavy!) frames out of the hive carefully for inspection. Find some HERE.
Smoker: Smoke masks alarm pheromones in bees and makes it easier to handle and inspect the hive. There's a million and one ways that people have found to smoke bees, but we went for the easy route: a smoker! Find the one we purchased HERE.
Queen excluder: Another optional piece of equipment. This is a thin, metal sheet that has big enough holes for the bees to crawl through but too small for the queen to get through. This means that she's confined to the bottom box and unable to crawl up into the top honey super. We opted to include this because we're novices and as we check the hive and harvest the honey, I really don't want to be worried about squishing the queen. Bees need their queen! No queen, no honey, man. We opted for a metal one instead of plastic, like THIS ONE.
Bee brush: Traditionally, goose feathers were used to gently wipe bees off of the frames for inspection and harvest. I love the idea of this! Alas, here on Beatha Fonn, we'll be using a bee brush which have been specifically designed to avoid crushing the bees legs as they're wiped off. HERE is a good one that's available.
Bee suit: Obviously, if your'e going to work with bees, having a suit is super helpful! Ain't nobody want to get stung by bees. It's not that I'm afraid to get stung by our honey bees… it's just that I'm semi-sorta-kinda-afraid to get stung by our honey bees. So I'll be suiting up!
Paint: One of the ways that bees recognize their hive is by the color of it! Because we'll have two hives on the property, we opted to paint each hive a different color. One received a mustard-y yellow (see that yellow lid sitting on top of the green hive?) while the other was slathered in a milky avocado green. I think they turned out perky! And ready for spring!
One of the biggest deterrents to getting starting in beekeeping (at least for us) was the cost. There are a few saving graces though:
1. It's a one time investment!
2. Even if things happen and the bees die, you'll still have your completely functional equipment. Unless the equipment is burnt, lost, or run over by a tractor, it will most likely make it through many, many, many seasons.
3. Number one and number two are kinda the same, huh? Oh well. That's how it's separated in my head.
We have six pounds of bees that will be arriving in mid-April. Three pounds of bees, and one queen, for each hive.
Nope. I don't know what I'm doing.
But I'm excited to figure it out! And I'm thankful for all the super smart people who do know what they are doing who are eager and willing to share their knowledge with a beginning goob like me.
I've got the right set up – that's half the battle!
Bring it on, bees!
More posts on beekeeping:
Mary
Hello! You said it was a one time investment – approximately how much would one need to save up to “get started?”
Melissa
Mary, I’m no expert, but it definitely all depends on how many hives you’re interested in having, how many boxes (deeps, supers, etc) on each hive that you want, where you source your supplies (there are quite a few companies), whether you buy a preassembled hive or assemble it yourself, and how many accessories you buy. You may find that you need to replace your queen or smoker or bee suit or frames a few years down the road and wax foundation sheets will need to be replaced after each harvest (unless you don’t use full foundation. It all depends on whether you use top bar hives or langstroth hives (the quintessential bee hive). On average, start-up is anywhere from $200-$500 per hive with some of that expense being “one time purchase”. Your local bee club may have beekeepers with established hives for sale or even nucs (“starter colonies”) for sale for $100-$200. It just depends on where you live. I hope that helps.
Shawn
Mary I was told about $300 give or take depending on what you want start with. This includes equipment but you can either purchase a package of bees or you can make a swarm catcher and try to start from there then produce more bees. YouTube has a lot of info for rookies to learn from.
Ben
How do you treat a hive for mites, weasels
Jessica
I really liked the article, particularly because it was from a small, homesteading point of view rather than a commercial beekeepers. Two things: There are a TON of different ways to keep honey bees. Some people keep them in 55 gallon barrel hives, kenyan-style top bar hives, warre hives. Some people keep them in natural logs, some even keep them in the walls of their home! I, personally, keep bees all of these ways! I strongly urge anyone interested in beekeeping to do A LOT of research on the different styles and methods of beekeeping because, as you say, there are 1,001 different ways to keep your bees and what works for me may not work for you and vice versa. I will say this, almost all of the ‘alternative’ styles of beekeeping you will be limited to a hive that is non-migratory, meaning it can’t and shouldn’t be moved. Ever. However, they are single-hive systems, meaning their equipment is a one-time investment. However, when it comes to Langstroth and square box beekeeping, this is the only method of beekeeping that is universal, but will also NOT be a one-time investment, it will be a continuous investment and will need to regularly be added to and maintained. If your bees live and they have a successful year, they will require more supers, you will need to supply each super the frames, the wiring, and the foundation for each and then store it safely when it is not in use, as your years will fluctuate your honey flow and overall brood size. Best of luck to you and I sincerely hope you have a wonderful journey into the world of beekeeping! Or bee guardians as some people like to call us!
Karla
We’re doing two beehives this year as well, though we’ll be doing top-bar hives. My husband built them and we painted the outsides – rainbows, a Tinker bell fairy for my daughter, also some woodburned designs. Almost done – just have to oil the whole thing to seal the wood.
We have a hat/veil and smoker, in addition to some other tools, but I purposefully didn’t want to get the whole suit – I think it will make me more nervous/cautious from the get-go.
Melissa
Hey Shaye. Excited for you guys and your new bee venture!!! There is ALWAYS something to learn when it comes to them. One thing I don’t think you mentioned (that you might find really helpful) is a hive tool. We’ve found it to be super helpful when separating the frames from each other after the bees start filling them in and gluing everything with propolis (which can be harvested and used to make some killer tincture!). The hive tool helps pry the frames apart before you pull them out- along with a million other non-bee related things. Andy bought me a hive tool and ‘bee’ gloves for my birthday one year. Almost as romantic as your new sheep;) I’m sure you’ll love beekeeping and be absolutely amazed at how incredible God made them to be. Finally, have you heard of Glory Bee? They’re a family owned Christian (I’m pretty sure) company in Eugene, OR. We’ve ordered some supplies from them in the past and they were super helpful. 🙂 take care!
Jessica Horton
This post is just wonderful! Thanks! My family and I are wanting to start bee keeping too. Question: where are you getting the bees from? Can you order them? And if so, where?
Shaye Elliott
We are ordering through our local Beekeepers Association. They are available from companies online though!
Roxi
So excited for you! We’ll be learning all about bees right along side of you, as our hives and equipment arrive in a few days and we’ll get our NUCs in early May. I hadn’t read about bees recognizing the color of their hive, but plan to paint ours in cheery colors, too! We joined our local beekeeping association in the Memphis TN. area and they are holding our hands through the process. They’ve even assigned us a Mentor and sponsored an all-day beekeeping short-course. I think the best thing we’ve done so far is join their group! I’ll be following your progress as we welcome and establish our bees.
Courtney
I have a couple questions:
1. Where are you purchasing you bees?
2. Is there a specific type of paint that is safe for the bees? Did you just paint the outsides of the hive?
Thanks so much for all the great info!!!!
Shaye Elliott
Courtney, we are purchasing our bees through our local Beekeepers Association. You just paint the outside of the hives, but we still found the lowest toxicity pain that we could.
Mamasoo
HI! I follow you on Facebook and I was so stoked to see this reposted by The Prairie Homestead. We are picking up our first hives on Saturday and I’m really excited! I hope you’ll post updates so I can compare because even though I took an 8-hour beekeeping course, I have no clue what I’m doing.
Good luck!
Bevin
Yay! I am so glad you are going to keep honeybees. We need more beekeepers. We have been keeping honeybees for five years now. We love it! They are trying at times, but well with it. We have lost a few hives for unknown reasons but we keep going.
My one piece of advice is to get rid of that queen excluder. I know that many beekeepers use them and we did at first. We actually lost a hive due to a queen excluder. As the queen lays eggs she will move up in the hive as she fills up cells. If for some reason she decides to move up to lay and can’t, the bees will determine that she is non- productive and will kill her. Most times the queen will not lay in honey supers, but if she decides she is going to it is very easy to exchange frames between supers and bodies.
When I discovered that one of our hives was queen less a very experienced beekeeper friend of mine came over to show me how to re-queen by letting the bees make a new queen themselves. When she saw that I had an excluder on the hive she told me tho trow that thing away. This hive hatched out a new queen but it was never able to thrive like before and I ended up having to combine this hive with another weak hive.
I know you will get lots of opinions on what equipment to use and not use, but most experienced beekeepers I talk with do not use them. We have only had one frame have a few cells in one of our honey frames have capped brood. We just cut that section out of the frame before we extracted.
Also, I found that I prefer to use 8-frame medium boxes for bodies and supers. The deeps (whether they are 8 frame or 10 frame) are almost too heavy for me to lift when they are full of honey. If my husband is home it is no problem, but I like to be able to do what I need to do without waiting on him.
Just something to think about.
Many blessings with your new hives!
Henrietta
Great advice Bevin!
Bevin
I just read my comment and I am sorry for the spelling and grammatical errors. I was typing it with a three-year-old sitting on my lap that thought that the only way he could draw his picture was while sitting with me at my desk.
Anyway, I love reading about your life on your homestead.
Blessings!
Mark
Great article for Langstroth hives. I see a few other post comments mention other type of hives, like top-bar, warre, and even in walls! 🙂
We decided to go with an organically managed natural top-bar method and ordered from Bee Thinking.
http://www.beethinking.com/
Thanks for sharing!
Ben
Very cool good luck I’m trying the top bar first might try the other when I get rocking and making splits.
I know there are many reasons to keep bees mine is to become more self reliant.
Jessica
How long did it take before you added a honey super?
Shaye Elliott
3 months?
Bec @ Bec's BeeHive
Thanks for the checklist and the pictures. I’m doing a 101 course myself in a few week’s time and might send out this link as a Resource, so the attendees can get an idea of the equipment and process before the course.
souficoufi
Bonjour
épaisseur bois,combien de pousses ?
Mike
Hi, I have a swarm that has settled into the wall of an old grainary, their entrance is on the n.east corner. Is it too late in the year to rehive them so they stand a better a better chance of surviving our sometimes very cold and windy Iowa winters. Any thoughts or solutions would be greatly appreciated, thanks…….mike