Last year we began to keep honey bees on the farm. Gathering tips from other bee keepers was most helpful in getting started. We chose a deep Langstroth hive. Despite some misgivings from family members our hive of honey bees got off to a good start.
Before we get into the types of hives, and the location lets discuss the bees themselves. For our first hive we chose to purchase a nuc (short for nuclear colony), from a local apiary. This is not the only way to get started. You can also purchase a package of bees, and a separate queen, or you can capture a swarm if one happens to take up residence on your property. The advantages of buying a nuc for first time beekeepers is that the bees are already starting to produce comb and honey when you bring them home. You simply put on your bee protective clothing and transfer the ten frames from the cardboard box, into your hive. The colony has already accepted the queen and they have mated with her so you have varying ages of brood ready to mature and take over as older bees die out.
When adding bees, first take the time to learn how to start a honey bee farm because it deserves some unique considerations. Just as when adding any animal to the farm, being prepared before the bees come home, will help you be successful Bees will require water, shade, a sturdy hive, and during some parts of the year, they may require feeding. Bees will fly a long distance every day to find enough pollen. Grasses, trees, herbs, flowers, and weeds all produce pollen that is used by bees to feed the hive. You don’t need to have a flourishing flower bed in your yard, but having a varied garden will help the bees get enough food.
Location for the Hive (Tip #1)
We chose a spot for the bee hive that received sun but was also some shade to protect the colony from overheating. The growth near the hive would provide some nearby pollen, and provide some protection from the elements, also. The bees stayed active as long as the sun was shining. Orient the door away from any traffic area near your house or barns. In other words, you don’t want to be walking through the flight path the bees use to get back to the door of the hive. The honey bees are very protective of their home and if they feel a large intruder is attempting to enter the hive they get a little stressed!
Getting to Know the Bee Lingo
Apiculture is the practice of keeping and maintaining bees and their hives. The beekeeper is also referred to as the apiarist and the entire colony set up is called the Apiary. Bee keeping has grown in popularity in recent years and the raw honey, beeswax and royal jelly are much sought after products.
Types of Bee Hives
Skep – Long ago, beekeepers used something called a skep to house bees. This is no longer used because it is hard to remove the honey from the skep and this type of hive is difficult to clean and can become unsanitary. Although they are no longer used, skeps can be a decorative addition to a collection of vintage farming equipment.
Top Bar – The Top Bar Hive looks similar to a trough used for animal feeding. The bees make their own comb by drawing it down from the wooden bar inside the top of the hive.
photo courtesy of Pasture Deficit Disorder http://www.pasturedeficitdisorder.com
Langstroth – In many parts of the country, the Langstroth hive is what you will commonly see. The Langstroth consists of wooden boxes called supers, stacked on top of each other. They are sitting on a base called the foundation board, and topped with a lid, or cover. Inside, the bees create their comb and fill the cells with honey on waxed frames that hang vertically inside the super. Langstroth is the type of hive we chose to use.
Warre Hive – The Warre has been compared to a cross between a hollowed out tree and a top bar hive. The Warre Hives are smaller than the Top Bar and the Langstroth versions. I actually think I would like to try one of the Warre Hives one day.
What Additional Equipment is Needed?
- Smoker
- Hive tool- helps with lifting the frames from the supers
- Honey extraction equipment
- Protective clothing
- Entrance feeder for fall and winter
the installation from the nuc box to the hive was very easy and simple
The first spring and summer
When our day arrived to pick up the NUC. I was unsure about having the box file box size container of live bees in the car with me! Once I met the apiarist and received the bees, my fears were put to rest. The bees were safely contained in a well sealed file box type container called a NUC. The bees seemed peaceful and fairly quiet. My neighbor and I headed back to her yard to install the bees in their new hive. At the time, we only had one bee suit and it was not mine, so I was the designated photographer. It was still early in the morning and the bees were still sleepy so I was able to get fairly close with the zoom lens without upsetting the bees. The frames were transferred from the NUC to the super and the cover was put on top. We made sure they had a shallow pan of water nearby, so they wouldn’t tire themselves out getting a drink after all the excitement of moving day. That was about it for the installation. The whole process took less than half an hour and was drama free. I can’t speak to installing a package of bees into a hive because I have not had that experience yet.
Watch for reaction to high heat days. (Tip #2)
Our bees started to collect on the outside of the hive, which is called bearding. We asked a local beekeeper about what we saw and he asked if we had the hive ventilated. I guess we missed that tip, when setting up the hive. Once the hive was ventilated by inserting small twigs between the layers of the supers, and between the top super and the cover and lid, the bearding stopped. The bees were just too warm inside, and had decided to come out for some fresh air.
Fall and Heading into Winter (Tip #3)
Our hive successfully made it to fall. The bees multiplied and the supers were full of honey. We opted to leave all the honey the first winter. The hive may not be strong enough to withstand extreme cold and we never know what kind of winter we will have. We are fed the bees sugar syrup to make sure that they make plenty of honey to get the entire colony through the winter. In late fall a hive check revealed that the bees had eaten a substantial amount of honey due to the fluctuation of warm and cold temperatures we had already experienced. For more on that story please read this post on Fall Checkup on the Hive.
Cautions When Working with Honey Bees (Tips #4 & 5 & 6)
Don’t go into the hive without the protective clothing on. Even if you think you will only be a short minute.
Stay out of the bee’s flight path and do not block their entrance with your body. The bees get really testy about this issue. When they want to get to the door, please don’t block their way.
The best time of day to do any hive maintenance is mid morning. Most of the worker bees will be out of the hive. The worst time of day to try to work on the hive is late afternoon. The bees are trying to return home!
The Best Tip We Learned For Keeping Honey Bees (Tip #7)
Ventilation is very important to the health of the hive. We noticed bearding on the hive during a spell of extremely hot summer weather. This means that the bees were hanging on the side of the hive. Lots of them were hanging in clusters on the outside of the hive. I spoke with a local apiarist from the beekeepers association and he asked if the hive was ventilated. Since I did not know what he was referring to, it was obvious that we had missed doing this. The fix was simple. Don the suit, find some small twigs and add a small twig between the layers of the hive to allow some air to enter. Ventilation is important even during the winter so, we will be leaving the twigs between the layers. If the weather is extremely cold, we can reduce the size of the door opening to keep the hive warmer.
Year one was extremely interesting and we learned so much about keeping honey bees. Unfortunately, after a fall and winter that swayed in extremes in the weather, our bees died. They did make it through an early cold snap in the fall, which was followed by a spell of very warm late fall weather. According to a few beekeepers I spoke with, this caused the bees to think it was spring and go out foraging. When the honey bees returned to the hive, they were very hungry! The honey bees then ate all of the honey that should have been saved for the rest of the winter. The explanation makes sense in some ways. This year, we will start feeding later in the Summer and into early Fall.
Let me know what challenges and success stories you have from your first year of keeping honey bees.
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You may also be interested in these posts on Bee Keeping
Installing the New Hive – Homestead Honey
How to Capture a Swarm of Bees – Homestead Lady
Our bees made it through their first summer and into fall. Our last check was October 19th and all was good. We left 11 frames with honey and cover the hive with a black box for winter protection. On the first warm day of spring we opened up the hive for inspection to find all the bees were gone, not dead, but gone. Now we are left wondering when and why they left the hive. There are still many frames with honey, so we don’t think they left to find food. Feeling bad about the experience, we decided to take a break this year. Maybe we will try again next year, if we can come to some conclusion as to why we failed this time around.
Carol I hope you will try again at some point. Ours died too and while talking with the local bee keepers, a lot of them lost hives too. Oddly that made me feel a little better as it seems to be something that happens to all. Hope your next try will be better
An update to our beekeeping experience. We spoke with expert beekeepers at our Minnesota State Fair in late August. Their consensus was that our bees absconded due to a verroa mite infestation. We had not treated for the mites, thinking it wasn’t necessary. The experts told us the bees leave the hive hoping to rid themselves of the mites, but the mites unfortunately are attached to the bees. They recommend erring on the side of caution and always treating for varroa mites in late summer to early fall.
Hey Janet, another very important tip is to treat for varroa mites. Its imperative to the winter health of the colony. There are also a few highly affective organic methods for those who don’t want to introduce possibly harmful chemicals to their hives. Formic acid and oxalic acid are the 2 most commonly used organic treatments. We think we lost our hives to mites sadly.
Glen I appreciate the help. I am going to try and figure out this whole mite thing. I would prefer to use something natural. Feel free to stop back and add any helpful comments or possible fixes as you find out. – Janet
Finished my first year with honey bees. Opened my boxes and found…..BEES! It seemed they made it through the winter in finer order. I called my mentor, our local county bee inspector, and told him what I found. He said don’t get too excited because we would still need to watch carefully for stressed bees.
Here is what I learned. I left all the honey the bees made in their hive for their consumption during the winter months, but I left my feeder in the hive. Not a good idea. I found mold growing in the feeder box and under the lid. I removed and replaced feeder box and lid. Cleaned the feeder box and lid with a bleach/water mixture and set out to dry.
It seemed I had more bees in the spring than I had the previous fall. I noticed that my bees were trying to brood between boxes. My solution, by request of my mentor, was to move my bottom box to the top and my top box to the bottom (I only have 3 box hive). This allowed bees to work the “new” bottom box better. Then I looked for any frame that had only honey and replaced those frames with new frames. I then added a fourth box and placed the honey filled frames in that higher box. According to my mentor, this gives my bees more room for brooding and the moved honey frames will draw the bees upwards in my hive.
I haven’t checked my hive since I did all this, but in the next few days (weather permitting) I will do an inspection. What I have noticed is the activity outside the hive and what is going in and out of the hive does not seem to have changed.
I don’t know if I explained myself well enough. I also don’t know if I just had beginners luck. One thing I do know…I am excited to continue.
Bernie thank you for adding so much information to the discussion! Please stop back and let us know how things are going -Janet
This is all great information. I plan to have bees in the future…maybe a bad idea since I am allergic, but I really want my own honey! AND I want to help re-populate the bees since they are having such difficulty with so much die off…
Carol I am not allergic but I do get a very serious local reaction to a bee sting. I thought I would be nervous working with the bees but with the bee suit on, I feel very protected. And it is so wonderous that I don’t feel nervous at all but just enjoy the bees
oh one other thought. Before taking off the suit, walk to another area of the yard and have someone look to make sure the bees are all off of your bee suit before starting to remove the safety clothing
How to differentiate between real honey from fake one, because I have heard people complaining about some honey they bought, which is most of the times mixed with melted sugar which changes its color to that of honey.
I want to keep bees. I think they will be a project that I start in 2019. I figure with the garden and the fruit trees and bushes I want to grow, having a hive nearby is another way to contribute to my environment. Great post and information!
Thank you!