Last summer, we harvested honey at a friend’s house and that’s when we first entertained the idea of becoming beekeepers!

Having honey bees is a great help to the enviroment. Due to pesticides, honey bees are at risk of extinction and without bees plants can’t be polllenated and that affects our food supply. We wanted to be able to help keep the bees going but also love honey and use it as a sweetener in our house.

Due to the generosity of friends gifting us som supplies, we were able to get our first bee hive set up within one month of buying the land. We are definitely not experts, but everyone has to start from somewhere. We hope by sharing our experience, you all can have the confidence to start beekeeping or even to start something you never thought you would!

So here is your beginner’s guide to beekeeping!

Supplies (we purchased most of our supplies from https://www.mannlakeltd.com/ and Amazon )

-Beekeeping Suit with gloves

-a Bee Nuc (includes 5 brood frames full of bees and a queen)

-a smoker

-at least one brood box (get two if your winters are tougher) with frames with reducer and entrance reducer (Link)

-a super box with frames

-bee feeder (Mann Lake Bee Feeder)

Purpose of supplies

-Brood box is meant for the bees eggs and honey to eat

-super box is for us, it is the surplus honey the bees make

-entrance reducer limits the entrance of the hive to block other critters from getting in

-bee feeder – for when you start up a new hive or during the winter when nectar isn’t around. You fill it with sugar water (1 part sugar, 1 part boiling water)

The Bee Hives

We purchased the unassembled boxes and frames to save money. They are very easy to put together, so we definitely recommend going that route. We only needed wood glue and nails.

Once we finished assembling the bee hive boxes, we painted them white and added a cute Winnie the Pooh design. You will need to paint or stain the boxes in order to preserve them.

Adding your Nuc to your Bee Hive

Next we went to pick up our nuc and took it to our land where the bees would be living. We bought ours from someone local through a bee keeping facebook group but you can get them online or a local bee supply store. We set up the hive first, you will want to place the hives somewhere in the sun (bees love the heat), far from foot traffic, and up on something (we used cinder blocks).

To integrate your nuc to your hive, you will remove 5 empty frames and replace them with the nuc frames, placing them in the same order from the nuc box. Remember to have your bee gear on and your smoker going–especially when first working with your bees since you don’t know their temperment and they don’t know you yet.

Feeding your Bees

For the first couple of months, you will want to feed your bees sugar water (recipe above) to let them get settled. We used a feeder like this, Bee Feeder. We feed our bees once to twice a week. We don’t want them feeding on their own honey except during winter, so we wanted to make sure they have some sugar water at all times.

Happy Beekeeping!

Now you just let them to their thing. We occasionally check the frames for mites, beetles, wax moths, and that there is new larve (that is the easilest way to know your queen is around).

We will make another post on specifics for treating for these pests.

Comment with any questions or advice you have!