Beekeeping for Beginners

Those beginning beekeeping can start off with an ideal number of two bee colonies and then gradually expand to more in a few years once they are more confident and experienced. A single hive can yield almost 50 to 100 pounds of honey in a year. Any beekeeping basics guide will recommend that at least one hive should be built from scratch. Those who have a flair for handling wood would find it relatively easy to build hive boxes and supers which are the compartments that are added to the hive to support the honeycomb and for storing frames. Beekeeping for beginners also involves planning for the season to come which means that all the equipments, hives and bees should be ordered during the fall itself. This equipment should be assembled during the winter so as to be prepared for the arrival of the bees in April. There are also various apiculture related publications such as beekeeping for dummies wherein there is a lot of emphasis laid on a strong population of bees which is one of the characteristics of a good colony. In most cases the population of the colony will reach almost 75000 bees in the summer which would include around 30000 field bees. A good and well maintained colony is one that is relatively docile and doesn’t have much of a tendency to swarm and yet has worker bees that are excellent foragers.

The proposed apiary should also be placed near an abundant source of pollen and nectar such as legumes, corn and even ornamental plants and trees. There should also be a good and clean supply of water within at least a quarter mile of the hive as bees usually go to the nearest water source. By providing the bees a water source such as a shallow pan filled with water, the bees will not need to wander into the neighbor’s yard. Those beginning beekeeping should also purchase all the requisite equipments first such as the hive bodies and the supers i.e. both medium and shallow supers. Bees are also susceptible to diseases on account of various infections or viruses and hence disease prevention is a part of the beekeeping guide and may involve inspecting used equipment of purchasing new equipment altogether. The hive should be tilted forward slightly so as to prevent the accumulation of water inside. Additionally the hive should be ventilated from the top as moist conditions in the hive tend to give rise to diseases such as dysentery.