Beekeeping can be intimidating. Check out our favorite tips below to get started without feeling overwhelmed.
Beekeeping requires a commitment. That commitment includes time, money, and knowledge. Bees are not as simple as 'set and forget', they require your attention to keep them comfortable and healthy. In return, you will help the environment and get a sweet payback - honey!
In this blog post, we will focus on hive types.
Knowledge is key to being a successful beekeeper. Beginners should join at least one beekeeping association or club, as well as attend as many seminars and meetings as possible to gain as much knowledge as they can before beginning.
Equipment - HIVES!
Starting off, you will need several different pieces of equipment to set you up for success. A hive, smoker, feeders, bee suit, gloves, and a hive tool. We will go into detail for each of these in our new blog series. There are many additional tools you may need, but the basics should be everything you would need to get started. Don't get distracted by buying fancy or unnecessary tools or gimmicky items. These may turn out to be a waste of money!
-Hive - There are so many variations on hive styles that it can be very difficult to choose. The most popular style hive is the Langstroth hive. This hive was patented in the mid 19th century by Rev. Lorenzo Langstroth. It features removable frames and stackable boxes that fit together to form a home for your bees. This is the most common style today, and is a favorite for new beekeepers as it is simple to maintain.
-Photo credit: Dave Cushman
Other hive types include top bar and Warré hives. Top bar hives are excellent hives for beekeepers only wanting hives for pollination, as extraction with a traditional centrifugal extractor is not possible. This means that honey and comb must be removed from the top bar, resulting in the bees having to make new comb each year. Top bar hives also require more frequent inspections to prevent swarming.
Warré hives are a top bar design, but they are often called a vertical top bar hive. These hives, instead of having empty super boxes on top, have empty supers placed on the bottom of the hive stack. Many keepers believe this arrangement better mimics natural bee life in the wild.
Typically, hives should be painted to protect the wood and allow the hive boxes to last longer. Traditionally, hives were painted white to reflect sunlight, but today you will find hives of all colors. Here in Florida, lighter colors are best to prevent overheating within the hive due to the intense sunlight. Use a water-based latex paint and only paint the exterior surfaces of your hive.
We recommend or suggest that new keepers begin with a Langstroth hive until they gain enough experience to maintain a different hive style.
A basic Langstroth hive consists of the following parts from top to bottom:
-Outer Cover - The outer cover sits on top of the inner cover and protects the hive from the elements. This cover has no holes or access points to the hive directly to keep water and wind from entering the hive and disrupting the bees.
-Inner Cover - The inner cover sits on top of the very top box. It generally has a hole for top feeders, as well as a small gap that serves as another entrance/exit for the bees.
-Honey Super(s) - This is where the good stuff is! These boxes are generally shallow, and much shorter than the deep brood boxes. These boxes sit above the queen excluder and have pure honey within their frames. The worker bees will access these frames and begin to do what they do best - make honey!
-Frames - You can buy frames that already have comb foundation on them. It is generally a beekeepers preference whether or not to use foundation frames. Using these frames will generally speed up honey production as it allows the bees to immediately start building out comb instead of having to first create a foundation.
-Queen Excluder - this wire grid sits on top of the brood box, between the brood box and honey super. The queen excluder does exactly what it sounds like - excludes the queen! While excluding royalty doesn't sound like a good idea, in honey production it certainly is. The queen must stay in the brood box to ensure her eggs are laid in the appropriate cells and the bee life cycle is able to continue. If the queen were to get into the honey super, she would lay eggs within the honey cells and the honey would not be an ideal harvest because it would have various bee 'parts' in it since extracting the honey from these frames would also mean extracting bees in various life stages!
-Deep Super/Brood Box - This box is where your queen will live and the new generations of bees are raised. This box should be either medium or deep to allow ample space for your bees to raise the brood. They are sold as either 8 or 10 frame boxes, but can be modified to fit a specific number to ensure perfect spacing between the frames. Keep in mind, the more frames, the heavier the box. A 10-frame deep box full of honey can weigh nearly 80 pounds! Because this box will rarely be moved or adjusted, it is a good choice for the brood section to be a deep box.
-Bottom Board - these are either solid or screened. This board supports the weight of the hive and includes the entrance or 'front door' where the bees come and go.
-Bottom Tray - protects the underside of the hive to discourage hive beetles from entering the hive uninhibited. This is a removeable plastic tray that can be taken out and cleaned to maintain good hygiene within the hive. You can also put a thin layer of pickling lime in this tray to be sure that any pests that fall thru the small wire mesh on the underside of the bottom board will be exterminated. This can help the bees manage the pest population within the hive.
-Stand - This is where your hive will sit! Typically, we recommend using treated lumber and concrete blocks to form a sort of bench for the hives to sit on. This keeps the hives up off the ground to prevent pest attacks from ants and other threats to your bees.
Accessories: something called an entrance reducer. This is only used certain times of the year when hive robbing is a high risk.
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