Beekeeping Articles

A honeybee pollinates a purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) picture: Suzanne DeJohn

In This Essay

Is beekeeping best for your needs? Here are what to remember while you think about whether or not to ensure you get your own bee hives.

Inside our blog site, Gardener's Journal

ICLEARLY REMEMBER the very first scary time I stuck my hand in to the screened cage keeping my very first hive of 10, 000 honeybees. Similar to people, my reflexive reaction would be to give bees alongside summer stingers a wide berth. Until that moment, beekeeping had been simply a notion. Today, I'd my bees and, basically would have a go, I'd to attain in to the cage (with a gloved hand) to get rid of the queen. This was my genuine introduction to beekeeping.

Beekeeping and gardening get naturally together. Squash, cucumbers, oranges, melons and strawberries are just a number of the numerous crops that depend on bee pollination. And then there is the honey. A single, healthier hive can produce 50 to 100 pounds of the sweet, golden elixir.

I am pleased to state that my very first "bee installation" moved efficiently. We held beehives and harvested honey in Vermont for several years before moving to some other state and placing the pastime on hold. When I give consideration to starting once more twelve many years later on, we understand that, whilst the practice of maintaining honeybees has existed for millennia, a great deal changed within the last ten years.

Beekeeping These Days

Beekeeping is suddenly a hot topic — perhaps because of the increasing interest in homesteading and increasing a person's own food, or a response to the globally plight of pollinators, or perhaps the want to link much more closely because of the all-natural globe. Neighborhood beekeeping clubs and forums are thriving, and courses refill quickly. These are all great signs, because although increasing bees is an amazing, enjoyable and gratifying hobby, in addition it needs preparation, knowledge and a modest investment period and money to be successful.

Bees on a-frame

One for the biggest difficulties for beekeepers in the last decade is the steep increase in the occurrence of colony failure disorder, specifically among commercial hives. The wintertime of 2012-13 had been specially difficult; some beekeepers destroyed as much as half their hives for this disorder, what causes which are nevertheless perhaps not totally grasped. (more about that subsequent.) It is necessary that potential beekeepers go in to the hobby with their eyes available to the difficulties and seek assistance from experienced teachers.

The easiest method to begin will be simply take a course or contact a local beekeeping team in which teachers allow you to view as they work their very own hives. You can read publications and blogs to learn whenever you'll about their habits, that will influence the manner in which you handle your hive. But, beekeeping methods differ with region, climate and weather — i can not worry sufficient that brand new beekeepers benefit from having some one close by to consult. By examining the particulars of your new pastime in summer, you should have time and energy to gear up and purchase your bees for setting up next spring.

Is Beekeeping Best For Your Needs?

Listed here are what to remember as you consider whether or not to get own bee hives.

Bees in the office in a metropolitan meadow

Have you got the right place? Because bees will fly a mile or even more searching for nectar, all however the most cities probably have sufficient nectar sources. Much more essential is keeping human-bee interactions to at least. Most of the time, bees go peacefully about their company and are not likely to sting unless provoked. Unlike wasps, which could sting multiple times, a honeybee can only just sting once, therefore the procedure eliminates it. Stinging is committing suicide for a bee. Just what provokes honeybees to sting? Swatting at them, as well as vibration and fatigue from traffic and power gear. Dealing with the hive from pedestrian traffic and erecting a fence to make bees into an upward trip course assists in maintaining all of them regarding trouble.