So I have decided that I want to be an apiarist. I have a spot in my fenced in suburban backyard for one or two hives, a book on the way, places and folks to go to for equipment and bees, and a website of the local beekeeping association bookmarked for my perusal. Do we have any bee keepers here on the 'Dope? Any advice, warnings, stories, etc. welcome. Just want to do my part to keep the honeybee population thriving and hey, “free” honey!
My inlaws keep bees, and my husband and I tried for a year until he realized that he was phobic of things buzzing around his head. 
I don’t mind it, so I still help out here and there every month or so.
What do you want to know?
Do you have bears living in your area? Beehives attract bears, not so much for the honey but for the baby bees which are high in protein. Attracting bears isn’t usually a good idea, plus you have to have a suitable electric fence around your hives to keep the bears from tearing the hives apart. Are your neighbors okay with you having bees? Some people are extremely nervous around bees and/or highly sensitive to bee stings. And do you have a plan for overwintering them?
I’m just absorbing knowledge at this point 
How many hives do your inlaws keep? How much buzzing about is there? I’ve read that having a tall fence enclosing your yard helps force the bees to fly higher while going too and from the hive, reducing the chance of people/bee collisions.
My immediate neighbors will probably be cool with it. The neighboring house behind mine is a rental so the inhabitants change relatively often, I haven’t gotten to know them. I’m betting on proper husbandry and enticements of free honey will minimize the complaints. Don’t have an overwintering plan yet, but I have heard of Styrofoam insulated hives being adequate in this area (Northeastern Ohio). Bear activity here is essentially nonexistent.
I wouldn’t assume that the transient neighbors are okay with it. If someone ends up going to the hospital because you didn’t warn them it could be an issue. Also keep in mind that bees need food during the winter months so leave some honey for them in the fall or you will starve the hive. I’m not trying to be a buzz kill… pun intended.
Honestly I’m less concerned with the transient neighbors than the actual homeowner (the other houses immediately adjoining mine) neighbors. I can’t dictate what I will or won’t do with my yard based on the whims of folks who may not even be living there a year from now. Keeping hives is legal and encouraged in my area so I’m sticking with doing it right and proper education. My main goal is to help propagate the honeybee population and increase pollination for the gardens/flowering plants close by, honey is really a side benefit. I’m not even sure how much I’ll be able to collect from a couple of hives while leaving enough for the bees, we’ll see!
Since the OP is looking for advice, let’s move this to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Whether your neighbors are upset by your bees should be a consideration as far as where on your property to place their home, but bees are for the common good, so I would avoid creating the impression that they get any say in it. Don’t ask when their opinion will not change your actions and if they bring it up, deflect the conversation to pressuring them to get bees too, pointing out that it is encouraged in your area.
No experience with the subject, but I recently read about this, which is a hive that’s designed to make it simple to extract the honey. They claim it’s less stressful for the bees.
I kept a few boxes for a couple of seasons…learned its not easy!! Read and learn as much as you can!!!
They “tend” to not sting when full of honey, or foraging, the smoker makes use of this, but be aware of the guard bees at the hive. Dont mess with them, they go and tell the rest the rest of the hive there is trouble…and then there WILL be trouble.
Learn to be calm and not get nervous…the bees can tell and then they attack you:eek: but the honey…oh jeeez…and the honeycomb…
ps, if you have to move the hives, do it in short distances, like 20ft at a time as bees return to old location, and need to gradually find the new one.
I don’t know anything about bees other than it hurts like HELL to step on one and get a stinger in your toe. It happened to me three times last summer, when I had a little pool and was outside shoeless.
So don’t do that.
I had them in elementary school. I needed help though because the supers were too heavy to lift on my own. I don’t keep any in DC but we have a half dozen or so hives on the farm. I only help out 2x/year for the honey harvest.
Re: neighbors, I wouldn’t have the flight path pointed at any highly trafficked areas. You can raise the flight path above human level with barriers, e.g. plants, a fence, etc. Or you can stick the hives on your roof. Guard bees will sting, especially if you end up with some aggressive local bees moving in. It depends on how your property is set up.
I didn’t see what state the OP is in. This might be an issue in MT, but it was not anywhere I’ve lived. I would have to check my old records on how cold it ever got.
I’ve seen that. They are expensive, it might be something I look into after my first year or two.
Good advice, I plan to have someone take a look at my yard and suggest the most optimum spot for the hives. I’ve never heard of keeping hives on the roof, interesting! How do you tell which bees are guards, as opposed to workers and drones (I know drones are bigger)? I live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. It gets cold in the winter, but not prolonged extreme cold.
I got my first hive last Tuesday
I’ve been in the local beekeeping group for three years, did a theory course, and have been doing practical sessions for those three years. I really would advise getting at least a few hands-on sessions to go with the reading.
Personally, I wouldn’t worry about the neighbours too much, I live in a crowded English city, and plenty of people here have hives in a back garden a few metres across without problems; put a high fence around to push the flight path higher, be sensible about when you open the hive (not when the neighbours has a weed whacker out, not in stormy weather etc), and keep up with the inspections at least every 9 days to prevent swarming in summer, and they really shouldn’t cause an issue. That said, you really do need to take it seriously, irresponsible beekeeping can cause major problems.
Things to think about: do you plan on summer holidays? This is peak swarming season, so someone will need to check on your hive; it will not be cheap: you may want to get public liability insurance, because even if you do everything right, they still can sting, and some people will frankly blame a mosquito bite on your bees if they think they can (here it’s included in local beekeeping group membership).
You probably will get honey, and I’ve heard of single hives providing a harvest of over 200lbs in a season, while still leaving enough for the bees through winter, but quantity is far from guaranteed, and you may not get anything much, while still having all the expense. Do it for the fascination, the honey is a bonus if it happens. I think my ‘free honey’ will cost about £300 this year. Maybe more. And that’s if I can rent the honey extracting gear from the beekeeping ground.
I’m only a beginner, but I know enough to know it’s a serious commitment if you intend to do it properly.
Your local USDA Extension likely has resources. That may include literature, classes, training, etc.
I mentioned I started when I was a kid. If you have children (or nieces/nephews, etc.), this can be a great educational opportunity.
They’re just workers on pissed-off duty. The workers have lots of different “jobs”. Keeping the hive safe from the neighbor’s kid may be one of them. They tend to be much more aggressive line-of-sight of the hive entrance.
As quickly as possible, hobble into the house and put about a quarter of a teaspoon of meat tenderizer in the palm of your hand. Add a little water to make a paste, and apply it to the sting. Give it a tiny push, to try to get it in the wound. It will stop hurting almost immediately.
I heard about this years ago, but when I got stung, barefoot in the backyard, I remembered, and figured I might as well try it. It works!!
You can tell the guards 'cos they’re the ones getting all angsty at you 
Unlike ants, bees aren’t segregated into castes, aside from the queen and drones, they’re segregated by age instead; all worker bees that hatch start off as nurses, caring for the larvae, then start foraging, then finally guarding. At each job change, their hormone levels change, and when they go into guard mode, they get angry at everything (grumpy old bees, want you off their lawn, NOW).
This can cause a problem at the end of summer, as the colony will produce a lot more workers to forage on the summer flowers, then when all those workers age into guard mode, you can get one proper grumpy hive.
It’s all very neat, if you think about it- the danger of the jobs increases with age, leaving them kinda suicidally angry at the point they start getting worn out anyway, and the newly hatched bees are least likely to be exposed to diseases or pests, so they care for the larvae. All terribly efficient.
Good suggestions!! Especially classes, I went into keeping bees with zero experience, and sort of inherited 3 boxes and gear.
For stings, never pinch out the stringer, always scrape it out with a tool or fingernail, otherwise you end up injecting more venom as the venom sack is still attached to the stinger, it will pulse even out of the bee as well.
I got in some trouble with my hives, one of the reasons I stopped keeping them, they were mad at me for bumping the hive or something, and they attacked me.
I had a beesuit on, but I think they lifted up the wrist cuffs and snuck/sacrificed a bunch of warriors in for payback…it took a 1/4mile of running before they left me alone…still had the ones inside the suit tho…:eek: I never did figure out how they got in, I tried to be careful. I started to get nervous, sweaty and clumsy about approaching the hive, knowing I probably would get stung,…I think they knew that.
It was worth the stings tho, we would get about 40-50lbs of honey per year, in S California. Deliciousness.
edit to add: what you said Filbert makes a lot of sense to me…in retrospect!!! I was pretty clueless.
Meat tenderizer, check. I hope stings are very infrequent, I plan to wear the suits religiouslu, with cuffs duct taped LOL. But I’m sure it’ll happen sooner or later.
Thanks for the info about the the life cycle of the worker bees. i find this all very fascinating! I just got a text that the book I ordered from Amazon was delivered: “Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated, 3rd Edition: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden”.
I plan to attend classes and workshops held by the Cleveland Metroparks as well as the Greater Cleveland Beekeepers Association over the Fall and winter. If all goes well and I’m not scared off, I’m looking at setting up my first hive in the Spring.