Okay, blame it on Neil Gaiman, but I’ve suddenly been doing a little bit of reading about beekeeping. Haven’t yet really found any good introductions online yet, but I’ve only been looking for, what, ten minutes? And most of that was checking my city codes to make sure that, unlike chickens, it wasn’t illegal here.
Does anybody keep bees? Enjoy it? Is it possible to keep them in town and not have them be a nuisance? Does one get stung? Is it expensive? How exactly do you get the bees in the first place? (The mailman already doesn’t like to deliver the mail, I doubt he’d be all into packages that buzz.) I’ve never been stung by a bee. Does it hurt like hell? What if I’m allergic and don’t know it? How did you get started? Did you know somebody or did you start on your own? I want to know all about your experiences with and opinions of beekeeping.
For you to have bees, it is not necessary ot have a traditional hive. Many people are trying Mason Bees because they want the pollenation, but not the honey/hassle.
From what I have read, keeping bees in a city is not that difficult. The stock that you start with makes a big difference. I have read that people with too aggressive hives will requeen with a gentler queen.
Some city folks keep them on their roofs to keep kids/whatever away from the hive. However, it seems that putting up a fence in front of the hive opening will send the bees flying up over peoples heads which will reduce interaction.
There are MANY mail order bee sites. Typically you get a “set” which includes a marked queen. I’ve seen sets for about $25, you order them when the weather is cooler and the bees are dormant, then set them out in the hive as it gets above 55 degrees.
Another consideration if you are nervous about the start up costs, you could probably locate a beekeeper in your area and offer to “host” the hive. They are always looking for places to drop a hive and you could stipulate that you would like to learn about the process while he is tending to your foster bees. It is unlikely that he would perceive you as an economic threat to his business and the benefit to him is that he has one more hive he has a place for.
When I sell my house and move to the country, I intend to foster a hive.
My mother kept bees. Which was not fun because I had a bad experience when very young and was very afraid of them. She had about 6 hives and it meant that the top half of the garden was unusable for half the year.
If you do keep bees, make sure the hives are seperate from the rest of your garden. Plant bushes around them to force the bees up into the air so they don’t fly into people.
Do you live in a rural area? Or near a park or similar? If not, then forget it.
What will you need? Going from memory, my mother had:
The hive itself
Bees!
Some supers which you use to make the hive bigger
Hi, Opal!
Lots of frames, which you’ll make up and put in the supers, and the bees will put their honey on them.
Seperator plates, which you’ll use to stop the bees from getting at the honey after a certain point. It makes removing the supers later a lot easier.
Feeding equipment for the winter. She fed them with sugar syrup.
A smoker. Smoke makes the bees sleepy and docile.
A hot knife and plate. You use these to remove the wax caps of the honey cells.
A cylindrical extractor. Making this go was great fun for little boys.
Jars into which you put the honey.
Beekeeper suits. This is full body coverage, with a mesh grille, so you don’t get stung.
There’s probably more. My mother got great enjoyment out of it.
I’ll second the equipment list that Quartz gave, except for the full bee suit. That’s pretty hot and unwieldy in the summer. I used to use just a wide-brimmed hat with a veil, special gloves and taped pants legs and shirt cuffs.
I used to keep bees as a hobby and small business years ago starting when I was in junior high. The first bees were from a small package that arrived thru the USPO mail; all my supplies were ordered thru Sears, and I had to assemble and paint all the wooden hive parts.
I didn’t know anyone locally who kept bees, so I learned by reading books and baptism by sting. I guess anyone who has never been stung is taking a chance that they are allergic enough to be killed (it happens), although you do build up some immunity.
It was fun, and the neighbors got over their fear of my backyard hives when I brought around honey to sell to them.
One hive isn’t really cost-effective, due to the extra equipment needed just to run the operation, but more than 5 hives could occupy a lot of your time. It certainly isn’t the road to riches.
My beekeeping days were in suburban Missouri, and when I moved to Los Angeles, I checked with the local authorities about beekeeping in similar neighborhoods. They told me at the time that it was absolutely not allowed unless you were zoned agricultural. Unless there are rogue beekeepers operating speakeasy hives, I wonder how all the LA suburbs get their flowers pollinated since most are too far from ag areas.
Right now might be a really bad time to start, due to the recent bee dieoff, the cause of which is still being debated.
I read of a beekeeper who sold some honey retail in one of those roadside stands. They had a hive with plexiglass walls on display so people could see a working hive. Over the hive entrance they had a tube that led up to the roof. The bees traversed the tube just fine and nobody got stung.
Mr bones: I have 50,000 bees… I am a bee keeper!
Mr Jones: But you live in a 2 room Apartment, where do you keep them?
Mr Bones: In a shoe Box
Mr Jones… That’s impossible! They’d die!
Mr Bones Screw Em!!!
I’ve seen similar installations in a window, where the hive sits like a window air conditioner, open to the outside, visible but closed to the inside. It’s a little like watching an aquarium, but buzzier.
My mom and I took beekeeping classes when I was 6 or 7. I’m not sure how much this cost, but I learned a lot. We started with one hive and ended up with about 7 or 8 IIRC (some were given to us by my violin teacher, whose husband had abandoned his some years back.) I enjoyed the classes, and certainly appreciate my mother giving up half her Saturdays for several months to drive my 1st-grade ass out into the boonies. This is definitely something you can get kids involved in, if you have any.
Your local extension service will probably have resources for you if you’re interested.
Our mailman was not happy about delivering boxes full of agitated bees. She’d honk the horn on her truck and we’d have to go out and get them out of the back ourselves. She was less freaked out about delivering queens, since they came in a small envelope.
A very easy, very low key way to start is to make bee-houses for solitary bees. Just hang up a log of fire wood on the wall with a few holes drilled in it, and the bees will move in. I bought a pre-made house like this onefor 6 bucks or so.
The behavior of the solitary bees as they gather pollen and build a few egg-chambers in the wood is fun to watch, and lasts a couple weeks. Then for several weeks nothing happens. Then the young fledgling bees come out and start pollination of their own. But at night and when it rains, the young bees retreat to their bee-house. There are not many things cuter then seeing four little bee-faces all looking out from the same stalk of bamboo.
I had two mason bees using my bee’s house, and when I’m lucky I will have about 10 young bees. So, not too hard to handle.
Oooh! I just remembered. Decades ago I read a novella or book about a village that suddenly found itself in a post-apocalyptic world (on review Farnham’s Freehold maybe?) Everyone’s pitching in to make the village as self sustaining as possible, and one becomes the beekeeper. This not only ensures the crops are pollenated, he’s the only source for sweets so he’s very popular, and doesn’t have to work as hard as some of the farmers do. One of the others, who’s raising pigs, told him wistfully, “I wish I’d thought of that.”
I’m a small-time beekeeper, and am fairly new to it. (I’ve been doing it for three years.) I have six hives in the backyard.
It’s fun, but there are quite a few “downers” associated with keeping bees. One is the expense… it’s more expensive than what you think. And then you have to deal with diseases, parasites, swarming, colonies dying in the winter, etc.
I lost half my hives over the winter. If it happens again this winter, I will seriously consider giving up the hobby.
Beekeeper here.Enjoy it,mostly.It’s like any job.Pulling honey supers in hot weather with super populated colonies can be tedious,or delivering pollinators at small hours so they can be set up at dawn sux.
Other than that,lots of fun.But if they didn’t make honey I wouldn’t do it.
Yep,you can keep them in town,know a guy that did.Getting stung becomes a non-issue,and I agree with my mentor that it controls arthritis.Most people aren’t really allergic,but you’d want to verify that.
Expense is surely relative,since there are lots of ways to get started.South Carolina would be an easy state to keep bees.
You should probably have a minimum of three hives,it makes things more efficient (for the keeper) and gives you some options.
If you have further questions ask away.Otherwise I ramble on.
The stuff I’ve read says you don’t need to worry about the neighbors and using your yard if the bees are properly “docile”, remembering that your neighbors won’t be out on their deck in veils and gloves. How docile is docile?
Y’know a lot of people consider beekeepers part of the lunatic fringe.So your neighbors could have preconceived ideas to your detriment.
Something bees don’t like is sudden disturbance-like maybe your otherwise accepting neighbor mowing his grass or weed wacking.If I have to run anything near hives I wear the veil,something I normally eschew.
Gifts of honey establish goodwill.Usually.Mead works too.
For everything but Africanised bees,docile means they won’t bother you unless you bother them,especially in THEIR territory,meaning hive proper.Normal beekeeping doesn’t bother them.
As for getting started,the best way is live next to a kindly grandfather type beekeeper who likes children.What I did.There weren’t other kids my age around,and he had lost his wife-in hindsight I guess I was part of his grieving process.
Or,look for an older beekeeper who might help you out with info,tips,etc.I say older because someone who kept bees small scale might be looking to wind down and sell some of their equipment.Used bee boxes are the best,with caveat.
It can be a good hobby,but understand there are things that must be done without delay when they need doing.
