How to Start Beekeeping for Survival Purposes

Beekeeping as part of your survival plan will not only provide you with sweet tasting honey, but a natural healing agent as well as sustainable and substantial bartering material.

A beekeeper has ample bartering options when running a successful backyard operation. Honey can be used to prevent bacteria from getting into wounds and enhance the time it takes for the injury to heal. It has also been used as a way to preserve meat for thousands of years.

Renting out healthy beehives to farmers and gardeners (which will be everyone who wants to put a meal in their belly during a long-term disaster) to pollinate their crops, is yet another way to use your bees during a survival situation.

The beeswax created inside the hives is also a valuable bartering commodity. The wax can be used to make candles and is a base ingredient in a plethora of DIY natural salves.

Even if you are living on a small survival homestead or in the suburbs, enough space to keep bees most likely exists. As long as you are not violating local laws, establishing up to three beehives on merely a ¼ of an acre of land, is entirely possible.

You do not need to wait until a SHTF event to start making money off bees as part of your survival plan. There are only about 6,0000 beekeepers currently in operation in the United States. That might sound like a large number, but they still struggle to produce the 161 million pounds of honey that is consumed in our country each year.

Selling honey, wax, and even propolis created by the bees in your hives, could be done at a local farmer’s market, at a roadside stand on your own property, or online through retailers like ETSY.

Colony Collapse Disorder

One of the reasons beekeepers in America (and around the world) are struggling to produce as much honey as expected each season, is due to Colony Collapse Disorder. Since 2005, around 40 percent of the honeybee population in our country has died.

The population decline numbers continue to send shockwaves through the beekeeping community every year since CCD first made national headlines over a decade ago.

Why Colony Collapse Disorder remains an intensely heated topic, with none of the supposed experts being able to agree on what causes the mass deaths of bees – only that it just keeps happening.

Many beekeepers and environmentalists feel chemical pesticides with glyphosate (like Monsanto’s RoundUp Ready) as well as genetically modified seeds (GMOs) are to blame for the deaths of the pollinators we depend on for 75 percent of our food to grow.

Bees afflicted with Colony Collapse Disorder become fatigued and disoriented due to a disrupted nervous system. In this confused state, a bee often cannot find its way back to its hive, or dies of starvation even when surrounded by incredible amounts of food.

Beekeeping Equipment

Hive Stand

The beehive stand is typically comprised of wood. The purpose of the stand is to keep the hive elevated from the ground to prevent weakening and warping of the wood. This also prevents moisture from getting into it as much as possible, and prompting deadly mold to grow.

Not ever beekeeper uses a stand, but it generally extends the life of the hive and prevents unnecessary wear and tear on your back.

Hive Body

Almost every beehive is made of two parts, with one being placed directly on top of the other – this is the hive body. The top part of the hive body is where the colony actually lives and the lower portion is where the colony stores their food and baby bees.

In a properly placed hive, the lower portion is always warmer than the upper portion to help incubate the thousands of baby bees growing inside at any given time.

You can get beehives on Amazon.

Frames

The type of beehive you build or buy will dictate what type of frames you need. The frames are removable to the beekeeper can tend to the colony and the hive.

Popular manufactured hive brands include Langstroth, British National, and Warre. The frames sold to go with specific hives are sold in varying sizes – shallow, medium, and deep.

You can get frames from Amazon as well.

Beekeeper Suit

This suit prevents the beekeeper from being stung profusely and being overly exposed to propolis.

A good beekeeper suit is not exactly cheap. They can be purchased as a coverall suit or a jacket and suit combination suit. A hood with a mesh vail to better protect the face and neck as well as thick gloves, are also part of a beekeeper suit set.

Smoker

The smoker puffs smoke inside the hive in an attempt to calm the bees down before the beekeeper opens the hive for maintenance, repair, or related activities.

Beehive Tool

This manual tool is used to pry open the beehive boxes and remove frames.

Uncapping Knife

A beekeeper uses this sharp manual tool to remove beeswax cells from the interior regions of the hive body.

Mesh Screen or Bottom Board

This part of the beehive box is where the rails that support the frame are located. The bottom board or mesh screen help to make certain the honeybees are not exposed too intensely to the elements. When the honeybees get too chilled a condition referred to as “cold brood” that can kill the entire colony in one fell swoop.

A bottom board is typically used during the late fall through early spring to keep out as much cold as possible. The board is replaced by the mesh screen during the warm weather months to increase ventilation and prevent the honeybee colony from becoming overheated.

Both the board and the mesh screen can help prevent varroa mites from getting inside the beehive – which some folks blame for Colony Collapse Disorder.

Entrance Reducer

This beehive attachment is placed on the entrance to the hive body to both regulate the temperature inside and control ventilation. This is also often referred to as a cleat. It is quickly and easily manually adjusted as the weather changes.

The entrance reducer leaves about a one inch opening for the bees to fly through when it is cold outside. The entrance reduce can be increased to create a four inch wide opening during the summer months.

Super

A super is attached to the beehive to collect the honey the colony is not using. A super typically comes in two sizes – shallow and medium.

A shallow super stands a little more than five inches tall and is capable of holding up to 40 pounds of honey. A medium super stands close to seven inches tall and can hold approximately 55 pounds of honey.

Centrifuge

This beekeeper tool is also often referred to as a “super extractor.” It is optional, but highly useful. A centrifuge eliminates overly thick and slower moving honey from the super to make removal a less tedious and time consuming chore. You can find them on Amazon.

Inner Cover Tray

This type of tray is used by beekeepers who prefer to establish a hive that does not include a top feeding area for colony members. The tray goes on top of the beehive upper body to prevent the little pollinators from flying away and almost always include a ventilation hole.

Outer Cover Tray

This type of beehive cover is basically a roof that is securely placed on the upper hive body. It goes a long way in preventing debris and excess water from getting inside the hive. It really helps to keep both the honey and hive far more clean and potentially block possibly harmful bacteria from infiltrating your beekeeping operation.

Start-Up Costs

The initial investment for all of the startup beekeeping needs is roughly $500 – depending upon whether your build the hive body boxes yourself and how many hives you set up.

Beekeeping Legal Considerations

Typically, folks in rural areas can keep as many beehives as they wish. But in the suburbs, urban areas, and even small towns, restrictions (or an outright ban) could impact a planned beekeeping operation.

Examples Of Common Beekeeping Restrictions

• Hive location – A regulation requiring the location of hives no closer than 15 feet from a sidewalk or property boundary is not uncommon.
• Number of beehives
• Permits – expect to pay a fee on an annual basis if you live in an incorporated small town or larger municipality.
• Government Inspection – Before establishing an apiary, a permit fee might need paid and an inspection of the beekeeping setup may be required. Such inspection might carry a fee and be required on an annual basis.

Honeybee Colonies

Queen Bee

Every hive has to possess a queen bee to survive. Each hive will support only one queen bee, any potential contenders are either forced out or killed inside the hive. If a queen bee fails to live up to her royal duties, another female may challenge her for the throne.

The average lifespan of a queen bee is about four years. She will be most active reproductively from the late spring through the early fall.

A queen bee’s only chore is to mate and give birth to tiny pollinators. A honeybee queen typically produces thousands of baby bees annually during her peak production years. During her life span, a quality queen bee can produce up to 500,000 babies.

A colony without a queen will fly away in search of one. How a queen bee is introduced into either a new of existing colony is crucial to the success of the hive. Simply because a bee is sold as a queen does not mean the colony will accept her.

There are two ways to introduce a queen bee into a hive, the direct and the indirect method.

Introducing a Queen – The Direct Method

In this method, a beekeeper just opens up the container the queen bee arrived in, and pushes it into the beehive entrance. What happens next could go two ways.

Either drone bees will accept and welcome the queen, and allow her deeper inside the hive, or they will attack and kill her immediately. Since queen bees of good quality can cost as much as $150, smart beekeepers rarely ever uses the direct method to introduce her into the colony.

Introducing a Queen – Indirect Method

Using this method takes more time than the one above, but almost always yields more positive results. To introduce a queen bee to her colony in this manner, place the container holding the queen in the entrance or into a feeder frame where the drones can see and smell her, but not actually get to her.

Watch how the drones respond to her over the course of several days to a week. Their initial response should be inquisitive yet suspicious. The drones will likely fly near her and then quickly fly away – possibly mimicking an attack.

Hopefully, over the course of just a couple of days, the drones will fly to the queen and spend more time around her container, behaving in a protective and non-violent, manner.

Once the drones behave in this manner, it is time to release the honeybee queen into the colony – and cross your fingers she is accepted.

Drones

All drone bees are male. They too have just one job in the beehive colony – mating with the queen bee. While this might sound like a dandy job to have if you were a bee, once her royal highness is done mating with you, your life ends. If a drone bee is not up to his task, he is killed by his fellow colony members or the queen bee herself.

The average life cycle of a drone bee is only a couple of months long. It takes a lot of strength and agility to be a drone – they mate with the queen several hundred feet in the air. Drones are the lowest percentage of the population in the beehive colony.

Worker Bees

These bees can be both male or female, but in a typical beehive, most of the worker bees are gals. The average life cycle of a worker bee is about six months, unless they are born in the summertime and their lifespan is shortened to about only six weeks.

Worker bees must stockpile the colony’s food supply, create the elaborate honeycomb, and help guard the hive entrance.

Honey Bee Life Cycle

1. Eggs are laid and incubated for three days.
2. Beginning on day 3 and ending on day 10, the eggs are immature larvae and feed upon the honeycomb habitat surrounding them.
3. Worker bees deliver both nectar and pollen to the developing larvae to supplement their food source from day eight through day 16.
4. Beginning on day 14, the young honey bees start to leave the comfort of the beehive, and begin to gather their own pollen and nectar.

Honeybee Breeds

There are different breeds of bees just like any other form of livestock found on small or large homesteads. Each specific breed has distinct advantages and disadvantages, with some being more hardy to cold climates than others.

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Selecting A Honeybee Breed

• Will these bees be kept purely as part of my survival plan and as a hobby or used as a homesteading money-making endeavor, as well?
• What is my level of bee handling experience? This is especially important if considering purchasing a honeybee breed that is known to be at least somewhat aggressive, or has a tendency to swarm when startled.
• Is the breed of bees I want going to be hardy in my climate during both the winter and summer?
• How will this breed of honeybees be disease-resistant to the environment in my area?
• Will this breed and its queen be too expensive to replace if colony numbers die off or baby bees do not appear as quickly as predicted?

Top 5 Honey Bee Breeds

1. Italian

They are light yellow with a striped belly. Italians are recommended for beginner beekeepers because they are far less aggressive than other breeds. Italian bees are not cold climate hard, but are diligent workers, great at producing quality honey, avid foragers, and disease resistant.

2. Carniolans

This is a small stature honeybee that is a dark brown shade with brown spots. They are also a fairly docile breed and not prone to swarming. Carniolans are avid foragers, cold weather hard, disease resistant, and although they make a great tasting honey they produce a lesser quantity than some other breeds.

3. Caucasian Bees

This honeybee breed is a shade of light silver with brown adornment. They are cold weather hardy, and will even forage for nectar and pollen when it’s chilly, reducing the amount of supplemental feed they require during the cold weather months.

Their honey is sweet and delicious, but also not produced in a quantity as high as Italians and several other breeds. Caucasian honey bees produce significant levels of propolis, which means the hive will need cleaning more often. They are not disease resistant.

4. Russians

This breed of honeybees is one of the most disease resistant, even when it comes to mites. Russians are either dark brown of black in color. They are cold weather hard and adapt well to a change in habitat.

This breed of honeybee is also excellent as warding off attacks by other bees attempting to take over their hive. They are somewhat aggressive in nature and will swarm if they fill too confined inside their hive. Russians also refuse to fly far in search of a food source.

5. Buckfast

These yellow honeybees with brown stripes area cross between Italian and European honeybees. They are exceptional pollinators, extremely docile, and very mite and disease resistant.

Buckfast honey bees are best kept in warm climates as they are not cold weather hardy, and require a higher level of supplemental food when the temperature drops than most other breeds.

Honeybee Buying Tips

1. When possible, buy bees from a local apiary so they are already hardened to your native climate.
2. While queen bees are sold individually, drones and workers can be purchased in small amounts or 100 or so at a time.
3. Honeybees can also be purchased in a nucleus – or nuc. This might be the most expensive way to purchase bees, but you are getting an established colony in proper proportions of members and an accepted queen.
4. If you must buy bees online, plan ahead. It would be rare for beekeepers to be willing to ship bees during cold weather months. Exposing them to the stress of shipment typically can result in a small amount of colony member loss. Shipping bees during cold weather, especially if doing so results in a substantial change in climate, the deaths would be far greater.
5. Always check on a warranty for the honeybees, especially if they are being shipped. Sometimes a beekeeper will offer a partial refund for a replacement queen if the colony refuses to accept her.
6. Attracting wild bees to a hive is strongly discouraged for newbie keepers. Heck, many expert beekeepers advise against it for anyone. It can be done, but the chance of swarming is just too great, even though you would acquire expert foragers that are hardened to your specific climate and against localized diseases.

Questions to Ask Before Buying Honeybees

1. Where are the bees from?
2. What breed are the bees?
3. How many frames are included when purchasing either a full colony set or a nuc.
4. What breed are the bees?
5. What equipment the beekeeper used and his or her sanitary practices if the equipment is reused after a colony is sold.
6. Never be shy about asking for references from local beekeepers.

Installing Honeybee Tips

It is always best to introduce honey bees into a hive from their package during the afternoon. That time of day is the warmest and offers the most light inside the hive, allowing them to become better acquainted with their new living corners without adding extra stress.

Always provide some supplemental food during the installation process, regardless of the time of year. Sugar water is what most commercially raised bees will be most accustomed to eating.

Offer the supplemental food about every 15 to 30 minutes to ensure every bee gets to eat and to teach the pollinators this is where they can expect to be well fed and safe.

Keep the area around the hive quiet and calm. Keep pets and curious children away from the hive for several days to avoid the colony members from feeling threatened – which can lead to a desire to swarm.

How to Install Bees Into a Hive

1. Put on your beekeeping gear.
2. Light up your beehive smoker and keep plenty of fuel at hand just in case the smoke runs out before you get any problem bees safely ushered into their new home.
3. Before opening the package the bees arrived in, bump it gently on the ground so that all of the bees are loosened from the lid where they have surely congregated.
4. Carefully cut an opening the package using a sharp knife. This process goes far better when two people are involved – one to deal with the container of honeybees and the other to work the smoker.
5. Remove the feeder from the container of honeybees. If the package containing the queen is inside the main container, remove that as well.
6. Using a soft bristled brush to gently and carefully remove any stubborn bees that are still attached to the lid of the transportation container of the container housing the queen bee so they are urged to remain on the bottom of the container.
7. Close the lid on the package to deter the honeybees from getting out and flying away.
8. Review the state of the queen to make sure she is both alive and up and walking around inside of her container amid all of the excitement. If the queen is dead or does not look healthy, it is unlikely the new colony will remain in the hive. Calling the breeder or shipper is an immediate must.
9. If the queen bee is healthy, place her inside on of the bars – frames in the hive. She should be away from the entrance. Using paper clips, hand her container onto the bar or frame. The adjacent bars – frames will be where the honeycomb is formed to feed your new bee colony.
10. Pick a deep spot in the hive bars – frame to cultivate as the living quarters for the colony.
11. Open the container again and carefully scoop out a small group of bees with a coffee cup or similar smooth and safe cup or bowl.
12. Put the bees near the queen. The honeybees should begin to cluster around her container in an effort to protect her. In doing so, they will release pheromones that will call the other bees into the hive.
13. Wait a few minutes before place placing the rest of the bees into the same space as the first small group.
14. Use the smoker to keep any bees that want to fly back out of the hive, back inside.
15. Put the top bars – frames and lid back on the hive.

Hive Installation Checklist

First Review

Wait a couple of hours to let the bees settle down and then check to make sure the colony is still clustering around the bee. If this is not happening, it likely means another female is attempting to emerge as the queen bee.

Such a challenge so soon after the colony has been installed means chaos will erupt inside your new beehive. Finding and getting rid of the second queen has to be done – as quickly and safely as possible.

You will likely need help and a smoker to accomplish this task. Look for bees clustering around the wannabe queen. Removing her may mean you will lose some of her protectors, as well.

Next, place your own supplemental feeder into the hive. The bees will still be in a state of agitation at so much disruption – so keep that smoker handy. It is best to place the feeder near the queen bee where colony members are already clustering.

Second Review

As hard as it may be, wait a full three days before poking your head into the new beehive again. The honeybees should be flying around inside of their hive. They may be doing this in a slightly disorganized manner, but this is normal behavior as they get better acquainted with the new and spacious surroundings.

Not all of the honeybees will survive the transport and acclimate into the new hive. You will also probably see what beekeepers dub, “undertaker bees” carrying out their dead colony members to protect the hive from disease as their tiny bodies decay.

By three or four days in you should be able to sit near the hive and witness worker bees flying pollen and nectar back into the hive. If such behavior is not occurring, contact the beekeeper or shipper the colony was purchased from immediately.

Third Review

By day four or five after the release into the hive, it is time to free her royal highness from her private shipping container. Be very careful when adjusting bars or frames to release the queen. The newly developing honeycomb will be extremely fragile at this point.

Expect the worker bees to have attempted to free the queen on their own by this stage. Watch quietly for about 30 minutes or so to make sure the colony is accepting the queen after her release before closing up the hive.

Fourth Review

At the end of the first week, open up the hive again to see if the queen bee is laying eggs. If no little honey bee eggs can be found, the hive is not functioning properly and the beekeeper or shipper must be contacted.
https://youtu.be/zDZDYgBkCx0

Nuc Installation

A nucleus colony generally consists of five frames. Three of these five frames will already contain honey, stores of pollen, and an active brooder. The queen bee has already been introduced into the colony of honeybees and is respected as their leader.

How To Install A Nuc

Installing a nuc is far less taxing than installing honeybees from a container with a separated queen. The possibility of a swarming when releasing a nuc is typically far less likely than a similar and shocking turn of events happening when releasing container bees.

1. Put on your beekeeping gear and get a smoker ready – but it is unlikely you will need to use it.
2. Double check the measurements on the nuc frames to make certain they will fit your hive.
3. Adjust any frames in your hive so there is ample room to install the nuc ones. The filled frames must be placed in the hive in the exact same order as they were packaged.
4. Put the supplemental feeder in the hive and fill it with the sugar water syrup mixture.
5. If a queen excluder came with the nuc or you purchased one, install it now. The tool prevents the large queen from leaving the hive while she get acclimated into her new home. This tool may also prevent swarming because only a single worker or drone bee can exist at any one time.
6. Follow the same beehive review steps as noted above after closing the lid on your box after putting the nuc frames in place.

Beehive Location

The amount of space required for each individual hive will depend on the size of the hive body boxes.

Average Hive Measurements

• A Langstroth beehive, one of the most popular varieties in the United States, stands about 16 inches by 22 inches.
• A Top Bar beehive, also a popular model, stands about 40 x 20 inches

While beekeeping is most often associated with rural and to a lesser degree, suburban areas, thousands of urban residents have now taken up this valuable survival skill as a profitable hobby as well.

The possibility of urban beekeeping is enhanced if your building allows rooftop use for apartment dwellers to garden or for similar use. Setting up beehives on a rooftop is not the typical environment, but it can be turned into a viable one by adding attractive plants and pots in portable containers.

Urban gardens have nearly become commonplace in most cities. Working with local urban gardeners or a growing co-op is yet another way to cultivate honeybees outside of an typical agricultural area.

Vacant and neglected lots are an eyesore – and a perfect place to start an apiary and urban garden in metropolitan areas. Rosebay willowherb is one of the first plants to pop up after a building has been torn down or left in a stage of neglect. Honeybees will naturally appear in such locations because of the abundance of a reliable food source.

Tips For Urban Beekeepers

• Join a beekeeping group that is focused on establishing or enhancing apiaries in urban areas, or at least find an experienced beekeeper in the city to learn from and shadow.
• You will need both the time and access to check on the hive at least once a week. You will need a secure place to store your beekeeping equipment either near the hives or within a short distance that allows for easy access. Toting all of your beekeeping equipment up a fire escape simply is not viable – especially during the long winter months.

Beehive Entrance

There is a reason the phrase “made a beeline” was coined. A honeybee always prefers to fly quickly in a straight line to get to its food and water source and back home again. Place the beehives as close to their food source as possible and make sure the area is not filled with obstacles in the flight zone from the entrance to sustenance.

Placing a beehive directly in the garden, fruit grove, or near wild berry bushes is highly recommended. There is no reason for all of the beehives to be located in the same area or covered with a lean to, unless local law dictates such practices.

You will likely need to adjust the direction the hive entrance faces as the seasons change. During the summer months, the beehive entrance should not face towards the south like it does in the winter to prevent overexposure to heat.

Beehive Setup

Hive Feeder – Multiple different types of hive feeder exist for a nominal price.

Feeder Frame – A feeder frame is a popular option for providing supplemental food to the colony without exposing is to added moisture or debris – or creating extra waste the hive must be opened to clean.

Ladder Feeder – These are another affordable and popular hive feeder option. The ladder is placed inside the hive at an angle so a large amount of colony members can use it from multiple sides at any one time. This is an added safety feature designed to help prevent honeybees from crawling into a feeder tray and becoming trapped in the sticky supplemental food source.

Not all hive feeders ware designed to fit universally with differing manufactured or homemade hives. Read the description of the hive feeder carefully to make sure it will function and fit properly in your beehives.

If you choose to make your own hive feeder, make sure to keep it shallow and narrow to help prevent honeybees from crawling into it.

Supplemental Feed

Honeybees do not usually require supplemental feed until it gets closer to winter time. You can buy manufactured supplemental feed for bees, but it is easy to make – and far cheaper, as well.

My honeybee supplemental feed recipe will provide nutrients for a pollinator colony that weighs approximately 120 pounds – approximately 100 bees.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds of sugar
• 1 gallon of water

Directions

1. Mix the water and sugar together.
2. Pour the mixture into a shallow hive feeder or outside of the hive in a shallow bird bath. While honeybees love water, they can drown in liquid that is only 1 inch deep.

Honeybee Food

Plant or provide the following honeybee high nutrient options for your colony to forage or be fed during cold weather months.

• Pumpkin
• Calendula
• Echinacea
• Lemon Balm
• Mint
• Thyme
• Sunflowers
• Pollen patties
• Marshmallows
• Their own honey
• Fondant icing

Water

Provide clean water for honey bees at all times, especially during times of intense heat, humidity, and drought like conditions. Remember to keep any container user to provide water less than 1 inch deep.

Beehive Space

Beehives will rarely roam more than six to 10 feet from their hive in search of food. Hive, regardless of size, should be placed about 10 feet apart. Novice beekeepers often place hives right next to each other, this is a very bad idea.

Placing hives too closely together will result in fighting for food and water. It can often cause bees to become confused and fly into the wrong hive and get attacked.

Beehive Maintenance Tips

• Review the hive and engage in maintenance when most of the colony is busy out searching for pollen and nectar. This practice reduces the chances of swarming. A warm and sunny afternoon is the best time to do maintenance on a beehive.
• Even if most of the bees are out doing their food gathering chores, blow a few blasts of smoke into the hive just to be on the safe side – but only a few. If the bees are bombarded by too much smoke they will be incited to panic thinking the hive is on five and flee..or swarm.
• Always wear only clean beekeeping gear. The scent the bees leave when landing on your protective wear will attract bees to you and encourage their desire to sting.
• Checking on the honeycomb is second in importance to making sure the queen bee is alive and healthy. Without a sturdy and proper honeycomb, you will not be getting any honey.
• As the cold weather months are looming, consider relocating your hive to a sunnier spot and make sure the entrance is facing the south. In the Midwest, winter preparation of hives should begin by the end of October or the beginning of November. Do not move the hive until just before dark when all of the worker bees have made it back inside.
• I recommend moving the beehive only a few feet a day so the change in location is less noticeable to the colony. The least amount of disruption to their daily routine and direct access to a food and water source is vital.
• When moving the hive, especially if relocating it a large distance, temporarily block the entrance so the colony cannot fly out – but still maintains proper ventilation.
• During the cold weather months, if you notice the bees huddling together in a cluster when you do hive reviews, they are not warm enough. Being exposed to too much cold and moisture can make the honeybees sick or kill them. Consider relocating the hive, insulation the exterior of the hive with cardboard duct taped around the side or dirt mounds, and open the lid slightly on unseasonably warm days for about a half an hour to dry up excess moisture.

Common Honey Bee Pests

• Tracheal Mites – These internal parasites both live and then breed inside the the same tracheal tubes the little pollinators need to breathe. Due to their microscopic size, even experienced beekeepers do not realize they are in the midst of a bad infestation until bees begin to die off in significant amounts. Fumigants that are recommended to spray in hives can prevent or control tracheal mite infestations.
• Varroa Mites – These parasites are perhaps the number one honey bee pest. Varroa mites feed off of the bee pupae and the blood of mature bees. Varroa mite infestations weaken the bees and can cause the development of pathogens and viruses that are capable of wiping out an entire colony. Fumigants can help prevent these deadly mites, but none are entirely successful at the task.
• Small Hive Beetle – These tiny beetles invade the beehive and create foreign waste and debris inside the home of the pollinators. Using fumigants will kill or run them off in most cases.
• Wax Moth – The moths infiltrate a hive and cause severe damage to the honeycomb. Keeping the hive clean and the colony healthy is the best defense against wax moths. When extra portions of honeycomb are removed from the hive, store them in a protective container until after the first hard frost before winter to avoid attracting theses pests. Beehive that have proper ventilation and sunlight are less likely to be infiltrated by wax moths. Fumigation products designed specifically to combat these moths will be necessary to get rid of them.

Honey Bee Disease

Foulbrood

Foulbrood is both a lethal and contagious disease that can spread not only from hive to hive on the same property, but to those well beyond. It is caused by spores formed from bacteria. Foulbrood causes honey bee larvae to die after their cells in the honeycomb become encapsulated – preventing the worker bees from doing their job and delivering pollen and nectar.

This honey bee diseases weakens the entire colony and makes it far more susceptible to “robber bees” from coming in and taking over or stealing all of the honey. Antibiotics can help prevent the spread of Foulbrood temporarily, but not completely stop of prevent it. Colonies and hive infested with Foulbrood must be burnt to stop the spread.

Chalkbrood

This fungal disease typically materializes during the early weeks of spring. Beekeepers typically only know their hive has been affected when they find larvae stricken with chalkbrood near the beehive entrance.

There is no cure for this honey bee disease but it rarely ever has a serious impact on the colony. Sterilizing the wood portions of the hive and throwing away the honeycomb usually prevents the spread of chalkbrood.

Sacbrood Virus

This beehive disease is mildly contagious and impact only larvae. Introducing a new queen into the colony often stops the spread of the disease because it interrupts the brood cycle long enough for worker bees to get rid of the infected larvae.

Beginner Beekeeping FAQ

Make sure you can answer these questions before investing several hundred dollars in beekeeping equipment, hives, and the honeybees themselves.

Is beekeeping for me?

If you are allergic to bees, even in the slightest, this survival skill should not be on your agenda. Beekeeping means not just diligent work for the bees, but for you – if you want to keep them alive and producing.

Can beekeeping be profitable?

Beekeeping can be very profitable – as long as the bees do not die due to poor apiary husbandry practices…or bad luck. You could recoop your investment in beekeeping tools, hives, and bees the very first season.

As noted above, you can sell the honey, wax, and propolis that the colony creates. Organically grown honey can sell for up to $12 a pint. A 1 pound brick of wax commonly sells for about $8 to $10, and harvested propolis about $11 an ounce.

When’s the best time to start keeping?

The best time to start beekeeping is during the middle to late spring, after the winter chill and last chance of frost is over. A beginning beekeeper will often struggle with keeping a colony alive in chilly weather at least that first year.

Starting in the spring gives both you and the colony time to get acclimated to the tending of the hive during moderate weather. The bees will do best when they can start foraging for food right away and not get reliant upon supplemental feed or fly away in a desperate search for a natural food source.

How much time should I devote to it – at minimum?

At the bare minimum, you will need at least one hour a week to inspect the hive. Once the colony starts producing honey that will need to be harvested and processed, factor in at least three hours a week of work for maintaining the hive and processing what it produces to stockpile and – or sell.

Before purchasing honeybees, meet with local or regional keepers to garner advice from experts in your own environment and climate. Taking a class locally or online is also highly recommended.

Local beekeepers also may be your best resource for discovering regulations pertaining to creating an apiary in your area and the best place to score good deals on quality honeybees, gear, and supplies.

Do not be discouraged if all of your bees die the first year operating an apiary. Such a disappointing failure is often the case when just starting out – or even into the second year. It takes a little while to learn how to keep the bees alive and more often than not, Mother Nature can be your worst enemy.

A cold snap, drought and intense heat, or a case of Foulbrood roaming around where you live, is all that it will take to wipe out an entire colony – no matter how experienced of a keeper is watching over them.