Bees: My First Little Farm Animals

Why Bees?

How did I ever get myself into keeping bees? I would never have thought that someday I would be so excited with starting new bee hives in the spring! What started me on this?

Towards a Farm?

Well, you see, I want to farm. But I was wondering how I could get there from here. So, I suppose the idea of keeping bees sparked my interest because I thought they might be something agricultural I could work on without any land. In a way, they use other farmer's fields as a sort of aerial pasture. Bees could be my first little farm animals.

I could learn so many things from bees - how to carefully manage a resource, how important it is to notice the cycles in nature every year, how to profitably invest money, how to efficiently schedule my work, and how to listen to the advice of older experienced beekeepers!

The way I saw it, beekeeping had a lot of things going for it. It will not cost much to get into. Bees don't take up much room. Even if I don't sell any, I know my family will use all the bee products. And bees can grow as I grow. They could become a little honey business someday.

Anyway, these all seemed good reasons, and knowing I would enjoy this project, I took the next step.

How I Started in Bees

A friend of our family's who used to keep bees, suggested that I order a beginner's kit, with a "package of bees." He recommend the name "Dadant & Sons." I found Dadant & Sons, Inc. on the Web, and I called their Hamilton, Illinois office. The man answering the phone told me that their beginner's kit was $120, and that York Bee Company in Jesup, Georgia would be a good package bee supplier. He suggested that I order the kit before I order the bees so I would have time to put it together. When I called York Bee Co., a nice lady with a southern accent told me that a three pound package was what I probably needed, and that the Midnite hybrid was their most gentle bee. With shipping, the bees would come to $60.

The next week when my kit came in the mail, I laid it out on the table: First Lessons in Beekeeping, a face veil, gloves, a bee smoker, a hive tool, a sugar feeder and all the parts I needed to build a hive. I put my beautiful new hive together in the next couple of days, and painted it white and set it up in a quiet spot in our back yard. Then I sat down to read my beginner beekeeper's book cover to cover, several times.

Sometime the next week the mailman called to say that somebody had better come quick and pick up a very noisy package of insects that had come that morning. No one at the post office wanted to touch it. I installed my bees in their new home that evening.

This year I've had a lot of jobs to do: feed sugar syrup, read more books, check my bees for diseases, manage supers and frames, talk to local beekeepers, add another story on my hive as it grew, extract honey in the fall with a beekeeper who lent me his extractor, make a candle from my extra beeswax, make a mess on Mom's kitchen floor putting my honey in jars. . .

A Learning Experience

I've learned a lot this year. I wonder if I can even remember it all. And it has not all been about bees. I've leaned how to plan out my year, some things about how to manage livestock (although my animals are small in size, they are large in heart). I learned how to be observant and keep my eyes open for any problems, and when to add honey supers and take them off. I learned to listen to advice. . . I hope. . . I've learned not to get big ideas. . . And I am learning to wait for slow, natural processes. You know, I would never learn all these things in a textbook. I love this way of learning.

Did you know that honey bees are the world's greatest garden pollinators! My mother has been complaining to me that my bees are all over her garden. She is getting too many vegetables, especially zucchini squash, and she wants them to stop. (She is teasing me of course.) Because of recent epidemics of exotic bee diseases all over North America, almost all wild honey bee colonies have died. You may have noticed that your apple trees don't produce as well as they used to, or that your watermelons are small and not very sweet. I'll bet you haven't seen anything but bumblebees buzzing around recently. Gardeners, farmers, and commercial growers have noticed these same problems. This is because two species of Asian bee mites have killed off all wild honey bees. These mites are called Acarapis woodi "tracheal" mites and Varroa jacobsoni mites. Commercial growers are having to rely on beekeepers to pollinate their crops. If you still want a good garden, or orchard, or berry patch, you will need to keep a bee hive on your property.

I was nervous the first time I suited-up and opened the hive. Now, I know my bees are very gentle. A honeybee loses her life when she stings me - she tears part of her abdomen out doing it. I only get stung when I accidentally pinch a little bee or make them mad by swatting at them.

At first I worried about my hive every day. I wondered, will my bees all die off? Will they catch some terrible disease and I won't know what to do? Will I miss some crucial step to make them comfortable and will they all abscond and fly away? Will I get stung to death? Do I really know what I'm getting into? Now, I know there actually isn't much which can go wrong. The bees know what they are doing. I'm just there to do a reasonably good job of following the instructions in my First Lessons in Beekeeping book. The instincts God puts into bees will smooth over my beginner mistakes.

I've learned some things about people also. Beekeepers are nice to get to know - they are sort of like ham radio operators: they are independent minded folks who like to use their own methods. They are opinionated, very generous to their new converts, and well networked in clubs and associations.

Now that I've experienced bees, I can say that they have some very endearing qualities. The smells of a beehive are something I fell in love with right away. On a warm summer afternoon you can walk up to a busy hive and catch distinctive whiffs of sweet bee smells: fresh honey has a smell, bees wax and propolis (bee glue) all have smells. Bees let off a floral fragrance at the entrance of their hive to guide field workers home. And, oddly enough, bees give off a smell when they sting me. Watching the bee traffic at the hive entrance is also wonderful. Guard bees are like air traffic controllers managing the incoming foragers and checking them out. Pollen gatherers arrive with brightly colored pollen baskets on their hind legs. Grooming bees clean each other as they work. These pets might not appreciate my work for them like my dog does, but I enjoy them none the less.

You Want to Begin with Bees?

If you want to start a beehive, I will lend you the same suggestions they gave me:

• Buy a beginner's kit from Dadant or another reputable supplier and a three pound package of bees.
• The best month to start a hive is April, when dandelions first begin to flower, when fruit trees are in bloom, and when day-time temperatures are warm. Some beekeepers advise beginning with two colonies the first year. This way, if one happens to die, you still have another one to encourage you.
• Read First Lessons in Beekeeping and carefully follow everything it says.
• Contact your local county extension office to find some local beekeepers, the state organizations, and newsletters, and to get any free state publications on bees.
• Don't expect to harvest much honey in your first year. I made three gallons, but in some areas of the country you will not get any until the second year when the hive grows stronger.
• Expand your apiary (bee yard) slowly by doubling your hives each year until you are as big as you want to be. Think about planning a few intensively managed hives which are very productive, instead of a big yard of mediocre hives.
• Different people have different objectives in keeping bees. Tailor your beekeeping to what you want: -Some people just enjoy working with their bees on weekends. All they want out of their hobby are a few combs of honey to share with their friends and neighbors. -Some people get into beekeeping big time, and become commercial honey producers. They expand to hundreds of hives - divided up among several bee yards - and then sell honey by the five gallon bucket. They buy expensive equipment and big honey extractors. -Some people experiment with their bees and test new hive management systems and complicated techniques in order to beat the world's record hive production of 404 pounds of honey in one year. They breed specialized bee races which are better adapted to their climate and then raise their own queens. -Some people just like to make perfect little samples of comb and perfect little bear bottles of golden honey.

Where Will It Go?

Where do I plan to go with my beekeeping? So far, bees have been a way for me to put my foot in the door of a farming way of life. And as I grow this spring by starting more hives, I hope I will get a better idea whether I want to go further by building a little farm.

Resources

Dadant & Sons

51 South 2nd Street
Hamilton, Illinois 62341
1-217-847-3324
www.dadant.com

Dadant has been in the beekeeping supply business since the 1800s. I ordered a beginner's kit from them for $120 which had everything I needed to start beekeeping, except the bees, including all the parts for a hive and the equipment to handle my bees. First Lessons in Beekeeping is a book Dadant included in my kit. It taught me all the steps I needed to follow my first year. I ordered my kit a few weeks before my bees in order to allow enough time to put it together.

York Bee Company

Box 307
Jesup, Georgia 31598
1-912-427-7311

I ordered my first package of bees from York. Midnite hybrid bees are bred to be gentle and easy to manage. In 1998 my three pound package cost about $40 plus $20 for Post Office shipping.

American Bee Journal

51 South 2nd Street
Hamilton, Illinois 62341
1-217-847-3324
www.dadant.com

ABJ is a Dadant publication, and I've learned a lot of practical tips from it, along with a good understanding of the modern issues affecting beekeepers.

Brushy Mountain Bee Farm

610 Bethany Church Road
Moravian Falls, North Carolina 28654
1-800-233-7929
www.beeequipment.com

Brushy Mountain's catalog has a wide selection of supplies and has some pages of useful beekeeping tips.

Mann Lake Ltd.

501 South 1st Street
Hackensack, Minnesota 56452
1-800-233-6663
www.mannlakeltd.com

Mann Lake has some of the best prices and a wide selection of beekeeping equipment.

Walter T. Kelley

3107 Elizabethtown Road
Box 240
Clarkson, Kentucky 42726

Walter T. Kelley is another older, well-respected manufacturer of bee supplies.

Glorybee

Box 2744
Eugene, Oregon 97402
1-800-456-7923
www.glorybee.com

Glorybee has a beautiful, full color catalog of everything having to do with bees.

The Internet

I have found an Email list which has been more informative than any other resource. BEE-L list is an "Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology." To subscribe to this list, send the message "SUBSCRIBE" to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

The Newsgroup sci.agriculture.beekeeping is the most active beekeeping newsgroup. Several of the questions I have posted have been answered.

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