Beekeeping: FAQs, and tips.

If you are just getting started with beekeeping or doing it already, and you want to know more about bees then you have come to the right place.

Here are some the frequently asked beekeeping from our community. We have answered them in our podcast but we also wanted to share it with you on this blog.

So have fun and here’s a little more about beekeeping!

What are the best flowers for beekeeping?

Just flowers in general, they will pollinate every single flower. Also, google flowers in season and plant them, like winter, spring, fall, and even summer flowers. Find plants that flower in your area in every season.

Have all these seasonal flowers planted so you will have flowers all year round. Your bees won’t have to go far to look for flowers to pollinate when the season changes.

Also, you might want to plant bee balm. This flower is our personal favorite and bees highly prefer it, hence the name.

Is there a specific way to introduce the queen to the new nest after purchasing a nuc or a box?

If you are getting a box of bees it comes with a queen in it already. When you open that package they will automatically acclimate to that queen over time.

Now, there is such a thing as a requeening that happens when there is no queen in your box. There are times that queens die. Usually, if that happens they’ll replenish and make another queen before she dies.

In some instances, people will kill the queen if they see that she is not doing a good job and then introduce the new Queen. It’s like other livestock. You want the genes to be strong. She might have a bad laying pattern, or be laying a lot of male drones, or just be getting older in age. I totally don’t agree with replacing the queen because she is old. But some people do, do it.

It is natural that you see some pests inside a hive, like roaches and beetles. Bees can manage a specific amount of these pests but when they take over or they increase it is a sure sign that it is a weak hive usually its because the queen isn’t laying well. Or the hive has just gotten weak.

Don’t give up though, to help the hive thrive we can help them build their immune systems. You can give them protein packs, you can feed them thyme and chamomile is good too, using medical grade essential oils is a good solution also.

Anything just to encourage their vitality during these introductions of a new queen or changes.

How expensive is it to start beekeeping?

To get started with beekeeping, it depends on your thoughts of what is expensive or not, but I would say you probably want to plan for about $400 if you are just getting started with a new hive and bees.

For types of equipment, you can sometimes score used equipments. You can look around for it.

How intensive is beekeeping? Can you do it alone?

It can totally be as simple or as easy as you want it to be. It is totally sort of what you make it like. 

There are different levels of beekeeping, so it does affect how intensive it can be. It also depends on your goals with beekeeping. If you really just want pollinators, which is a very valuable thing these days, then you won’t even need a bee suit for it. You can just leave the hive as it is.

If you are doing this to help the bee population as much as possible, then it won’t be intensive. 

Figuring it out as you go

You can figure out beekeeping as you go. You can also read some great books that can help you along. There is the top bar beekeeping book that I really like, but even though I am reading about it, I really don’t learn until I am at the hive.

I am like, “Okay, I don’t want to keep the honey at the entrance. I want to make it so that they can get in or out easily.”

For the books, I also do recommend the Beekeeping for Dummies. It is the usual go-to book for beginners. You can also browse the internet for tips.

So there are lots of resources out there, but as the Jewish humor goes, “If you ask a rabbi a question you will get three answers.”

It is the same for beekeeping, if you ask every beekeeper they will have their own opinion and whatever they say is the most right answer simple because beekeeping is their passion.

Hence, I have this mindset that what works best for me and how I can replicate nature as much as possible for the bees because they are wild creatures, you know.

How far away should the bees be from your home?

You can have them right next to your house. I would encourage you to consider the flight of the bees. Just make sure that you won’t walk into their flight path on the regular. If you are really tight on space you can put up a little fence to make them fly higher faster.

The best direction that your hive should face?

You can just actually face all of your hive in one direction and if the bees want to come out of the other way they’ll find a way. So usually there is an entrance on one side and there’s one on the other. They will just go back and forth according to whatever place they are pollinating.

There is also a theory that you should face their hive towards where the sun rises, so east. The sun rises right into their hive and kind of wakes them up earlier. 

But usually, the bees will make an entrance towards the place they are pollinating. 

Want to know more about bees and beekeeping?

That’s it, for now. We hope it is helpful. If you have any information join our group and put your questions there.

Our community is getting very inspired to share all the little things that we’re doing and we would like to hear from you about what you are doing because like we believe we’re better together.

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