Buying Your First Hive

Learning is the first stop in beekeeping. Beekeeping is as old as any agricultural practice.

Just as there are hundreds of ways to successfully grow a crop, there are also that many ways to manage bees.

Our first advice for every beginning beekeeper is to learn as much as you possibly can.

Books, beekeeping videos, online forums, local beekeeping associations will all be invaluable to your learning and research.Beekeeping management books are key, as are hive specific books that explain management in specific hive types. Bee biology books written specifically with beekeepers in mind will build a solid foundation for your learning, successes, and knowledge base.

Many new beekeepers fret long and hard about where to place their hives. We can make it easy.

If you have a spot that has early morning sun and some shade in the afternoon that is also easy for you and your family to maneuver around, perfect. If you're in a very warm climate, you will probably want more afternoon shade. Bees are very adaptable creatures and can usually make almost any location work as long as there is food and water in the surrounding area.

Beekeeping is geographical.

Where you are and where your bees are living will dictate the seasons they encounter, the forage they gather, and the extremity of temperatures they might experience. Of course, beekeeping in Maine is very different than beekeeping in Arizona!

We suggest finding local beekeepers to talk to and local groups to meet up with.

Even if you don’t agree with a beekeeper's management style or advice, you can learn a lot about what your localbeekeeping experience might be and how seasonality will play out in your area.

What do your bees need besides a sturdy well-made hive? Food and water, of course!

Something that often surprises new beekeepers to learn is that bees struggle to thrive in rural areas, as there is often not enough seasonally staggered forage to allow them to build up large enough food stores. Monoculture means large swaths of one plant blooming at one time; bees need food at every part of each season, spring through autumn. For this reason, bees often do very well in populated areas. A density of people also often means less usage of agricultural chemicals, which can be hard on and harmful to bees. And since urban areas tend to have an array of plantings, there is usually something for the bees to be foraging upon! Water is very important for bees. Not only do they need it for hydration, they also use it to bring nectar to the right consistency to create honey or bee bread. A simple way to keep your bees out of your neighbor’s chlorine treated pool, is to provide them with a slope sided bird bath and fresh water or a shallow bowl with a few pieces of floating bark or cork — just something they can safely stand upon while drinking.