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DIY Backyard Beekeeping: A Guide for Beginners

If you can garden, you can be a beekeeper. Here are the first steps:the questions to ask, the equipment you'll need and how to choose theright bees.

By Kim Flottum

Why Be a BackyardBeekeeper?

If you can garden, you can be abeekeeper. It takes about thesame amount of time and effortto keep your veggies producingas it does to keep bees. One bigbonus of beekeeping: They helpyour vegetables, flower andother garden plants thrive! Oh,and then -- of course -- there'sthe honey (not to mention the joyof a new hobby, and theknowledge that you're doingsomething to help bees at a timewhen this critical pollinator is incrisis).

The Daily Green asked our ownKim Flottum, The Beekeeper blogger, to outline the first steps you'd need to take to get started.Happy beekeeping!

- Dan Shapley

Photo Credit: Irina Tischenko / Istock

First Questions

There are several things youshould consider before youbecome a beekeeper, but theyare no different than if you wereto going to begin caring for anyother animal ... dogs, cats,chickens or llamas.

First, where will you keep them?Many beginners don’t even thinkbeyond their backyards, andthat's a good place to start, butdon’t take bees, backyards,zoning, neighbors and yourfamily for granted. Check themall out first.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Check Your Yard, theLaw ... and Your Family

Is your backyard big enough fora beehive or two? A typical sizedcity lot of about a tenth of anacre or so, even one as large aslarge as a half acre canaccommodate one or maybe twocolonies when there are otherspace considerations -- like afamily that uses the backyard forrecreational play, cookouts,family pets or a flower orvegetable garden.

Do your zoning regulationspermit bees where you live?Check before you go furtherbecause you may be violatingsome local ordinance or otherand the zoning police frown oncitizens breaking these taboos.

And of course your family needsto sign off on this enterprise.Your spouse, kids, pets … allneed to know that bees will bearound. Is anyone allergic thesting of a honey bee? A tinypercent of the population is youknow (just like peanuts, shellfishor horseradish) … maybe you

are and don't know it. If you don't know … say, from a previous experience, get tested by a familydoctor. Emergency room trips are scary, and expensive.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

And Don't Forget YourNeighbors

What about neighbors? Youneed to go through the sameprocedures. This is especiallytrue if you haven't had thechance to provide a screen orother sight-barrier yet, or if yourhives are just plain out in theopen. Even though having beesmay be legal where you are,enduring the undying dislike ordistrust of your next doorneighbor usually isn't worth thetrouble. Find a different place.

If it's OK with the city fathers,your family and the neighbors,consider a few more precautions.

Out of sight, out of mind is a good idea. Colonies don't need to be white ... they can be brown,green, natural or mottled in color. The prying eyes of mischievous children can be averted if theycan't see your bees. A screen of hedge plants (annuals like sunflowers, or evergreens likearborvitae are good ideas), or behind a building like your garage so folks just don't see them. Thisalso makes your bees fly up and away when leaving their hive, and return from up above yourscreen so that they aren't flying at human height, and those types of close encounters can beinteresting.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Get a Hive Stand

Plan to keep your hives up offthe ground. This is a typical,easily constructed andinexpensive hive stand. It ismade of treated 2x4s andcement blocks. Note that thehives are about 18 inches or sooff the ground to protect themfrom skunks, and there is roombetween each hive to place thecovers and honey supers whenexamining the hives later in theseason. Setting hive componentsall the way down on the ground ishard on the back ... and liftingthem again is a lot harder.Consider, too, something on theground around your hives tokeep the mud down ... like barkmulch, old carpeting, or gravel orstones.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Learn How BeesNaturally Form a Hive

When left to their own devices,honey bees will nest in cavities ofabout 2–3 cubic feet, andhollows in trees and the spacesbetween joists in houses seem tobe about the right size. Thisdiagram, from my book onbeginning beekeeping (TheBackyard Beekeeper)demonstrates a typical nest in atree. Natural nests are generallyconstructed so that the place tostore honey is near the top andwraps around the outsides of thenest (gold area), surrounding thenest as a protective layer; pollen,the main brood food is storedbelow the honey (the whiteareas) very near the brood areaand the brood nest, where thequeen lays eggs and the youngare raised, is in the lower, mostprotected section of the nest(brown areas).

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Build Your Hives to SuitTheir Needs

You have to imagine a honeybee colony as a sphere in thisspace rather than a collection ofcombs hanging from the top.Your bees in your beehive willconstruct their nest in very muchthe same way. Honey on top,pollen surrounding the broodnest and brood near the bottom.Keep that arrangement in mind.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Protect Yourself

One of the first things you haveto get is protective gear. Youneed a veil of some sort to keeperrant bees from becomingentangled in your hair. A simplehat and veil combo is what manybeekeepers use, especially whenit is hot, and they won't be doingmuch dirty work.

A lightweight jacket with attachedveil is a good choice when doingregular beework, and you want tokeep clean, but don't need a fullsuit. The veil unzips and you canthrow it back if you need a drinkor are driving to anotherbeeyard.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Get the Full Suit

A full bee suit and gloves areneeded when doing heavy-dutybeework, when the weather isn'tjust right and the bees are not ina great mood, or when you haveto move fast to get done beforedark. Many beginningbeekeepers start out with gearlike this because they areunaccustomed to working withbees. The first few times youhave bees walking on yourhands or on your fingers may bea bit distracting. If you find ituncomfortable then gloves areadvised. In fact, we encourageyou to wear all the protectivegear you feel necessary because

if you are uncomfortable with out a full suit, or gloves or whatever, you will not enjoy working bees,and you will soon find excuses not to go to the hive ... and your days as a beekeeper arenumbered.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Get a Smoker

A beekeeper's best friend is hisor her smoker. A smoker issimply a cylinder with a bellowsattached. In the cylinder youbuild a slow burning fire, usingpine needles, old burlap, rottenwood or even commerciallyprepared smoker fuel. A slowburning fire produces mostlysmoke, and when the bellow aresqueezed, smoke comes out ofthe nozzle. When smoke entersthe beehive when you areworking in the hive, a couple ofthings happen. First, a honeybee's natural instinct whenconfronted with smoke is to reactas if there is a forest fire, and the

natural home (recall that hollow tree?) is about to be consumed. Escape is the first defense, andworker bees will duck into the hive and eat as much honey as they can to take with them whenthey abandon the hive and seek out a new nest. Thus, they are busy when you are working, andthey pretty much leave you alone. Second, communication in a beehive is chemical ... pheromoneswaft around the hive continuously, produced by the queen, other workers, the brood and evendrones. These chemical messages tell other bees what to do, when to do it and when to stop.Smoke interferes with these messages, and communication breaks down ... and when thathappens you can go into a hive and do your work, being left pretty much alone because nobodycan talk, and nobody can hear ... chemically. Keep your smoker lit at all times.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Choosing a Home forYour Bees

Now that we've discussed thesafety gear you'll need, and theplace to put your bees, and thetools you'll need to work withyour bees, it's time to look at theactual boxes you can use tokeep your bees in. Recall thatbees live on vertical-hangingbeeswax sheets that hang insidethe boxes you will get. Thesesheets are suspended at the topby a bar of wood that just fits intoa groove at the top of the box,with the other three sides of thebeeswax sheet enclosed in a'frame' of wood to keep it secureso it doesn't bend. This photo

shows the frame with the beeswax sheet, full of honey.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Make Way for 'BeeSpace'

Beeswax is relatively solid, butwill bend if forced, which is whybeekeepers use these wooden,and sometimes plastic 'frames.'Each of these sheets surroundedby a wooden frame is called, notsurprisingly, a "Frame." It lookslike this inside when viewing across section. Note the smallspace that exists all the wayaround the outside of the frame.This is how bees get aroundinside their home, walkingaround their 'bee space.'

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Bee FrameRecommendations

Beekeepers use different sizedboxes (with correspondingdifferent sized 'frames' inside, asseen here). There are boxes thathold 10 frames and are 9.5-inches tall, called deeps; someare 6.5-inches tall, and arecalled mediums, and some are 5-7/8-inches tall and are calledshallows. A deep box with 10frames, when full of frames ofbeewax, honey and bees weighsabout 90 pounds, a mediumabout 40 pounds and a shallowabout 30 pounds. Somebeekeepers, me included, useboxes that are the same heights,

but hold only 8 frames each, and weigh correspondingly less. Choosing your boxes depends to agreat degree on how much you wish to lift when working your bees. My advice is to use all 8-frame,medium-sized boxes because they are light enough to work easily and the bees don't mind. I use 3medium boxes on the bottom where the queen and young live, and the same above that for extrahoney storage. But a common suggestion is to use 2 deep boxes on the very bottom of your hive,where the queen and the young live, and above that use mediums for honey storage. It comesdown to weight, space and the advice of other beekeepers where you live.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Choosing Honey Bees:Italians

Now that you've found whereyour bees will live, and what kindof boxes to keep them in, thenext big question is what kind ofbees should you get? There arebasically three kinds that arecommonly available and aregood for beginners, though youwill see many more advertised inthe journals. Though claimsmade are many, most of thebees you see advertised aresimply variants of these three.Italians, pictured here, aregentle, very productive, prettyand easy to manage. They havelots of yellow on them. They are

the most common bee available.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Choosing Honey Bees:Carniolans

Carniolans are dark bees, verygentle, a bit more demanding formanagement, but they winterbetter where winters are harsh.Their populations build fast in thespring so you need to beprepared to prevent swarms.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Choosing Honey Bees:Russians

Russian bees are known for theirgentle, somewhat erratic nature.They are generally very docile.They are slower to build in thespring, but build fast when theydo. They swarm at the drop of ahat sometimes; others, not at all.They're found in all differentcolors of yellow and dark. Theyare a bit more complicated tomanage, but a strong suit is thatthey are tolerant of, and resistantto varroa mites -- a definite plusin my book. Most of my bees areRussians, the rest ... a mixed bagof Italians and mostly Carniolans.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

How to Buy a Packageof Bees

Ok, so Wal-Mart, Home Depot,Target, Lowes and TractorSupply don't carry bee supplies,let alone bees (However, TractorSupply Stores do carry ourmagazine ... so stop by if youwant the latest edition if you don'tsubscribe) ... so where do youget this stuff? And who on Earthhas bees for sale? Interestinglyusing either of the beekeepingjournals is one good place to gowhen you want bees or queensfor your now-ready boxes sittingon your now-ready hive stands.Call or e-mail and I'll get you acopy and you can find a supplier

nearby or who has bees and supplies now and take it from there. Also, your local beekeepingassociation may have someone who buys bees and resells to club members. To find a club nearyou (and absolutely join when you do find that club), go to our Who’s Who section, find yourstate and then a nearby club. Contact them to find local suppliers of both equipment and bees.One of your biggest costs is going to be the freight you pay to get stuff to your door, so check outlocal first.

Most people start with a package of bees. To install your bees in a colony, you can find thoroughinstructions in books at the library. Don't forget your feeder (see catalogs for types, but the pail isthe best), your hive tool and your safety gear ... gloves, suit and veil. For a simple set of tips, printthese 10 Tips for Establishing Your First Hive of Bees.

Photo Credit: Kim Flottum

Read Up

Editor's Note:

Check back soon for the nextinstallment of how-to steps, orget reading with these greatresources:

The Backyard Beekeeper($17.99)

Bee Culture, the magazine ofAmerican beekeeping ($25 for aone-year subscription)

The Beekeeper, Kim Flottum'sblog (free!)