Beekeeping is a great way for someone who doesn’t have  loads of money and acres of land to take up a hobby that is both rewarding and that you can make some money from. The start up expense of the average hive can be from $300 to $400 per hive. To start I would only recommend the one.

You can locate your hive at the bottom of your garden or a  remote corner of your back yard, it is now becoming more common to see suburban homes with a bee hive at the back of their house.

Before you rush out and buy your first bee hive it is worth checking with the local authorities or Cooperative Extension office. They will to tell you if you live in an area that beekeeping is allowed. Remember to ask them for the contact information of your local areas beekeeping organization where you can become a registered beekeeper.

Select a site for your honey bee hive.

Now that you have selected your site you will need to buy the basic equipment. I would recommend searching on the internet to find your local beekeepers association or use eBay and if all that fails try the local yellow pages. If you are struggling to find a hive you could always build one, instructions can be found at http://www.30media30.com/beekeeping/  there is nothing more satisfying than building your own bee hive.

Now that your hive is in place and you are happy and confident that everything is in 100% it’s time to order your honey bees. The easiest and best way is to order Honey Bees is from an established Apiary. Honey Bees should be ordered early in the winter, the average beekeeper orders their bees in January and February. The order is then shipped in March and April but depending on your country this may vary, ask before you bye.

Bees can be either, sent by post / shipped or collected, although a lot of couriers do not like to transport bees. Again check with the Apiary for the best way to transport your bees to their new bee hive.

When your bees arrive they should have been packaged in a special carrying case that is designed just for bees. The package should be a wooden framed “house” that has a screen covering the outside. This packaging allows air to circulate to the traveling bees.

On unpacking your bees, do not be surprised if you see a few dead bees at the bottom of the package, this is normal. Bees do not like traveling and they find it hard, so unfortunately you will loose a few. You will find the rest of the bees clutching the sides of the container.

You should also notice that one bee in the container has been separated from the rest of the hive. This is your queen bee. The rest of the bees in the container will make up the rest of your bee hives hierarchy.  Good Apiaries will ship the queen with a couple of nurse bees and some times the top of the queen’s container will be covered with piece of sugar candy.

With the bees there should also be a container that is filled with a sugar solution. This sugar solution is food for the bees. As soon as you get the bees home offer them something to drink, do this by taking a spray bottle and covering the container with a very fine covering of water.

If you would like to know more about beekeeping and how to keep bees or looking to take this up as a hobby then visit

http://www.30media30.com/beekeeping/

Beekeeping is a very popular hobby and obviously the main reason for setting up, maintaining, and stocking a beehive is to harvest the honey. You will know that it is time to harvest the honey (the month depends on your location in the world) when you look into one of your hives and find that the frames of comb are full of honey and that the honey bees have covered it with wax caps.   It’s time to remove the super and keep it in a bee proof room prior to extraction.

When the super is full of capped honeycomb you are going to have to remove the honey bees from that super. There are several commercial chemicals available on the market that will make this easier.  All the bee-keeper has to do is apply the chemical to a fume board or pad and place it on top of the super.  When the honey bees detect the chemical they head to the bottom of the hive to the brood chamber or a part full super below the full one.  This leaves the super full of capped honeycomb and bee free for you to harvest.

This product does not harm the honey bees; the honey bees simply find the scent offensive and move away from it.  Another method bee-keepers use to clear honey bees from a super is by using a crown board with a Porter bee escape fitted.  There is also the Canadian clearer board and the clearing cone; there is also WBC cone escape if required.  Using the escape method can take 24 to 48 hours.

Now that you have removed the super you need to prepare the frames for extraction. The first step in this preparation is to remove the wax caps that the honey bees have used to seal the honey into the comb. Many bee-keepers use between nine and twelve frames in their supers, some modern hives take more frames.  By using the correct number of frames to suit your type of hive you give the honey bees enough room to draw the comb out to the edge of the frame, they then cap it right on the very edge. This makes it easier to remove the wax caps by cutting flush to the frame.  Bee-keepers use a metal knife to remove the caps, the knife works best if the knife blade is hot, after all it’s easier to cut warm wax then it is to cut cold wax. You can keep the knife blade hot by keeping it in hot water.

A tall jug or pitcher that covers the knife blade is ideal. If the container is metal and can be kept on the heat then so much the better.  Some bee-keepers like to use their bread knife to remove the wax caps from the honey comb while others prefer an electrical knife that is designed just for bee-keepers. Another method of removing the caps is by using an uncapping fork.

Once you have removed the caps from the comb the honey is exposed, you can then use a straining cloth or bag or you could secure a piece of cheesecloth over an empty pot or container and put the wax cappings on the cheesecloth the honey will drain through the cheesecloth and the bee’s wax caps will be left on the cheesecloth.  This wax can be processed in a solar wax extractor or in a steamer/melter.  Once the caps are removed from the honey comb the honey is ready to be extracted.

This can be done by resting the frame on its top bar (upside down) in a tray or suspend the frame upside down over a tray.  The honey will drain out of the comb.  The honey comb cells have a slight up turn towards the top bar.  This is to prevent the honey running out when being deposited by the worker bees.  This is not very a very efficient method but is used as a last resort for some if they can’t get access to an extractor.

It is perhaps better if you borrow a centrifugal extractor from a fellow bee-keeper or your local group, club or association. There are many models of extractor I would suggest you seek advice.  You can of course make cut comb honey in 16 oz, 12 oz or 8 oz rectangles.  Rectangular cutters are available or you could use a hot knife and cut your own rectangles.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Prepare Your Area: As we all know, honey is extremely sticky. Every item you handle will become sticky (counter tops, tools, doorknobs, etc.) so you should contain the stickiness by working in a clean barn, on the porch, or in the garage rather than working in your kitchen.

Keep a bucket of water handy to rinse your hands and a clean towel to dry off with.

Set up all pieces of equipment and tools before handling the comb, and lay down a few drop cloths or newspapers on the floor.

Harvest In A Confined Area: Harvesting honey should be done in a closed room.  This keeps the honey clean, and it helps to keep the bees from stealing it, and bringing it back to the hive.

Warm The Honey: Warm honey flows much easier than cold honey. This will allow you to spin the honey out of the comb faster, which results in more honey being extracted from the comb.

Warm honey also flows through strainers and filters much faster, without clumping up. Honey should be heated to about eighty degrees Fahrenheit (twenty-seven degrees Celsius) for optimal flow. Use caution to ensure you do not heat the honey too much or else you may melt the wax comb.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

1. Feed Your Bees: While the bees are getting used to their new hive, or during cold weather months, you will need to provide food.

You will need to mix sugar syrup and administer it to the bees through use of a Boardman feeder, or by placing the syrup inside the top cover near the opening in the inner cover.

This type of feeding allows your bees to have access to the syrup, without attracting pests or intruders. It is important to note that bees consume a great deal when they are first establishing a hive, so make sure to check the syrup level often.

Once the bees begin to produce honey, you will no longer need to supply syrup, however you should leave some honey in the hive as a food source during the winter and early spring months.

2. Make Sure Water Is Handy: Bees need to have a proper water source, especially during warm weather months. Bees use water to cool down their hive during periods of hot and humid weather, and also use it as a dilution material during honey production.

That being said, you should never place a container of water too close to the hive because bees can drown quite easily.

3. Be Considerate: When keeping honey bees, you should always be considerate of others. Remember, you want the bees, your neighbors do not necessarily feel the same way.

A wooden fence around your hive can prove quite beneficial. Make sure you set the fence up in the same direction as the hive opening so the bees can fly over the fence and above nearby homes.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

The beginner is not always able to get the best as an instructor, it is therefore, a good idea to supplement such instruction by a course of reading, and thus be able to make comparisons and discuss the instructor’s methods in the light of those procedures used by others. In fact, I am inclined to think that a thorough course of reading is the most desirable first step that can be taken by a prospective bee-keeper. Having done this, the next step is to subscribe to a honey beekeeping magazine. At this stage a season with an expert bee-keeper would be of great value, when the reading will enable the learner to use the information, and see the reason for things instead of being simply an imitator, following blindly in the footsteps of his teacher.

Many people who now keep honey bees never had any formal training. Many have become interested in honey bees from the capture of a stray swarm. Neighbouring bee-keepers would be visited, books or magazines borrowed or bought, improved hives and methods adopted, and, as the honey bees increased, so did the enthusiasm and interest, until, finally, the honey bees received more time and attention than did the regular business. Then bee-keeping eventually become a speciality or the sole business.

When a person has decided to embark on a bee-keeping venture as a business, they should learn the business thoroughly before investing extensively. No hard and fast rules can be laid down, so much depending upon circumstances. A young man with no established business would do well to pass one or two seasons in the company of some experienced bee-keeper, as has been already suggested, while a more experienced person already in business, with a family to support, may find it advisable to move into bee-keeping gradually, reading and studying as his honey bees’ increase. Whatever the method employed, let the work be thorough; and, especially, be sure to get plenty of actual experience before venturing into honey beekeeping as a business.

On occasions, a person already has some honey bees when he decides to become a full-time bee-keeper. Perhaps he never formally makes any such decision. He captures a stray swarm, and saves the honey bees, and the stock increases with such wonderful speed that the owner becomes a bee-keeper of substance and scarcely realizes it. This amazing speed with which honey bees increase is one strong argument in favour of a person securing a few colonies and building them up into an apiary instead of buying a large number of colonies at the beginning. By rearing queens that will supply the newly made colonies with brood, and you furnishing them with full sheets of comb foundation, the amount by which honey bees can  increase in a favourable season is something almost beyond belief. Just how or where the first colonies come from may well be considered.

Sometimes the person who has steady work, and a good income, can buy honey bees and in the hives that they intend to use. If the honey bees and hives can be obtained locally, from a reliable bee-keeper, so much the better. Of course, there are instances in which a person has more time than money, or there may be a trace of the opportunist in their make-up, and, in either case, the hunting of honey bees, or the putting-out of decoy hives to catch stray swarms, will appeal to them. In those parts of the country where many honey bees are kept, as in Colorado or California, there is no difficulty in catching swarms in decoy hives; in fact, there is difficulty in keeping swarms out of chimneys and the walls of buildings. While out riding one day a man in Colorado, pointed out one house where the walls were covered with five colonies.

He used ordinary boxes instead of hives, and put them pretty high up in tall trees, as a good hive, easily accessible, is quite likely to be stolen.  A piece of old black comb is fastened inside the hive or box, and the hive or box is firmly fastened to the tree so that it is not to be easily blown down, a position being chosen where the hive will be in the shade. A tree on the edge of the woods should be chosen, because, when a swarm reaches the woods, it at once begins a search for a suitable hollow in which to make its home. This is sometimes done in advance by worker bees when foraging.  The hives or boxes are examined at least once a week, more often if there is time, and when one is found to be occupied by honey bees the hive or box is removed and another put in its place.

Honey bees are also found by walking through the woods in the swarming season.  After the honey bees have been found, then the next task is getting them out of the tree and into a hive. Sometimes it is possible to shake them from a light branch into a box, if they are located on a large limb, you might need to cut off the portion where they are located, and lower it by means of a rope. Having captured the honey bees they need to be transferred from the box to a hive. Frames with drawn comb should be put in the hive.  A white cloth or canvas should be placed in front of the hive and the honey bees shaken onto it.  Make sure there is a slight incline up to the hive entrance. If the hive is left on the spot for several hours, perhaps until dusk, nearly all of the live honey bees will go into the hive.

As said at the beginning, if a person has and a reasonable income they might find it more satisfactory to buy honey bees in a hive; but if they have the time and inclination to get a start by hunting honey bees, or by putting up decoy hives, then this should help them to do it.

There are literally hundreds of products on the market, so how do you know what you truly need, and what is just a waste of money? Here are few recommendations to help get you on your way.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Morden Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Morden Beekeeping Guide.

Hive Essentials: To ensure your bees are as productive as possible, you should make sure you have some basic pieces of equipment for the hive.

These items include: telescoping and inner covers for the outer roof and the ceiling of the hive; an entrance reducer to reduce the size of the entrance; a screened bottom board for the floor of the hive to keep pests out; medium supers for the hive walls; medium frames to serve as rooms in the hive to support the comb; small cell foundations; and some type of feeder for the sugar syrup. These items are readily available at just about any beekeeping supply store.

Nucleus Hive: Sometimes called “nucs”, “a nuc”, or “a nuc box”, this hive is a smaller version, more manageable version of a traditional hive. Nucs are made to hold fewer frames and to house a smaller population of bees.

Many beginning beekeepers opt to start out with this type of hive, and bees often flourish in this setting due to the fact that the smaller space makes it easier to regulate the temperature and humidity of the colony.

Gloves: Gloves should be worn for most of the time when working with bees. Non-ventilated, thick gloves made out of pigskin or heavy rubber are the most popular choices. Ventilated gloves are not recommended since bees can easily sting through them.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Here are three simple tips for honey beekeeping.

1. Make Sure You Have Plenty Of Space: The first and most important step to beekeeping is to make sure you have plenty of room to keep your bees. At the very least, you will need a fairly good-sized backyard to set up your hives.

Anything smaller than a large backyard is not typically recommended, and may hinder your yield.

2. Ensure You Have A Natural Food Source: You will need to make sure you have a viable food source that is close to where you will keep your hives. If the bees do not have an adequate food supply they will not be able to survive and they will not be able to produce a sufficient amount of honey.

Take a quick survey of your area to ensure there are plenty of trees and other flowering plants nearby.

While some types of bees may be willing to travel a short distance for food, most will need to have sources close to the hive.

3. Build Proper Hives: The number one reason most people fail at honey beekeeping is due to improper, or poorly built hives.

You will need to make sure you set up the frames and supers properly, and you will need to make sure the hives are constructed in a manner that you can easily access the combs, but not cause any harm to the bees. You want to keep bee comfort and space in mind at all times.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

This Great Bee Keeping Guide “Modern Beekeeping” Teaches You All You Need To Know so as to keep Your Own Healthy Bees and Produce Your Own Great Honey! Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.

Many beginner beekeepers jump right into the hobby without doing any research or looking into proper methods. They believe that if they just purchase all of the best, and most expensive equipment available in the supply stores they will be all set, and their bees will flourish.

The end result is the hive failing, the bees dying, and the beekeeper giving up. After spending a good deal of money, this can be quite frustrating and disappointing. The beginner beekeeper often tries to do too much too soon, with little direction.

You should always take the time to educate yourself on proper bee care, and to seek adequate beekeeping training before you begin this hobby.

You should always make sure you start off correctly with proper techniques, as bad behavior can be difficult to change later on in the process. You should understand that by spending a bit of extra time now, you will be well rewarded in the long run.

Proper beekeeping training can also help you to prevent problems caused by inferior or improper equipment.

You will learn how to construct a functioning hive for optimal bee space, as well as what dimensions the hive should be built to. You will find that this form of training is quite beneficial to both you and your bees.  When you learn what to expect, what is normal, and what needs to be done at what time of year, you will be setting yourself up for a successful hobby that you can enjoy for years to come.

For More Bee Keeping Tips, Click Here To Download Adam Mills’s Modern Beekeeping Guide.