I am helping two beginning beekeepers for two reasons. First for credit for Beekeepers’ College, and because I enjoy helping new beekeepers see the beauty of God’s handy work. One of the questions was, “What do I need to start Beekeeping?” The answer is simple: You need certain equipment, like wooden ware, bee vale with or without a separate hat, hive tool, gloves that cover your arms up to your elbows, and a smoker with shield.

It is recommended that you start off with two hives so in case something goes wrong with one, you can use the other to help bring it back up to snuff. If one hive becomes weak, then you can use frames of brood from the other to help strengthen the weak one. If one becomes low on honey stores, then the other one could share some of it’s honey.

A hive consists of a bottom board, deep brood box, queen excluder, 3 honey supers (either shallow or medium), and top board. If you use the telescoping top, then you need an inner cover. The bees will glue the inner cover to the super and usually leaves the top cover alone. If you don’t use an inner cover, then the bees will glue the scoping cover down and it will be hard to pry it loose.

Once you have completed assembling your hive, you need bees. You can get a package of bees through the mail from a bee supplier or you can purchase a Nuc (short for Nucleus) locally from a beekeeper. A package will be at least 21 days before the first new bee emerges. By that time your package of bees will be only half as strong as they were when you received them due to die offs. A nuc will consist of 3-5 frames of brood (baby bees) and bees to cover. The bees will be emerging as fast of faster than the die offs which means that the colony will stay strong rather than getting weaker.

By the time you get to this stage, you should have bought, borrowed and read several books on bees, beekeeping, honey, and sales. Also there are several videos or CDs that you can get at your local library that you can watch. The key here is to keep learning through books, magazines, local bee association, and beekeepers. This is an ongoing learning curve that will last the rest of your life. One more thing you need. Find a beekeeper that will take you under his wing to help show you the ropes. He will be a great source of information.

Now that you have reached this level of education, you will be the bee man of your neighborhood and people will look to you for bee information. You are well on your way. ENJOY!