I have kept bees since the mid-1990s. I started with two colonies, moved to six my second year, and on up to about forty, although in recent years I have had about two dozen. I have kept bees in San Francisco and in Klamath Falls and Portland, Oregon. I am a hobbyist and do not pretend to have the knowledge or experience of a professional beekeeper, or even a sideliner, which is often defined as a person who has several score colonies but not enough to be considered a full-time beekeeper.
Over the years, however, I have learned enough to make the jump from bee-haver to bee-keeper—I have made enough mistakes to apprehend the complexity of honey bee husbandry. I have been fortunate enough to be a teacher in about twenty beginning beekeeping courses, and I have served as a mentor in the Oregon Master Beekeeper program, working with a half dozen apprentices over the years.
In my experience with honey bees—successes and failures with my own colonies, working with wise beekeepers, teaching beekeeping classes, and helping others with their colonies—I have compiled a list of basic points about keeping bees as well as some recommendations for beginners on what to do to improve one’s chances in becoming a bee-keeper. Although what I have written about beekeeping is directed to people who are considering beekeeping or are new at beekeeping, some of these ideas offer metaphors for living in general.
Basic points
For your first few years having bees, your main goal is to keep your colonies alive while you learn the basics.
Beekeeping is like chess: it is deceptively simple, the principles are easy to learn, the subtleties require a lifetime to apprehend.
Having bees is fairly easy. Keeping them is difficult, damned difficult.
The second year of beekeeping is harder than the first.
Beekeeping is not magical, nor is beekeeping a greater path to enlightenment than is breeding cats or selling life insurance. If you want a spiritual experience or to learn the meaning of life, join a church rather than start keeping bees. Woo-woo is silly-silly.
Bees are livestock, and you are going to kill quite a few.
Bees don’t know their keeper.
Bees cannot sense your fear or lack of it.
Bees do nothing invariably.
Keys to Success
Start with at least two and no more than six hives.
For your first bees, start with new equipment and buy either a package or a nuc. Don’t wait for a swarm.
Avoid the temptation of buying an established hive or used hive components from another beekeeper. When you first start out, you don’t know enough to look for and to avoid potential problems, especially diseases.
Begin with standard Langstroth equipment. While nothing is necessarily wrong with other designs, there is a reason that commercial beekeepers as well as serious side-liners and hobbyists use Langstroth equipment. If you want to try another type of hive, wait until you have at least two or three years of experience under your belt.
Choose a couple of good beekeeping books and read them regularly and thoroughly.
Avoid the Internet. Bees don’t read websites or watch youtube videos, and what you read about beekeeping on the Internet is in many cases wrong. Further, it is easy to fall into the trap of spending time on the Internet instead of your hives because everything on line is clear and you won’t get stung.
Open your hives frequently, say about every ten days and look around. Too often is much better than not often enough. Careful observation is an important teacher.
Don’t worry about specialized details at first, e.g., race of bee, newly popular hive design, or particular equipment.
Remember, the main goal of suppliers of beekeeping equipment is to sell their wares. Much of what they sell is useful, but some is not. Be wary of those who promote new-fangled equipment or type of hive.
Join a bee club, or two or three, and attend their meetings.
Subscribe to the two bee magazines and read them, but don’t be seduced by the ads.
Find a partner who has about the same level of knowledge and experience as you, with whom you can work and share knowledge—and mistakes.
Find a couple of people who have kept bees at least a decade of whom you feel comfortable asking questions. Don’t bother them too much, though. Thank them for their help and advice, but don’t take it for granted. If they drink, buy them beer or whiskey. Importantly, don’t depend on them or expect them to help when you work your hives.
Take your stings, but consider getting a prescription for two EpiPens.
Respect and admit your ignorance. Laugh, particularly at your mistakes. Don’t take beekeeping, other beekeepers, beekeeping organizations, or yourself too seriously.
Don’t be afraid to spend money on queens and bees but avoid equipment gizmos.
All hives have Varroa mites, and you must understand mite lifecycle and control to become a beekeeper. Test your hive(s) at least once a month for mites.
Use common sense, e.g., don’t open your hive(s) while your neighbors are having a kids’ birthday party.
Avoid those who know the TRUTH about beekeeping. Many people who claim to be experts on beekeeping are not. Not at all. Even long-time beekeepers are sometimes wrong.
For almost everyone, beekeeping is at most a hobby, albeit a fairly inexpensive hobby. The chances are quite small that you can turn it into a business, so don’t enter beekeeping with that as a goal.