In beekeeping, most of the farms are amateur apiaries. The secrets of bee care are passed down from the older generation of the beekeeper family to the younger. Is it possible to master this complex science on your own? Beekeeping for beginners assumes that theory will be combined with practice. Find out what should be the first steps into the fascinating world of bees, where to start and what to look for?

Consider what should you look out for first? Oddly enough, on the state of health. First, you should not be allergic to bee venom. Otherwise, it's best not to even approach the bees. In addition to the toxic and allergic effects, bee stings also cause an increase in blood pressure.

Secondly, keep in mind that beekeeping involves vigorous physical activity. These include rearranging and loading hives, carrying boxes with frames, maintaining a honey extractor and many other works.

Inspection of bees by a beekeeper

So where to start if your health condition allows you to practice beekeeping? First, collect general information about beekeeping in your area. Try to get in touch with local beekeepers. Discuss different aspects of bee keeping with them. Expert advice will help a novice beekeeper avoid many mistakes. If you are starting from scratch, there are two main questions that need to be answered.

  1. You can start breeding bees only in an area where there are enough honey plants. The apiary is kept in a permanent place or transported to honey plants. The honey conveyor must be provided during the entire spring and summer seasons. Understand what you have to do - a hospital or a wandering. In the second case, you must think over the methods of delivery and protection of the apiary on the road, pumping honey in the field. It is also necessary to think over the question of where and with whom you will have to negotiate in order to put the apiary on a nomadic journey.
  2. You must find out how the bees hibernate in your conditions - in the wild or indoors. It may be necessary to build a winter house for the bees.

In addition, you must be prepared for the need for additional utility rooms. Beekeeping also involves financial costs. For beginners, you may need:

  1. Beekeeping workshop. It is needed for carpentry work, preparation of frames, storage of inventory.
  2. Feed stocks often have to be replaced or replenished with sugar syrup. In the spring, incentive feeding is used. You need to have the money and the ability to buy and deliver sufficient sugar.
  3. It is necessary to provide a room for storing a stock of sushi, bee bread and honey frames.
  4. The wax refinery. Provides the processing of wax raw materials: sushi, backing.
  5. Acquisition of bee colonies, hives, inventory from scratch will require financial costs. Be prepared for the fact that the first years of beekeeping can be unprofitable.

Preparing for the first beekeeping season


So, you have assessed your possibilities for beekeeping, understand the difficulties of caring for bees and are determined to start. What to do next? Read, take notes. In winter, you should have a preparatory period. A few good beekeeping books plus the internet will help you. Ask questions on special sites and forums. Research and buy inventory.

Pay attention to the following points:

  • the interaction of insects in the family and their functions;
  • features of the behavior of bees at different times of the year;
  • organization of wintering and assembling the nest for the winter;
  • hatching of queens and creation of layering;
  • anti-combat techniques;
  • arrangement of hives and ventilation requirements;
  • apiary waxing and processing of wax raw materials;
  • diseases and pests of bees.

Consider in detail the role of worker bees, queen bees, and drones in the family. You should know the stages of their development from larva to insect by day. When examining colonies, you will have to determine the age of the brood.

You must choose the type of hives to use in the apiary. The design of bee dwellings depends on the honey reserves of the area. With light bribes, multi-corps are not needed.

The lounger is called a hive of retirees, meaning that it is convenient to maintain. By the way, beekeeping for beginners is easier to learn when using a lounger. A nest is available for inspection in it. At first, it will be useful for you to observe the development of families.

How many families will you buy? For the successful development of beekeeping, we recommend at least four. With such a quantity, it is already possible to make prefabricated layering, to strengthen a lagging behind in development or an emerging family.

Will you be expanding the apiary? You can double the number of families per season. But in this case, you will not get honey.

Necessary equipment for a novice beekeeper

By the time you buy families, you should already have hives. If they are not new, be sure to sanitize. Also, by the beginning of the beekeeping season, you must purchase:

  • beekeeping frames corresponding to the type of beehive. For a twenty-frame hive - a sunbed is enough to have up to 25 frames. Equip them with wire;
  • foundation. Take with a margin. It will be needed, since in the early years it will be necessary to create a supply of sushi;
  • entrance minelayers;
  • sew or buy padding polyester. Do not use cotton wool, it contributes to the accumulation of dampness;
  • if you intend to use pads, make them from dense flax;
  • you must have two outpost boards for the hive;
  • make or purchase 3 - 4 frame transfer boxes.

The apiary uses inventory for a variety of jobs. A beginner beekeeper will need:

  • gloves. Leather or rubber dielectric. Without them, work can be done, but slowly and with low productivity;
  • beekeeper mask and costume;
  • smoker;
  • beekeeper chisel;
  • brush - basting;
  • honey extractor. Expensive equipment for beekeeping. You may be able to find a used one, but in good condition. However, the honey extractor can be purchased even after families have bought it. There is still a lot of time before the honey is pumped out;
  • if you have poor eyesight, buy glasses in which you can see the brood in the egg stage;
  • a couple of bottles of mint drops. Useful when reinforcing families with frames with bees or when creating prefabricated layers.

Acquisition of bees

Bee colonies are purchased in the spring in April - May. The apiary should be at a sufficient distance (5 km) from the place of purchase. Otherwise, the flight bee will return to its original place.

You can purchase layering for 4-6 frames or families with a strength of up to 12 frames. Families will cost more. But from them you will get honey, and you can also make layers. It is also important that you will immediately have a larger supply of frames with honeycombs.

When buying bees, try to purchase several additional frames with dry from the seller. They will come in handy for expanding families.

You must come to the seller with your hives or boxes - ramkonos. If you purchase layering, you will be given as many brood frames and honey pips as agreed. Usually it is 3-4 brood and 1-2 honey feathers. When buying families, you have the right to take all the frames mastered by the bees, as well as the entire bee, including the flight bee. To do this, come in the afternoon. Rearrange the frames in your hive and put them in the owner's place. By evening, the entire flight bee will be gathered, and it will be possible to pick it up.

Pay attention to the following points when selecting frames:

  1. Brood frames should be well covered by bees.
  2. The quantity and quality of inoculation on the frames. There should be no gaps, the so-called variegated brood.
  3. The brood should be of different ages: eggs, larvae and closed.
  4. Cells with perforated caps or a color different from the rest may indicate a family illness.
  5. You should be alerted by the presence of crawling bees in front of the hive, bees with deformed wings.
  6. At the slightest suspicion of a bee disease, refuse to purchase.

It is very important that you know how to distinguish the queen from the rest of the bees. When selecting frames, the first thing to look for is the uterus. Only after it is found is the first frame placed in your hive. This is exactly the frame with the uterus. Then the rest of the frames are rearranged, keeping the order of their arrangement.

Sometimes people ask what kind of bees it is better to start. Read about the breeds, try to figure out which one is best for your area. Talk to beekeepers. Choose a breed so that the bees are not vicious. But you shouldn't think about the breed especially at the first stage.

After you have selected the frames, immediately fasten them so that they do not move during transport. To do this, stuff a wooden plank over them.


Where and how to install the hive in a new place


When you bring the bees, put them in their permanent place right away. Best in the garden under the trees. In the future, it is impossible to move and transfer the hives, since the bees that have flown out will not find their home. Therefore, consider in advance the layout of the hives on the site. They should be turned to the south or east. The hives are installed at a height of 30-40 cm from the ground on stakes or special supports. Eliminate ant nests in the area, mow the grass.

Location of hives

Install a bee drinker in the apiary in advance. The first time they fly to a new location, they must remember its location. If you install the drinker later, it will be difficult to accustom the bees to it.

If you have a large scale, put one of the families on it. This will be the control hive. The weighing data will help you monitor the bribe and the development of the family.

On the first day after transporting the bees, do not disturb. After the road, the family is in an agitated state. In addition, bees fly around intensively.

Start an apiary journal to take care of your bees. In it, you will record the results of the family visits. To avoid confusion, give a number to each family. It is customary for beekeepers to number families, not hives. After each examination, write down:

  • the number of frames covered with bees;
  • number of frames with brood;
  • the date of setting the foundation and the activity of its development by bees;
  • number of frames selected or added.

First inspection

Each examination is stressful for the bee colony. With good care, it is enough to inspect the bees every 7-10 days. It is necessary to plan examinations and understand well why you are disrupting the usual life of the family. Now you are faced with the task of monitoring the development, doing the expansion on time and, if necessary, feeding.

Get a smoker. Make sure your clothing and gloves provide adequate protection.

Inspection of bees

Stand at the back or side of the hive when viewed. It is impossible to be in front of the entrance. Blow a stream of smoke into the entrance and remove the lid. Use a chisel to carefully move the frames and inspect in turn. Move smoothly and slowly. When viewed, the frame is held over the hive. If the uterus breaks, it will fall into it.

Take a close look at the egg cells. By their location in the cell, learn to determine when they are pending. The uterus should not be found. The fact that it exists is evidenced by the presence of one-day-old eggs and the absence of queen cells.

All brood frames form a bee nest and should be in the middle. Along the edges of the nest, they put a beech frame and honey. Scheme: MPRRPM.

It is unlikely that the first examination will need to expand the nest. However, just in case, take a frame with dry or foundation. In early spring, the nest is extended with dry land, placing it between the extreme brood and bee bread frames. The foundation is put on when the whitewash appears. On the upper bars of the frames, you will see fresh wax structures. This usually coincides with the flowering of the bird cherry.

After inspecting the colony, close the bees and be sure to immediately write down all the necessary data in the journal.

In the absence of a bribe, it is necessary to feed the bees. Make 1: 1 sugar syrup. Give 500 g per family every other day.


Experienced beekeeping tips

Tips for Beginner Beekeepers

In caring for bees, the following recommendations and numerical data on the development of families will help a novice beekeeper.

  1. A basic rule of beekeeping: keep strong families. They tolerate wintering more easily, and are less susceptible to diseases. Weak families must be discarded.
  2. A family should always have 4–6 kg honey reserves. Otherwise, the queen will stop worming, and the bees will begin to throw out the baby. Do not pump out May honey if there is a supporting bribe ahead.
  3. A weak colony can be strengthened by adding 1–2 brood frames at the exit. Rearranging the weak and strong family also helps. First, you need to sprinkle the frames with bees with water with mint drops, and cover the queens with caps until morning.
  4. Expand the nest in time. If most of the combs are busy, the uterus, in search of free cells, travels up to 250 m per day. In this case, up to 600 eggs laid outside the cells are lost.
  5. The optimal distance from the apiary to the honey plants is 1 km. From a distance of 3 km, bees bring only one third of the collected nectar.
  6. The rule of the seventh frame will help to control the swarm state. With 7 full brood frames in the colony, the colony is ready for swarming. To avoid swarming from such families, layering is made.
  7. How to determine the period in which the bees - the collectors of the main forage - are hatched? 51 days are taken from the beginning of the honey collection, and 29 from the end.
    • 51 = 21 days of development + 30 days of life;
    • 29 = 21 days of development + 3 days of hive work + 5 days of honey harvest;
    • Between these dates, eggs will be laid, from which the flying bees will emerge, providing honey collection. Knowing the start date of honey collection, the beekeeper can stimulate egg-laying.
  8. Some quantitative indicators that you need to know when studying beekeeping:
    • in spring, the uterus enters intensive egg-laying after 22 days;
    • the family reaches its maximum development in 85 days;
    • 3 frames of a bee emerge from 1 brood frame;
    • 1 feed frame is required to feed 1 brood frame;
    • to adjust the honeycomb frame, 200 g of feed is consumed.
  9. The deadlines for finishing feeding bees in winter differ by region. Until when do plants shed pollen in your area? A month before this date, you should complete feeding the bees.
  10. Provide good ventilation in the hives during the winter. Otherwise, you cannot avoid dampness, which has a detrimental effect on the bees.
  11. In the second half of the winter, check the condition of the families every two weeks. If the club has reached the back wall, then the food supplies are running out. Make a candy or honey tortilla. Place it in a thin plastic bag and place it on top of the club on the frames.
  12. When assembling the nest in sunbeds for the winter, limit it on both sides with extruded foam boards. The boards should not reach the bottom by 2-3 cm. Cover the top of the frame with plastic wrap and place a pillow on it.
  13. Wintering is best done in reduced nests. Leave only offended frames. Each street must have at least 2 kg of feed. But it is better to leave more honey. If necessary, supplement with sugar syrup. If food supplies are insufficient, you can place a sealed honey frame on top of the nest on 1 cm sticks.