What do I need to know to beekeep in my backyard?

A letter to a Rookie Beekeeper

Dear Rookie BeeKeeper, 

Congratulations on deciding to help the bees and start your very first bee hive. Here are just a few of the basics of what you need to know in preparation for the arrival of your honey bees: 

Bees needs somewhere to live and here is what you will need to get their hive ready: 

There are several type of hives but for “beevity” we will only be talking about a langstroth hive. For starting a hive, you’ll need two deep boxes and at least one medium. (Truly just the one deep to begin though) The two deep bottom boxes are for the bees to live/breed, and then the medium, or shallower ones are for honey storage – once they are done filling the lower two. If they are a very productive hive, you just keep adding boxes on top to accommodate honey stores. As a general rule, you leave the bottom boxes and I believe the first medium for the bees to have enough honey to live through the winter *bees need at least 70+ lbs to survive our cold Colorado climates, you can also take all the honey and start providing them supplement feed with different syrups/cakes. I suggest the ladder and leaving them as much honey as possible to get though our cold Colorado climates. 

Getting an unassembled hive will cut down on costs and also help you become familiar with the the construction/workings of the hive as you build it. The bees really become your little dear friendly pets – so it’s fun to build a home for your incoming homies. However, it’s really not that much more expensive to buy a ready-to-go hive if you just wanna paint it and go, or have time restraints. There is also a new hive called the flow hive that makes harvesting honey super convenient but it’s expensive and it doesn’t give you the pure joy of becoming one with the bees during your hive checks. 

The outside of the hive (certain surfaces) need to be primed & painted with exterior/outdoor paint. You can pick whatever color(s) you want- white is traditional, but stay away from dark colors especially black as to help keep the hive cool. Depending on how much time/$ you wanna spend, you can go as crazy or simple with it as you like, with patterns, symbols or phrases- obviously the sky’s the limit. The lid/telescoping top is metal-topped to protect from the elements, but may need some paint around outside edge- NO paint goes inside any hive surfaces, where bees will bee, or along edges where boxes stack.

The inner cover (see picture below) goes between the lid/top/roof and the boxes. It has a second entrance/ventilation gap for winter/early spring, and is the key to us getting in the hive, because the bees will seal up every little gap/part of the hive with waxy propolis to create their home. The inner cover keeps them from sealing us out!

Assembling the boxes before painting is easy, just nails and a hammer are needed (Usually nails are included w/ purchase).  Assembling the frames is pretty easy too, it’s a groove-notch situation with a sheet of foundation going inside each frame. The foundation is like thin hexagon comb lined starter to get the new hive get growing.  You can also choose to use foundation-less combs and allow the bees to build their own combs which is a more natural way of beekeeping. There are ten frames with foundation per box. They will need to be numbered, spaced, and marked so that the layout/blueprint/grand design of the hive remains the same when frames are taken out and checked- don’t wanna mess up the homies feng shui! 

The bottom board will have an entrance reducer – a little wood strip that helps keep intruders out, and sometimes there is a slatted bottom board that does the same, and also helps with ventilation during summer and winter. Everything stacks up nice when ready.

The hives can be set ground level on some bricks or cinder blocks that are nice and leveled – for hive stands can be purchased if you want. I haven’t used stands, I think they are convenient for more hives/ higher level honey production.

The hives I worked with were set up entrance-facing east, not sure if that matters but makes sense for sunrise/nature stuff. Don/t aim them within 20 ft of your veggie garden or other work areas. Not too far from house, but not too close to work/other pet areas, set the hive where you will mostly walk behind it (westside) and perhaps somewhere with stumps or a nice place to sit and watch the bees come home from work in the evening. Sitting with the the hive when it’s spring or summer during sunset listening to the humming is truly quite amazing. 

Other Bee Stuff you will need: (checkout my amazon beekeeping list to make this bee keeping supplies purchase easy and timely for yourself, you will still need to purchase your hive from a different company, we like to use mannlakeltd. They are a great online source for all your beekeeping needs but always check amazon and your local suppliers for good deals too!

– You will need a hive tool- it is used to scrape away waxy propolis and to kinda pry bar the frames up and out of their boxes. It’s always good to use a twisting motion instead up straight up motion when prying apart the sealed boxes after you have broken the seal with the hive tool.

– Bee hood/veil and/or gloves I didn’t use either of these, but you are supposed to – the bees kinda always fly right in your face so it helps with that- and you are likely to be stung at least once in a season so the gloves can help with that. Again this is preference and really all depends on how calm you can remain when working with your bees. Honestly, I never used my bee veil, I have two, if I need one or for a bee-guest, but bees do facial recognition and I personally think it would be worse to have a bee climb up in your veil and get stuck and feel threatened because a bee sting comes next. As far as gloves, the two main reasosn we don’t like beekeeping with gloves. (1)You lose dexterity; & (2)If the bees stings your gloves you won’t feel, which is a plus, but, we have read the gloves can hold the poison smell so it definitely creates a threatening presence for no reason during hive checks.

– A Smoker is needed, plus the best fuel is dried pine needles, or pellets, pine shavings, Burlap pieces or buffalo chips, pretty much anything that will smolder for a little while. You will only need a little smoke- like 15-20 mins worth for one or two hives, so you won’t have to load the whole thing. Light it with paper (toilet paper rolls work great or starter the smoker), and/or burlap but don’t load it with paper as fuel. Bees no likey dat. Also have a good surface to keep lit smoke on/in (no tall grass or anything) maybe something metal, truck bed, whatever’s clever, you just want to light your smoker not start a fire. 

– A bee brush is pretty cheap and helps gently move the bees out of the way when replacing frames after inspection, or other times when you don’t wanna crush, touch, or brush them by hand.

– Bee feeders are absolutely necessary when starting out. The help encourage wax production for comb building and brood production to help expand the numbers/size and strength of the hive. There is a top feeder for sugar water with a few drops of vinegar to prevent mold, or a little entrance feeder option. Also you can make these little syrup patty cakes, but I haven’t before.

Here bee a few other side notes about beekeeping:

Working with calmness and confidence is very important. I know it’s a crazy thing to start out, but people and bees have been helping each other forever, and if you feel like you have enough experience with hive setup and bee delivery go for it, otherwise contacting an experienced bee-friend for your first time bee delivery will be a huge fucking help. 

Bees absolutely can sense fear, and it’s totally an ingrained human action to swat at things flying at/around you, but just try to REEELAX and know that you are THEIR MOTHER FUCKIN’ BEEKEEPER, aka their care-taker, so keep your zen and they will bee just fine with your presence.  

Effie: I worked with three hives, two did great and one was weak and weird. It’s widely suggested to keep two hives for educational/ experiential/observational comparisons, but for price/risk reasons perhaps I am only outlining for one hive. I have a few friends that have had single successful working hives.

Traci: My first hive was successful until the bomb cyclone, one of the coldest days we have had in march in the past 60 years and it wiped them out. The bees tried their best but did not make it. They made a lot of honey 60+ lbs and beautiful wax for me to make some home-made soap and the future *DUB bees to help get them speed up their hive building this spring(*Denver Urban Boomstead Bees for 2019)

In the end, Always Bee curious.  Ask questions, join a bee group, find some bee-friends, do a google search about hive life, anatomy, everything bee-related is so fun to study.

Boom BeeKeeping Tips for Rookies: 

Hive inspection should happen every 2-4 weeks but no more often. 

When we open the hive we are looking for things like brood- eggs- pollen stores- the Queen, and other signs of healthy development . Watching and cheering on baby bees chewing out of the cell and into the world is by far the coolest fucking thing ever!

I would definitely have a special bee notebook or journal to record dates and observations. 

Don’t smoke bee packages and don’t spray with sugar water – unnecessary bee bath and waste of good time that your bees could spend building their home up.  

Shake ’em in to the hive tell you can’t get any more out of the nuc box- the smart ones will find the Queen. 

When using a Sugar water mason jar, place directly on inner top cover, and use extra hive body to secure jar. Be able to see through holes of mason jar feeder lid. Apparently, some bee keepers believe that Bees like sugar water over honey because it is easier to digest for them. I am on the fence about this idea being that bees wouldn’t have access to simple sugar in the wild. 

Hive check the first 24 hours later – to make sure your Queen is out and alive (Dakota Bee warranty’s the Queen in 24 hours) Call Sunday if you need a Queen!

Try to be on 2 week cycle Hive inspection during Spring and most of Summer adding a Fresh jar everyday or whenever it is needed.  I Rarely get stung working with bees and it Usually when you are not paying attention or you are doing a repair during prime honey flow season.  Reasons for going on a 2 week hive inspection is because the Queen could die in first week and it takes 21 days for the bees to perform a superseder (making their own queen)

You will learn it takes Longer to light your smoker than it takes to do a hive check.

Now Bee prepared to lose your bees.

It’s definitely devastating, and also probably your fault but if you can see what you did wrong you can not make the same mistake the following season. 

Now Bee resilient. *a note about bee stings: 

Make sure you or anyone visiting/working with hive is not allergic! When the stings happen, it can be one or a few stings- yes it’s shocking and hurts like fuck- but the weirdest part is this brain/mental funk that happens afterwards! 

That bee poison is really meant to jack up/ confuse and ward off any predators. Benadryl , baking soda, and honey are the best sting treatments. 10 or more stings really makes you sick and puke and you might need a doctor, but I DON’T wanna scare you because I’ve never heard of this experience.

Do not wear black (clothes, gloves, etc) because the bees hate it and will sometimes attack it. 

Do not eat bananas around the hive- the smell is like the danger pheromone of the Queen, and increases sting possibilities. 

Do not smoke the bees/ load the smoker with paper- it can piss them off. 

Basically don’t worry about getting stung. Sometimes it happens- but it doesn’t mean you’re going to be swarmed or anything they just wanna protect the Queen!!! 

I find that getting used to bee-ing around them, and having them fly all around you – plus talking and singing to them helps – let them know what your doing when approaching the hive, introduce yourself,  when doing hive checks, it goes something like:  “Hey bees I’m just gonna come in and check stuff out I promise I won’t hurt the queen” 

Once you have read a book, contacted an experienced beekeeper, and or gone to a beekeeping class all there is left for you to do is go for it,  bee there for them and they will take care of the rest.

We are here to help with whatever questions and whatever assistance we can!

Side Bee-Friend Note: Our friend Effie sent us this email last year in preparation for our first hive. I twerked the email a little for this blog post but, what an amazing friend to write such an in depth email about the need to know on hive set up and what to expect in our first year in beekeeping before our bees arrived.  She really did help make our first year in beekeeping not so intimidating. Plus she gave us the confidence to apply the knowledge I have read in a book and just do it. I am very grateful for her and excited for our next year in beekeeping together. So I recommend if you’re new to beekeeping is to find a friend who has experience, who loves bees and wants to help bring bees to your backyard. 

Extra Beekeeping Notes for Colorado Beekeepers:

Being in zone 5a/b Colorado Bees have to bee fast and bee efficient in order to survive the winter. They do not let a day pass them by from the time they are shook into their new home to the time the last piece of pollen fills the flowers during fall. They have a lot of comb and foundation to build so feeding your bees simple syrup a 1 to 1 ratio encourages comb building for brood production. Harvest honey in July but if you can leave 70+ lbs of honey stores for you bees to survive the winter. They might still die but it could be for more than one reason not just lack of food. 

The queen needs combs to lay her eggs. Come Late April and first week of May, Colorado beekeepers are getting their nucs (which is like 2500-5000 bees) shipped in from California with a mated queen included, she is ready to start laying eggs as soon as the bees eat through the marshmellow cork and set her free from her queen cage in to the hive that is if they accept her as their new Heir and don’t kill her. So it is best to add supplemental feed to speed up the hive building process. 

To create nucs bees are combined form several hives and requeened. Essentially during their transport from Cali to Colorado a weird obligatory family reunion is happening with family that has never met that will now be forced to become sisters, listen to their new Queen and work together to survive as one mega-organism. More often then not they will accept the new queen but for some reason if they kill her they can rear a new queen in what is known as a superseder  but in our climate you are better off contacting an apiary selling mated queens to save time. It takes 21 days for a new queen to be raised and then she will still have to have her nuptial flight and with that brings risks as well. 

@theboomstead bees in 2018: Bee-Autopsy report: 

Our first hive died this year, I believe during the bomb cyclone that occurred in March when performing the autopsy, I tried to find the Queen but there was no luck, inexperienced, rushing and to the fact that I was a sad blubbering beekeeper. I believe they froze and starved to death base off a few of my observations. They were all cluttered in the middle, and at least 3 of the frames had dead bees in each individual cell of the bees wax (see picture above). There was still 3 half eaten honey stores left which makes me think they just could not get to the honey during the 60 mph sustained wind gusts that dropped the temperature down below zero and stayed around -14 degrees for 15 plus hours. (Which was the recording breaking coldest day in march in past 60 years the Greg the Master-Beekeeper was talking about)  A few other things that could of been that cause of the death was performing the last hive check too late in the season or breaking up their propolis sealed walls which allowed for more wind to enter the hive and also not being able to add the slated bottom board for improved ventilation along with not having time to switch the entrance reducer back to the smaller entrance.  Many factors can affect the overall strength, health and longevity  of the hive. I also went to a beekeeping class two weeks ago and learned from the master beekeeper that bees like to work from the top down . So I was suppose to add the second brood chamber below the first one not on top. Which could of slowed down their honey production and overall create some hive confusion that could of been prevented.  I also didn’t do any mite prevention treatments or test to see if I had a mite problem. I am pretty certain the bees froze/starve to death, I did not see any sign of mites but they are so small that it can be something that is missed and if it goes untreated can wipe out a colony from mite infestation in the brood. 

If you need to treat your hive for Varroa Mites: 

There are several types of treatments for Varroa mite on honey bee colonies. I have only had one hive and I did not perform any of these treatments. I prefer natural beekeeping and if the hive checks our showing now signs of mites, and a strong healthy, active hive that I am not going to add a chemical into my hive if I don’t have too. However Varroa Mite virus infestation is becoming more common and according to the master bee keeper vaporizing your colony with oxalic acid is a game changer for backyard beekeeping. If you are wanting to check for mites in your colony an easy way to do it is put some Vaseline on a manilla folder and place it in the bottom of the hive. If you find some mites stuck to it, you know you have some mites and performing a treatment is more than likely necessary. Perform treatments in early spring and after you harvest your honey. 

Basic notes on some varroa mite treatment options: 

-Option 1: Formic acid – can kill queen – stripes or towel-lets , respirator , when using , 10-14 day treatment 

-Option 2: thymol- temp sensitive ; 30 day treatment is – trays or wafers – warning: the lethal concentration of thymol to bees is only some 2-4 times that which kills mites.

-Option 3: Hop guard – 30 day treatment, need more info. 

-Option 4: Oxalic acid – game changer , cheap , need a vaporizer , doesn’t harm queen , bees or brood , easy to use. Downside: toxic to humans and pets; only 5-30g is lethal in humans, so be cautious. 

In the end, you can only do your best to bee there for the bees. Remember to plant extra bee friendly/ pollinator attracting plants in your yard but know that bees will fly up to 5 miles to find their pollen and nectar source and their sources will vary as the seasons change and progress. The will find all the different species of plants that are in pollen. That’s why planting different plants and creating a polyculture in your backyard will ensure for a successful hive. Keep BEEing awesome and Make permaculture Popular People! If you are still feeling lost and unsure where to get going with bees, we offer private lessons, over-the-phone consultations, and many other beekeeping services to help you get started on your beekeeping adventure. Click Here to head to our boom beekeeping page.

Till next time Ya Boom Heads,

Co-author @thetracimitchell Co-author @satinblouse