Beekeeping may provide you with a delicious supply of locally grown hive and honey, but it also has several additional benefits. Bees, as you know, are critical for pollination efforts which in turn help us produce healthy crops of fruits and vegetables. Some crops depend entirely on bees for pollinating. As a bee keeper, you could play a pretty important role as you watch over your beekeeper’s colonies.
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Bee Pollen for Allergies
Bee Pollen is another potential benefit of bees. Pollen collects on the legs of bees. Introducing bee pollen into your diet could help keep histamine in check for those with allergies. Histamine may be what is triggering your runny nose, puffy and watery eyes. Pollen from bees can be a natural remedy for reducing histamine in your body and acts similarly to the allergy medications you purchase over the counter. Local sources of bee pollen are best as you want to build your immunity to local plants. Before consuming bee pollen, consult with your doctor to better understand bee pollen and if it is safe for you.
Beekeeping for Beginners
Before swimming into the deep water with your backyard hive and honey and your Apiarist (beekeeper) job title, please check your local laws, zones, ordinances, etc. Can you start a beehive? It seems like you should consider discussing your plans with your neighbors and possibly obtaining consent or at least awareness from the nearest city and local officials. Also, do you need to register your bees or hive? Finally, make sure you thoroughly research how to start a beehive. There are quite a few videos available for learning more about bees and beekeeping.
Beehive Types
- Langstroth Beehive
- Top Bar Bee Hives
- Warre Bee Hive
Types of Bees in a Hive
There are three types of bees within a honey bee hive: the Queen, Drone, and Worker Bee. Most important, of course, is the queen bee responsible for the colony’s reproduction activities.
- Queen
- Drone
- Worker
Each bee has a defined task based on the type of bee they are and their age. Also, the colony can only exist and thrive through the combined efforts of each bee resident. For example, queens are most active in laying eggs starting in the spring and slowing down in the fall. A drone’s primary purpose in the bee colony is fertilization, with worker bees handling everything from caring for the queen and colony, hive defense, pollen collection, and processing nectar.
Beekeeping Supplies
The essential equipment includes the box with bee hive frames, the smoker, feeder, hive tool, and the bee keepers veil and gloves ( bee suit ), and of course, the bees. With the essential gear, you will be well on your way to a healthy flowing hive and honey.
- Beehives For Sale
- Hive Tool
- Veil and Gloves
- Honey Bees For Sale
- Feeder
- Bee Suit
Beehive Starter Kit
You can purchase a kit with all of the equipment included. In addition, you can find beekeepers’ gear locally through neighbors and classified ads or even by making it yourself with beehive plans. Also, a exciting innovation in beehives is the Flow Hive found at HoneyFlow.com. The Flow Hive extraction process allows for less impact overall to the bee colony and assists with harvesting beekeeper honey.
Where to Buy Bees?
There are many options as well as suppliers if you plan to buy bees. You can purchase a Nuc or Nucleus Colony, which is a smaller colony sourced from a larger colony. A Nuc contains eggs, larva or the brood, colony honey, pollen and of course a bees. When purchasing a Nucleus Colony, make sure that you consider your hive so the frames will properly fit. Top Bar Hive vs Langstroth Hive.
Ordering a package of bees is when bees are collected and shipped from another location. This location could be local to you or even from another state. A package of bees is mailed to you, and the package contains about three pounds of bees. Shipping bees potentially takes a toll on the bees.
Catching a Swarm of Bees
An apiarist could also elect to catch a swarm of bees. A huge pro for catching a swarm of bees is that the swarm will most likely be local to your area. Bees swarm typically occur in the spring or early summer as the queen leaves the hive and worker bees accompany her to a new hive location. Catching a swarm of bees is not that difficult. Often you can lower the bee swarm right into your hive. The success rate of collecting a swarm of bees is high compared to shipping bees as the impact on the bees overall, if done gently and with care, is relatively low.
Beehive Splits
Making Beehive Splits is another option for collecting bees or building out your honey beekeeping hive. Bees, honey, and brood transfer from a larger colony. You could move the queen to the new hive, or the queen remains in the old hive. There are queen bees for sale if you opt to keep the queen in the old hive.
Healthy Hive and Honey
Become a beekeeper and help nature and the bees with a backyard beehive or a beehive for your off-grid homestead.