I'm a brand new beekeeper!

Welcome!

We are excited that you have taken the step to become a fellow beekeeper, and we are glad to help. These are some of the first things you need to know as a new beekeeper.

Getting started

The first step really should be education. You are taking on a form of agriculture, and like any other, there are a lot of factors that will affect your success in raising healthy and productive honeybees. Firestorm Honey Guild is a good place to start, and the Oklahoma Beekeepers Association has several local clubs (such as COBA in OKC and NEOBA in Tulsa) who offer high quality classes for beginning beekeepers. Understand the equipment needed and startup costs, as well as the importance of hive inspections and what to look for. It is also important to understand the pests and diseases that affect honeybees and how to effectively monitor and treat for these, chiefly American Foulbrood, varroa destructor mites, and deformed wing virus. Next, you will need to obtain some essential equipment before ordering your first package or "nuke" (nucleus hive).

Essential equipment

Many hive styles exist, but for your first hive, it is generally recommended to start with a Langstroth hive, as this is the current commercial standard in the United States so it is the easiest to troubleshoot and to find parts and equipment for. Other options include the long Langstroth hive (which uses Langstroth frames but arranged in a long box rather than stackable boxes), a top bar hive (which is similar to a long Langstroth but uses only top bars rather than fully framed honeycombs), or Warré hives (which are a different style of stackable boxes using top bars). If you are interested in using a Ludwig Christ hive or other historical hive, we can help you, but it may be easiest to start with a standard Langstroth hive and transition to a historical hive later. Langstroth boxes are available in six sizes: 8-frame or 10-frame width and shallow, medium or deep height. Many beekeepers start with a double deep hive, meaning two (either 8-frame or 10-frame) deep hives stacked one on the other. For this, you will need (16 or 20) frames and foundations (we recommend black plastic foundations for your brood chamber, because eggs are easier to see), as well as a bottom board (which may be solid or screened), an inner cover, and an outer lid (any style will do for the beginner). There are of course many other hive components available, but these are the essentials. You will also need a smoker, a hive tool (essentially a small, flat pry bar), and you will want some kind of feeder. A Boardman feeder is a little tray that fits into the hive entrance slot and accommodates an inverted mason jar with drip holes in the lid, but these can be prone to pests and robbing, so a top feeder may be recommended. There are several styles of top feeders, but any of these will sit on top of your inner cover and need a shallow hive box to surround, with the outer lid on top to keep pests away. We also recommend an extra deep hive box and a small portable table to assist with hive inspections. You may wish to purchase a hooded jacket or full suit, or perhaps just a hat and veil and a pair of long gloves which gather at the elbow, depending on your comfort level. Or if you wish to go medieval, we can certainly help you outfit yourself with a double-layered linen smock and a medieval linen hood with cheesecloth veil! Other handy equipment may include a frame lifter, #8 hardware cloth (steel mesh with 1/8" openings) and a staple gun.

Buying bees

There are a few ways to buy your first bees, but most folks either buy a package or a nuke. A package is simply a box with steel mesh sides on a wooden frame, containing 3lb of bees with a queen (secluded in a queen cage) and a steel can of syrup to feed the bees during transport. If starting with a package, it is important to provide the bees with additional resources inside the hive when you install them. They will need some frames of drawn comb in the middle for the queen to have a place to start laying, some honey stores in some of the outer frames, and a syrup feeder to get them started building new comb. The advantage of a nuke (nucleus hive) is that it comes with those resources built in, so nukes are the more highly recommended way for newbees to get started on their very first hive. A nucleus hive comes with usually five or six frames of drawn comb, some pollen, nectar and honey stores, and a mated queen who is usually already starting to lay eggs within the nuke box. If the bees have brood in the box already, then you can release them to start orientation flights once you get the box placed exactly where you want to put the hive. So if you want to use a hive stand, place the nuke box on it, facing the same direction the hive will face. Once the combs in the nuke box are more than half full of brood and honey (at least four frames of brood and honey, out of the 5 or 6 available), move the nuke box aside and set up an empty hive in its place, carefully moving each frame from the nuke box into the hive box, then fill around them with either drawn comb or empty frames. Wait until these are full before adding the second box.

Pitfalls to avoid

Work your bees in the morning, on sunny days whenever possible, and never open the hive when it is cold, raining, or at night. If forager bees are not flying in and out, it is too cold and you might shock the brood. Avoid burning cedar, pecan or walnut leaves or hulls in your smoker, as these are toxic to bees. When installing a package or introducing a new queen, avoid releasing the queen prematurely. Give them time to chew through the candy plug in the queen cage, so they can become accustomed to her pheromones, otherwise they may consider her an intruder and kill her at their first opportunity. Be sure to monitor your hive for American Foulbrood, using a smell check and a toothpick test (but also know the difference between AFB and chalkbrood), and know the signs of pests such as small hive beetles and wax moths, including what their larvae look like. Also monitor for varroa mites using a sugar roll or alcohol wash, and understand that a simple visual inspection is extremely unlikely to detect varroa mites. Understand the differences between worker brood, drone brood, and queen cells, and the difference between swarm queen cells and supersedure queen cells. Know the signs of potential swarming and understand what to do to respond to swarming behavior and how to perform a managed split, but also understand the differences between swarming, orientation flights, bearding, and robbing. And the best advice we can give is to find an experienced beekeeper in your local area who is willing to mentor you through your first few years as a beekeeper. If we have a member in your area, we are happy to help in this capacity as well, so come join us at one of our meetings!

DWM 5/28/21