I know this is what all of you have probably been waiting for, so here it is: all about beekeeping! And pretty long too. I’ve mentioned them before but I have to plug them at least once more: here’s Penn State’s Beekeeper’s Club’s facebook, where they mention meetings and presentations you should join in on if you’re at all interested!

If you want to start beekeeping the best time is between December to January, which is before the bees’ season. You’re going to want to get a Langstroth hive. There are many kinds of hives used in different areas (which if you really want to know about you must be as into bees as I am!) but I’m going to focus on the modern Langstroth hive, which was revolutionary at the time of its creation.

Looking at the photo to the right, I’ll explain what each part is. Naturally there’s the Outer Cover, which keeps out rain and other weather. The Inner Cover is where the bees will put propolis (that sticky, gluey stuff), and it’s purpose is to keep the propolis off the Outer Cover. Then you have the top box, which is generally a super, meaning a smaller depth than the other boxes; because this box is on top it should primarily be honey as bees store honey on top and brood and the queen at the bottom. The main reason for these boxes to be smaller is so they aren’t so heavy when they are filled with honey! A full, 10 frame super is around 30 pounds, where as a full, 10 frame box is up to 90 pounds! Some beekeepers may have one or two supers depending on the size of their colony.

Following that there may be a queen excluder; the grating on the excluder is big enough for the worker bees to get through, but not so for the queen’s abdomen. This prevents her from laying brood in the super and thus keeps the honey pure. Below this is the brood box, naturally, and this is where everything else will take place. Below that are the bottom board and stand, which keep it up off the cold ground and make the hive more portable.

You can get these hives prebuilt if you’re some fancy rich person, but you can also try your hand at knocking one together on your own. For this reason it’s suggested you buy them as early as possible, and also because in the New Year many of the hives will get bought out online and at local stores.

You will also probably want to get a bee suit unless you’re extremely adventurous (and a bit foolish in my eyes).

You’ll want to get a smoker so the bees don’t sting you constantly, and finally, you have to get a hive tool, which is that short, fancy looking crowbar. Seriously, much of the tools used in beekeeping haven’t changed much over the years and they all seem a bit archaic, but hey––if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Now you have bought all the things you need to keep your bees, it’s between January and May, and it’s time to get a colony of your own! You have a few options. The most adventurous: you could catch your own swarm! You do have to wait until the spring after the natural bee colonies have swarmed, and when they collect on a tree branch or other somewhat protected surface, you can shake them into a box and, making sure you get the queen, and take them to your hive.

For those less ambitious you can try to buy from a local beekeeper, who could help you set up your hive, so I’d personally recommend this option. You could also buy the bees online, but I have on good advice not to leave them at the post office for too long––the workers get a bit upset with all the buzzing.

The most important thing is to get the bees early when spring starts, so they can start foraging as soon as possible. To prevent your own bees from swarming you’ll want to either make your hive bigger (by adding more boxes) or by splitting them before they swarm into two colonies. The way they know to swarm has to do with pheromones, but for a beekeeper’s purpose it mainly has to do with overpopulation in the physical space.

In the summer, things are good. The bees will produce lots of honey which you can collect by opening the box (you have to use that hive tool to break apart the propolised-frames and Inner Cover) and then you take The Brush, yes The Brush, and brush the bees off the honey frame. Then you take the frame and uncap the cells with a heated knife. After that you’re making honey, and if you’re interested in that, I have a post here 🙂

In the autumn you want to make sure your bees are healthy; obviously you want them to be healthy all year round but in Fall it’s extremely important because this is when the queen will start laying the winter bees. These bees will live between 6-8 months, rather than 3-6 weeks. If these bees die because there is not enough food, because there are Varroa Mites (which cause brood disease in the hive), toxic pesticide levels, etc then the colony will not survive the winter because there won’t be enough workers to keep the hive warm and functioning, as the queen stops laying eggs in the late autumn.

There are many ways to look for Varroa Mite which could be a topic all on its own, so I’m not going to get into that now, but it has to do with coating bees in powdered sugar and IPM (Integrated Pest Management) which is actually required of beekeepers in Pennsylvania and a few other states, so you should look into it yourself if you’re interested in beekeeping.

I have to admit you guys, I’m really not that interested in beekeeping as a whole. Sure, I’m more interested than the average individual, but I’m more about the biology, physiology and other more science-y things of bees, so bee management by humans isn’t my main jam. Still, I hope this has been informational for you, and that I might have inspired you to find out more!