A Dozen Ways Beekeepers Make It Hard On Themselves

Oh boy, when we started our first hive in 2012, we wanted to make as much equipment ourselves as possible. We spent so much time at home depot looking at wood boards, calculating cut waste, shopping for dado blades, and deciding what type of joint we wanted to use. We weren’t exactly cabinet makers but, for some reason, determined to act like we were.

I get it, there are a lot of pieces that go into a beehive, and they all cost money. The parts seem so simple to make, and they certainly can be. But other parts are downright complicated and can be a hassle later. When we started, we made our telescoping cover, inner cover, and bottom board. It looked like too much work to make the boxes and frames. In retrospect, the boxes are probably the easiest thing to make and have some pretty well-established instructions and dimensions to follow.

Beekeepers want to make equipment themselves because they want to save money. But it’s usually cheaper to buy equipment than make it yourself. The price of lumber is excessive, and it only makes sense to make your equipment if you make enough for 10 hives or more. And even then, the frames still aren’t worth it. They are so tedious to cut; it’s better just to buy them.

The hardest part of using non-standard hives is sourcing the frames. If you want to use a non-standard hive like a Horizontal Langstroth Hive, that is much easier because it uses standard Langstroth frames. When you have to build your own frames or special order frames like in a Layens, Top Bar or Slovenian hive, it makes it tough. Those hives are great, but the lack of support makes it harder for the beginner beekeeper.

Instead of starting with one of the alternative hives, if you can, it would be better to start with a Langstroth hive. It’s not possible for everyone, but using the same hive that others use makes it easier to be successful and allows you to learn the more basic skills like hive inspections and bee biology easily.

Beekeeping by yourself can be very difficult as there are many benefits of meeting other beekeepers in your area. Working with other beekeepers doesn’t always mean they need to suit you, but you can chat about what beekeeping is like in your area. Beekeeping is very local, and how a hive is managed will even change from different parts of the state.

The first year of beekeeping is the hardest, and there are a lot of misconceptions when taking care of bees. Sometimes our expectations don’t always match reality. And having someone nearby to help you know what to expect with your hives will make you a better beekeeper.

For example, in some parts of the US, it is necessary to leave your colony of bees with more honey in the hive for winter. This local knowledge can help you choose the right equipment and prevent your bees from starving in the winter. Also, knowing this information can help you know how much honey to harvest from the hive. You don’t want to harvest too much honey, and you want to take the excess honey.

The best way to contact your local beekeeping community is through your local beekeeping club. Nearly all of the populous counties and some of the rural counties have a beekeeping club that meets monthly. Most of the beekeeping club meetings we have been to are organized the same and are welcoming to new visitors. Most states also have a state-wide beekeeping meeting as well.

Having a beekeeping community helps keep your hair-brained ideas from going too far. I’m talking to myself here.

Too many opinions can make decision-making difficult. When customers come into our store, we don’t tell them what we think they should do. There are many options in beekeeping, and picking what works best for you is the best choice. We work to lead people in a direction where they will be successful, but there are certain things in beekeeping that are unique to your situation.

Facebook pages and beekeeping forums are incredibly helpful, but they are full of beekeepers who seem too eager to ridicule, confuse and complicate any question you may have about beekeeping. Seasoned beekeepers can be extremely helpful, but the seasoned beekeepers who you would want help from are usually not on Facebook or forums offering their opinion.

It’s hard to communicate online, and there are a lot of situations in beekeeping that aren’t as they seem. Usually, when questions are posed online, some important details are left out by accident. Not on purpose, but you don’t know what you don’t know. This is when a one-on-one conversation with a local beekeeper helps a lot. There you have the chance to talk through the options rather than just being told what you should do or what you did wrong.

We became better beekeepers when we realized everyone keeps bees differently based on their situation. If your hives are 20 miles away, you may use a different feeder than if your hives are in your backyard. Suppose you want to manage two colonies for pollination; then, you may be less concerned about harvesting honey and could use different equipment. It’s good to ask for help from others, but take it with two grains of salt.

There is no real teacher in beekeeping like opening an established hive and looking through frames. There is so much you can learn from opening a hive up, and if you have the opportunity to do so, you should take it. This isn’t always possible, so you have to resort to learning other ways. Usually, most beekeepers decide they want to get into it later in the year. And because it is harder to start a colony in the fall or winter, they typically spend the winter learning about it before spring comes.

See our Master Guide Series on Beekeeping.

This is a great timeline for getting started. The only thing better would be if you could open a hive during the warmer months and then take the winter to prepare. No matter how you do your research, doing something will make you a better beekeeper. We struggle with customers who come by the store and don’t know anything about bees but want to get everything they need to start beekeeping that day, including the bees. That is a recipe for disaster, so we always do our best to help prepare those beekeepers for success.

The frames in the hive are integral to beekeeping and are what make it possible for beekeepers to manage their hives with minimal interruptions. This is one of the more common mistakes new beekeepers make when getting started. It’s understandable as there is a lot of nuance to beekeeping frames.

One place where fewer frames in the box is an advantage is in boxes dedicated to honey production. When using one less frame in the box than the box is designed for, the bees will store more honey than if all the frames were in the box. The bees will draw the comb out thicker in a honey box. They don’t do this in a box where the queen is laying eggs, so they end up making crooked comb when using this technique in that box.

When a new beekeeper first gets their hive, there is always a little bit of slack with the brand-new frames in a brand-new box. The frames can shift around in the box about 1/2 inch or more. Over time, this extra space is taken up as the bees gum up the box and frames with propolise. This is why beekeepers tend to want to change it to a 9-frame box.

When starting with this new equipment, bees are apt to make comb in some of the wrong spaces. Bees prefer to build their comb in an empty void before they build on the frame. So if the beekeeper doesn’t push the frames towards the middle of the hive, there may be a gap that the bees start building comb in. When bees build the comb in the “wrong” place, it makes it harder for the beekeeper.

It would be better to push the frames towards the middle of the box and leave the gaps between the first frame and the box and the last frame in the box. Bees naturally work in the middle of a box, so the edges of the box are the last place they will typically build a comb.

What’s worse than this is leaving any frames out of the hive altogether. Don’t do this. 

The strength of the propolis made by the bees is remarkable. It is very common for a frame that is poorly assembled to fall apart inside the hive when a beekeeper attempts to remove it. It’s very tough to remove a frame stuck inside the hive, and the top bar has ripped off because the nails weren’t strong enough. The same thing happens with boxes over time. We have helped beekeepers with a ratchet strap around their boxes to keep them from splitting open because the joints weren’t holding together.

Glue is cheap insurance and will be strong than nails or staples, and will last the life of the equipment.

Bees are intimidating; we understand that. And especially so when you are getting started and with your first hive. Experienced beekeepers become experienced through trial and error. Through failures, good beekeepers become good, and only through experience will you be able to judge the potential health of a colony from looking at the outside of the hive. This is a skill that can’t be taught by anyone or learned from a book. It takes time and experience to learn.

Because opening a hive full of stinging is hard, the temptation is to look at the outside, see bee traffic at the entrance, and assume all is well. The only bees you can see at the entrance are the worker bees. From the outside, it is difficult to tell if the queen is laying eggs, is the larva, eggs, and pupa are healthy or if there are pests inside the hive causing trouble.

You don’t have to have a biology degree to understand the basics of bees. Having a basic understanding of the biology of bees will help you be a better beekeeper. Beekeeping is a unique hobby where you have the opportunity to see the inner workings of a colony of bees, and the more you understand how it works, the more successful you will be.

How the bee biology inside the hive is important, it interacts with the environment. While bee biology is the same nearly year-round, the rate at which the colony grows and declines is based on the seasons. Honey bees take their cues from the environment, so understanding the relationship between bee biology, weather, and the seasons is key to becoming an experienced beekeeper.

Feeding bees sugar water and pollen patties has a direct impact on the biology of the colony. It is a way that beekeepers can cause or prevent something from happening to their colony. Understanding how food interacts with the bees will help you to use feeding as a tool. No beekeeper wants to feed their bees sugar syrup or protein patties, but it is better than allowing the bees to starve. Beekeepers feed not because they want to but because they have to. Feeding bees is one of the best tools beekeepers have to give them the resources to build comb, raise bees and store enough honey for winter.

This is a huge deal in beekeeping; pests are a constant problem for bees and their beekeeper. We can’t dive too much into this topic, but there is a direct correlation between colony health and pressure from pests. There are times when the stronger the colony, the stronger the pests. And with other pests, the strong the colony, the weaker the pests. So understanding the biology of the bees, you can know how better to deal with pests.

When we started keeping bees, the terminology and jargon used by beekeepers were tough to keep track of. There were so many words used that weren’t a part of normal language, but beekeepers throw them out left and right, and it completely goes over a new beekeeper’s head. We understand this so we try not to use a lot of jargon when talking about bees.

But some basic terms will help you be a better beekeeper. This comes into play when you are asking questions or hearing answers to another person’s questions. Understanding what a super is or what a brood box is will help you out. It honestly makes the biggest difference when somebody is trying to help you. If you know the terms to use, you can keep up with their explanation.

Some of the benefits of bees only come with expanding your apiary to a sustainable level. Most beekeepers start with two colonies in their backyard for a good reason. When you start small, you make small mistakes. Like when we talked about experienced beekeepers earlier, it takes plenty of time and mistakes to know what you are doing with bees.

If you want to sell nucleus hives, breed queens, sell lots of honey, or make your own beeswax candles, all of those things take money and bees to do. The first year of beekeeping is tough, and it usually takes about 3 years to handle how to be a beekeeper. Some people have had bees for 10 years and have never gotten it yet. We call those eternal beekeepers.

In beekeeping, it is better to crawl before you walk. And it’s easy to crawl when you have two hives, and it takes at least 3 years to start to grasp how to manage a colony of bees. And in addition to it taking the beekeeper time to learn to learn, it takes bees a couple of years to start building enough comb in the colony to produce significant amounts of honey. So don’t rush it.

But there are times when it is helpful to feed bees sugar, pollen, or a pollen substitute. For example, when a colony is young and just getting started, they cannot go out and forage for all of the perfect food available to them in the environment. Even if plenty of flowers bloom, the small colony can’t send out enough bees to capitalize on the blooming flowers before they stop blooming. 

A full size colony can send out enough foragers, but a small colony doesn’t have the foragers it needs.

Because of this, the beekeeper may feed them syrup to get their colony build up in their population faster than they can do on their own.