How Many Hives to Start With, and Why Not One
Almost everyone plans to start with one hive. It sounds sensible, it keeps the first year small, and it is …
Getting Started
First hive, first bees, first year. Costs, kit choices, the mistakes that kill colonies, and who sets the rules where you live.
Beekeeping Apps and Hive Record Keeping
Every beekeeper starts out certain they will remember. You will remember which hive was queenless in May, when the strips …
Starter Kit or Buy the Pieces Separately
Every beginner runs into the same fork within a week of deciding to keep bees. One tab has a single …
Package Bees or a Nuc for Your First Colony
Once the hive is ordered, the next question is what goes in it. There are two ordinary ways to buy …
How to Start Beekeeping in Your Backyard
Starting beekeeping is less about learning bees and more about getting a sequence right. The gear is easy to buy, …
Flowers for Bees: What to Plant Near the Hives
New beekeepers plant flowers for their bees with the best intentions and slightly wrong expectations. A honey bee colony forages …
What Beekeeping Costs to Start and to Keep Going
The cost question gets asked constantly and answered badly, usually with a single number that turns out to describe someone …
Beginner Beekeeping Mistakes That Kill First Colonies
First year colonies do not usually die from exotic problems. They die from a short list of ordinary omissions, repeated …
Beekeeping Starter Kit: What Is Worth Buying Together
Almost nobody buys their first beekeeping gear in a calm, considered way. It happens in February, after a club meeting …
Beekeeping for Beginners: Your First Twelve Months
Beginner beekeeping guides tend to describe equipment and biology, which is useful, and then stop before the part that actually …
Beekeeping Books Worth the Shelf Space
Beekeeping is one of the few hobbies where books still beat the internet for the parts that matter. Not because …
Beehive for Beginners: The Setup That Forgives Mistakes
Choosing a first hive feels like a permanent decision, and it mostly is not. Boxes get added, swapped and rebuilt …