Starting Beekeeping: Things I Wish I Knew At The Beginning

I thought I'd just do a few hints and tips that I wish I knew or had thought about when starting beekeeping!

A nuc is your friend

Beekeeping is expensive enough when you start out, but a Nucleus Hive, a 5-6 frame hive, is a really useful bit of kit to have available to you. Someone once said to me "There is little in beekeeping that can't be sorted out by putting something into or taking something out of a Nuc" and over the years I think it's a piece of advice that I agree with!

Even that "throw away" Correx Nuc box that your first bees might have arrived in is a useful bit of kit to keep around the place.

If nothing else it's a nice safe space to put that frame with the queen or queen cell on in temporarily while you finish off doing whatever else it is that you need to do.

It can be handy to help along that small colony that's struggling after winter in a full size hive. Reducing that space down, especially into a Polystyrene Nuc can really help them recover.

They give you options when it comes it managing swarming or supersedure.

They're a lot cheaper than a full size hive and take up a lot less space! A poly Nuc will set you back about £50, I buy from Paynes, I have National and 14x12 boxes and their nucs have an "eke" that lets you switch between the sizes.

Leather gauntlets are not!

Lots of starter kits in particular include them, here they are:

For day to day beekeeping I hate them. They are too thick, you cannot feel what is going on so you tend to squash bees, Stings get stuck in them, both leave smell and pheromone that upsets the bees, so over time you end up annoying the bees before you've done anything other than take the lid off. They are difficult to wash moving forwards and, frankly, they can harbour disease as well as a result. I won't let you bring leather gloves into my apiaries, let alone go through my bees wearing them. Personally I prefer long cuff nitrile gloves (colour subject to taste but don't get black!):

Lets get the obvious out of the way, yes bees can sting through them, but for the most part they don't. I get long cuff, because if your wrists are exposed, that's where they'll sting you. You can feel when there's a bee under your fingers and they protect your hands from Honey and propolis more than anything else. I very rarely get stung through nitrile gloves

Marigolds are a step up and still a better option if you feel you do want a bit more actual protection. And If you really want the armoured option for dealing with that horrible hive (it will happen) you can get thicker rubber gloves still that you can at least clean afterwards.

Buy the biggest smoker you can

And get one with a guard, they get hot, hot, hot funnily enough. Much as I like the Lavender tip on Adam's blog I tend to just use the shredded carboard that most suppliers pack beekeeping kit in, it didn't cost me anything and I'd only have to throw it away otherwise. Plain carboard rolls made from Amazon or similar packaging boxes that's not got plastic or too much other printing on it also works well enough for me.

You want a big smoker so it will keep going for longer, you can always bung it up to put it out and relight it later if you haven't used all the fuel in it. A wine cork trimmed down to size blocks up the spout nicely. And keep lots of lighters or matches with you. Have one in your trousers, your bee suit, kit bag and car. Stove lighters can be a good alternative when wearing gloves or for getting lower into the smoker:

Your smoker will go out just when you need it most, be able to relight it!

Get a spare hive tool or two

I've got a couple of spare ones in a sealable tub of washing soda:

so I can also rotate them between hives as well. Washing soda is great for removing propolis, syrup and general "ick" from your tools and cleans and sterilises everything between inspections. A sponge in the tub also helps, I just replace the solution every few inspections but anything metal going into the hives lives in the soda.

If it's got "beekeeping" in the title, it'll be expensive.

Some things you'll need to get from a beekeeping supplier, other things you will end up paying a premium for. As a case in point, Beekeepers trousers:

A pair of nice, baggy, white, painters trousers with lots of pockets set me back £15 in comparison from a DIY store.

Always wear your beesuit (when dealing with your bees at least!)

Sounds obvious doesn't it? I guarantee that at some point you will think "I just need to...." maybe your bees are generally quite nice, it's late in the evening or you just need to top up a feeder or some other activity that will take less time than if you have to put on your suit. Especially if they're in your garden

Every beekeeper has a photo on their phone where they look like they've just done 10 rounds in the boxing ring. And if they ever share that photo the accompanying story is generally how they were just going to... I'd also add to this that if you're taking the crown board off, have your smoker lit. Finding out you need it when it's empty in the car over there isn't much fun.

Here we go, Laurence himself getting done:

https://x.com/BlackMountHoney/status/1767110175138181526?s=20

Get a Nail Gun

This sort of thing:

Shows staples rather than pins in the pic, but I took years to get one and it saves hours making frames. Probably one for year two when you're eyeing up expanding and no harm experiencing the joys (ahem) of nailing gimp pins into frames for one year at least.

Doesn't need to be heavier duty, frames are soft and you want to be able to dismantle bits of them moving forwards and these just save so much time when you've got 20+ frames to put together.

Kit tips out of the way, these are my more general beekeeping suggestions

Remember the brood cycles

Or have a little card with them on. If you can work back from what you are seeing now, you can figure out what is going on. This is especially important for Queens. Why inspect every 7 days? Because Queen cells are capped on Day 9, that's when the swarm will leave, all things being equal. If you've got open queen cells this inspection and (you're sure) none last, they can't be older than 7 days, you've got two days to deal with them before they swarm (when it comes to swarming always assume they started building queen cells the second you put the lid on last time).

Perspex Crownboards (and only inspect things worth inspecting)

Love them, I can take the lid off over winter and see what's going on without having to disturb the bees any further. Likewise in the active season, can spend a bit of time having look what is going on on same basis.

Don't waste time looking at frames of foundation, I know I did. Same with frames of honey to be perfectly honest. You'll learn to feel the difference, but unless it's a lovely day and you've got plenty of time or need to do something specific don't waste it looking at stores. Find the pollen and the next frame will be brood, then it starts to get interesting.

Swarming or supersedure? Assume it's swarming

This always catches people out when they start beekeeping. Conventional wisdom says swarming is lots of queen cells round the edge of the frames, supersedure is 2 or 3 queen cells in the middle of the frames. Don't believe it. If you're seeing any queen cells April to July in a fullish brood box, treat it as swarming. Nothing worse than seeing your big hive, nicely into July swarm just as the flow starts. Notes are a guide

Definitely something that will come with experience, but aim to write your notes after you've finished inspecting. Find a system that works for you but don't be spending hours with a hive open looking at frame, writing stuff down, next frame etc.

My notes are basically:

• 3 frames of food

• 6 frames of Brood in All Stages

• Queen Seen

• Any treatments, syrup or supers changed

• Anything else I need to consider next time I open them....

I've written notes on paper left under the lid, tried someone else's scheme for marks on the roof, taken copious notes into Excel and loads of variations on a theme. I use the Notes app on my phone and numbers on the roofs of each hive/Nuc with those basic 5 criteria. Before I do my next inspection I have a little check back through my notes and make sure I've got everything I need. On your current inspection, plan your next one

Go into your hive with a plan and a basic expectation of what you are going to do. Yes, the bees like to throw you curve balls from time to time, but have a basic idea. Especially important if you have an out apiary, no good being 20 minutes down the road and realising you need a super or other bit of kit sat in your garage. While you're going through your Hive have an eye on what you want or need to do next week and stick it in your notes. Unmarked Queen? Bring a pen next week. Do they need food? A super? Do you need to plan a potential artificial swarm?