Bee School

The process of learning what we needed to know to start keeping bees was very enjoyable, if a little overwhelming at first. We started, as I mentioned in my first post, by attending a meeting of our local beekeepers association after finding out that they offer an annual "Bee School". We went to the January 2012 meeting, and were pleased to find a very diverse group of people in the association. There were association members all the way from commercial keepers to brand new hobbyists like us. The meeting was great, with discussion time and planned presentations on the agenda, and we decided that we would attend "Bee School" the next month.

"Bee School" consisted of three 2-hour classes on consecutive Tuesday and Thursday evenings, followed by the monthly meeting. The classes cost $30 and included that year's association and a copy of the book being used for class that year. For 2012, the book was "Beekeeping for Dummies." During the class, pretty much every aspect of beekeeping was covered, including a lot of great information about nectar flows and integrated pest management (IPM) for our area. Much of the class was taught by members of the association, with some presentations from honey bee researchers at local universities. The book was occasionally used as a reference, but was not the main subject matter of the classes.

After the first class, I was extremely glad that we had decided to wait a year before getting our first bees, because I quickly realized exactly how little we knew about bees and beekeeping. A friend from work and her husband joined us in the classes, and got their first bees that year - they had a rough first year, losing their bees. I can't help but think that they would have had a smoother first year if they had a stronger grasp on the information before getting started.

After the classes, Mama Lion was pretty keen on getting some sort of pollinator going in our garden, and one of the things we had learned about was a species of bee called Orchard Mason Bees. Mason Bees are solitary bees, and nest in small holes in trees and other wood. They don't produce wax or honey like honey bees do, and don't really need any management other than providing a block of wood with holes in it for them to nest in. A local beekeeping supply shop sells tubes of Mason Bee cocoons, so we ordered a few of those to scratch the beekeeping itch while we learned more about the project ahead of us. That's all for today, and I'll leave you with a video of our Mason Bees at their nesting block.

The Road to Keeping Bees

In January 2012, Mama Lion suggested we look into keeping honey bees as pollinators for our garden. We're always looking for ways to get the most from our little garden - adding raised beds, adding a compost bin, building a small greenhouse, and getting some chickens over the previous couple of years. Keeping bees sounded challenging and fun, so we started looking into what it would take to add bees to our minifarm.

The first step we took was looking at beehives on the internet - learning about the different styles and the amount of space that is needed to have a hive or two. We live on about 1/8 of an acre, in a duplex, so space is a big issue in anything we do. I had already moved a section of fence to create room for our garden and greenhouse, and the chicken coop/run takes up a 4ft by 8ft chunk of the back yard, so we were pretty short on space. With this in mind, and for a few other reasons that I'll discuss later, we started thinking about Warre style hives.

In our internet reading, we found out that there's a very active beekeepers association in our area, meeting once a month and running an annual "Bee School". We went to the January meeting to see if it was something that would be beneficial, and decided that we would attend Bee School, waiting until the next year to get our first bees. We were still preparing the garden area and getting the chickens up to speed, so our plate was pretty full. Waiting turned out to be one of the best decisions we made in the process, as it gave us ample opportunity to prepare, observe, and learn.

This blog is my attempt to share our experiences as new beekeepers, and help others take the leap by sharing our story.

One of our bees on a sage bush