How Many Hives Should I Start With?

I am getting this question a  lot lately and it is really up to the individual.  I started with one hive and if I did it over again I would have started with two.  The sad thing is we paid as much for our one hive as I am charging for two.  I was taken to the cleaners on that first hive. 

Our first hive was supposed to be a full working hive already established.  We expected honey that first year since it was suppose to be an established hive.  It turned out to be a split and we received the split without the queen.  I checked it after about 10 days like the beekeeper told me to.  It looked healthy with lots of bees, but I didn't know what I was looking for.  I had nothing to compare it to, so as I started to see a decrease in larva I was getting worried.  I didn't know what an egg looked like and that is because we never had any eggs.  I called the beekeeper that sold it to me and he told me to give it ten more days that the queen was probably a virgin queen and was mating and hadn't started to lay eggs.  I checked it again ten days later.  I didn't see any change other than now I had no larva and most of the brood had emerged.  I called him and he told me he would come over the next week.  7 days later he came over and told me he didn't think I had a queen.  We are now 5 weeks into this and no queen.  I went and bought a queen and introduced her.  Finally 6 weeks after purchasing the hive I had a laying queen.  The population in the hive had dwindle and it was very small.  I was frustrated to say the least. 

I learned that if I had a second hive I could have compared the two and seen right off that something was wrong.  I could have taken eggs from one hive and given it to the other to make a queen.  I could have taken brood from the other hive and given it to the weak hive to boost its population.  There were a number of things I could have done, but the biggest for me would have been having something to compare it too so that I could have identified a problem sooner. 

I would start with at least two hives.  It doesn't take a lot of extra time to care for one more hive.  In my opinion once you get to about five hives it might be a little much to start with.  You want to be able to enjoy it and not be overwhelmed your first year.  I do know people who have started with five and it worked out okay, but the individual had quite a bit of time to work the bees.  Here is a webinar that I thought was really good talking about having multiple hives  called "2 1/2 hives by Larry Connor". This website has other good webinars too.

If you are just getting started learn from my mistakes and be a little cautious buying a completely established hive.  We were late in the year so I went this route thinking I could trust this beekeeper.  He sold it to us for $600.  We decided to do it thinking we should get honey the first year from it.  He suggested that I do two hives as well but then I would have been into it $1,200.  Starting with a package or a nuc lets the beekeeper develop his knowledge at the same time the hive is building.  Another problem with an established hive is you inherit the problems of the former beekeeper.  I could never get that hive to build up to split or get honey.  It ended up absconding on me.  Anyway, if you choose to start with an established hive, don't pay as much as I did and make sure you trust the beekeeper if you are a beginner.  You have to take their word on a lot of things.

Beekeeping is a great hobby and if you get started right, it makes it a whole lot more fun.  We need more beekeepers and more people passionate about bees.

Happy Beekeeping.               

My Fears Became Reality

I finally had good enough weather to check my hives Saturday and today.  Its been a pretty depressing weekend.  Saturday I checked my hive and no bees.  The hive had honey, but probably only 2 dozen dead bees laying on the bottom board.  I am not sure what happened on that hive.  I went on to check 11 more of my hives at another yard.  Every single one was dead.  Most of them were within inches of honey, but they appeared to have starved.  I was heart broken.  You get pretty attached to these hives.  I grabbed all the frames with dead bees so that I can clean them up.  What a job!  Today I finished cleaning the frames and went to check my last three hives.  The first one was dead.  I felt like I was bound to find two more dead outs.  I went to my last yard.  The first hive had live bees.  I about jumped 10 feet back in shock!  The last hive was dead, so I took the honey and added it to the hive that was still alive since it was a little low.  I also put a fresh pollen patty on part of the cluster so that they will hopefully start to build up. One out of fifteen hives made it.  What a horrible record.  All I can do is learn from it.

Here is what I think happened and what I need to change:

• Hives need more sun.  Most of my hives get great summer sun, but winter they get more shade than I would like.  I may need to move my hives to get full sun during the winter months.  
• More ventilation.  Some of the hives seemed to have sweat on the honey.  I think I need to either have a top entrance for ventilation or drill holes in my hive boxes.  I really don't want to put holes in my boxes, so I think I will go down the route of creating a top entrance to allow ventilation.  
• Healthier bees in the fall.  I fed my bees a protein patty in the fall, but I have realized not all protein patties are created equal.  I must say I was very disappointed with the ones I had bought last year.  The bees just wouldn't take it.  I also think it was such a dry year that the nectar and pollen was just insufficient.  I had skinny bees even though they had food, it was most likely from only a couple sources of plants that still managed to produce a little nectar and pollen even though it was such a dry year.  Here is a great article that talks about needing fat bees. It is a little technical, but I found it interesting:  http://scientificbeekeeping.com/bee-nutrition/
• I may need to figure out a way to insulate my hives a little better.  On the other hand, I have to be careful the hives have good ventilation.  

I know it sounds funny, but I was the happiest person on earth to see at least one hive made it.  Now I have to work harder to make sure I have healthier bees going into winter.  Always something to learn with beekeeping.

Happy Beekeeping!

Tough Winter for the Bees

It has been a really tough year for the bees.  We had an extremely dry summer limiting the pollen and nectar available and many of the hives struggled to build up.  Then on top of a tough summer we have the coldest January since the 1940's here in Utah.  I am afraid I have lost most of my hives this year.  It makes me just sick thinking about it. 

I was talking with a commercial beekeeper to day that I get all of my bees from and he said most people around us are losing more than 50% of there hives this winter.  I had a lot of new hives started last year and I think that is why I am seeing an even a higher degree of loss.  I am still keeping my fingers crossed that some of them are alive, but there sure isn't a lot of activity.  One of the biggest problems we had was the fact that we would have a couple weeks straight of temperatures with highs only in the 20s.  The bees are not able to move to other food stores at these temperatures.

I am sure hoping for a little miracle and as things warm up I start seeing my bees again.

Good luck everyone.  I hope things are looking better for your hives.

Happy Beekeeping!  

Medium Boxes vs. Deep Boxes

Each year I get a lot of people asking me why I only sell medium boxes. I thought I would explain a little here on the blog.  Traditional hives typically have 2 deep boxes which are 9 5/8 inches deep and theses are called the brood boxes.  This is where the queen will do most of the laying of eggs and the rearing of bees.  Then most people would add honey supers or medium boxes 6 5/8 inches deep.  Average hives in Utah will typically fill two of them if we have a good honey year and maybe even more.  Most people will harvest the honey supers and leave the bottom two boxes for the bees.  The Queen will slow down the rearing of brood and they will start to back fill it with honey in the fall.

Another train of thought that is becoming more and more popular is to have one size of equipment (all deeps or all mediums).  That way all the frames are interchangeable.  This also eliminates 99% of the need for a queen excluder.  The 1% is for other reason besides keeping the queen out of the honey suppers.  You will often hear this method of beekeeping as unlimited brood rearing.  You let the queen rear as much brood as she can and you keep adding boxes to give them room for honey.  In the end you can manipulate the hive so the brood is in the bottom and the honey is in the top.  The theory behind it is it doesn't hinder the bees from storing honey or raising brood.  Queen excluders can slow down the bees progress since they have to get through the screen.  Some times they wont move up through it unless the comb is drawn out and sometimes they even need honey or brood above it so that it encourages them to get through it.  This in my opinion is a clear indication they don't want an excluder in there.  I am only discussing deeps and mediums because the shallow supper at 5 11/16 just doesn't seem quite big enough. In most places in Utah you will most likely need to over winter the bees in either 2 deeps or 3 mediums. 

Pros and Cons of Deeps

• Pro - you need less boxes (less equipment and less money)
• Pro - most nucleus hives for sale are deeps
• Cons - they get HEAVY (deeps can weigh 100 lbs full of honey).  When you have to move the box during an observation you not only have to lift the 100 lbs but you then have to pry the boxes apart thanks to propolis.
• Cons - due to the weight of the honey on the frame, I have had more top bars break away from the side bars because they cannot handle the weight.
• Cons - often the bees will be slower to move into a deep box with new foundation because they have a lot more area to manage in order to regulate the temperature in the spring.   

Pros and Cons of Mediums

• Pro - easier to handle because they weigh less ( mediums can weigh up to 60 lbs full of honey)
• Pro - frames seem to last longer.  They don't have as much weight pulling down on the side bars
• Pro - bees seem to expand into medium boxes quicker
• Pro - equipment seems to last longer
• Cons - It requires more boxes (more cost)
• Cons - It may require more frames to observe if you are trying to find the queen.

I am starting to get away from all of my deep boxes.  If I use them I try to have only one on a hive and try to keep it on the bottom.  In my opinion, as a hobbyist it makes more sense to have all the same size of equipment and mediums are so much easier to work with. 

Happy beekeeping!