To become a successful beekeeper, you need to learn as much as you can about beekeeping. Beekeeping is a science, you not only need to read books, but you also need to learn how to deal with bees and hives. And if you plan on setting up a beekeeping business, this means you need even more knowledge and experience.

Hence, beekeeping for beginners is not a child's play. As a beginner you will always be at the stage of learning.

Bees exist all round the world in all types of environment from European forest to African deserts. The furry creature is commonly seen in gardens and woodlands. These industrious creatures have been serving this planet for thousands of years.

Flying from flower to flower, the tiny invertebrates make the existence of life possible on earth. The fuzzy insects play an important part in sustaining the survival of many living organisms on this planet, but their population is declining dramatically in recent years. This decline has an important negative impact on crops and plant production as pollination is impossible without bees. These potential pollinators are responsible for 80 to 90% of food production on the earth.

The goal of this article is not to tell you everything you need to know to keep bees. Instead, think of it as an introduction to the types of things you are going to need to learn more about. There's an expression, "you don't know what you don't know." And if you are a beginner to beekeeping, this absolutely applies.

Don't worry, we have a growing library of more in-depth articles, but for now, it's time for the inspiration to start beekeeping. It's good for you. It's good for the bees. And it's good for the world!

What Is Beekeeping?

So you think you have what it takes to start beekeeping? This can be adopted as a business or rewarding hobby. In recent years, it is gaining popularity throughout the world. Some studies suggest that most professional beekeepers have an investigative personality style, but anyone can enjoy the world of bees!

However, beekeeping is much more than just setting up an apiary and utilizing it for honey production. Before you dive into this adventure, you need to know some factors that will make beekeeping simple to learn.

First, when people talk about beekeeping, it can mean either providing hives and habitats for native and solitary bees or it can refer to keeping honey bees (and all that goes with it). In this post, we are focusing on the second one — beekeeping for the honey. 

Honey is that golden syrup for which honeybees are loved worldwide. Other products obtained from beehives are propolis and beeswax. Beekeeping has been a part of human history for centuries. As honey was used for both medicinal and food purposes.

Benefits of Beekeeping

Honey is not the only reason for the people to adopt beekeeping as an amateur hobby. The benefits of beekeeping extend beyond pollination and honey. Products like beeswax, propolis, and royal jelly are also harvested from beehives and put to good use like honey.

Beautifying the World

The beautiful sceneries of the world that fascinate everyone, because of bees and other pollinators. They are essential for bringing flowers to bloom. Without them, we won't be able to see beautiful flowers around us.

Providing Food to Humans

Bees are an important part of making life possible on earth. They are responsible for pollinating plants that provide us food. They travel hundreds of miles to enable the food plants to grow and mature.

Balancing the Ecosystem

Bees are not only working for the survival of humans, but they are providing food and shelters to other animals to. The plants they pollinate are shelters for some and food for others.

Preventing Global Warming

One can get surprised to know that bee are making this planet cooler. But how they are doing that? Plants that bees pollinate are not only making this planet beautiful but also prevent the temperature of earth to rise up.

Preventing Extinction of Bees

Due to adverse activities of mankind like use of pesticides and deforestation many species of bees are extinction day by day. Beekeeping either as a business or backyard forming can be helpful to prevent the extinction of bees.

Beginner Beekeeping Tips

Every expert beekeeper will give different tips to make beekeeping successful on the basis of his experience. As someone has truly said that you will get 101 answers to 100 beekeepers questions, but there are some golden tips that every beekeeper should follow to cut through the noise.

It is impossible to cover everything you need to know in one single article. I'll say this again, but it is essential that you do your research, get some books and make sure you are ready before you start keeping bees. While you are learning, if you haven't already, you can start planting a bee friendly garden.  

What follows are a few things you will need to start thinking about if you plan on keeping honeybees.

Study the Behavior of Bees

Before stepping into beekeeping read as much as you can about bees and understand exactly how bees make honey. If you want to be a successful beekeeper, you must have a good knowledge about Honeybee behavior, biology, and life cycle.

Decide What Kind of Hives You Will Use

• Using Frames in Hives - An expert beekeeper will always recommend using hives with movable frames. Because they provide better support to comb of hive with maximum inspection.
• Using a Hive without Foundation - If you use Foundation at start but remove it as you get aware of bees' nature. Foundation less frames are expensive and will make it less messy for bees to propagate.

Using Same Size for Broad and Honey

For splitting colonies of bees one can use same size of brood and honey boxes. It saves you from the hassle of buying two sizes of boxes and frames. Medium boxes are more manageable than deeper ones.

Avoid Using Excluder

There are different opinions by beekeepers for using a queen excluder. It is not important for bees, but it might be useful if you are using boxes of different sizes. Excluders suppress the sizes of brood in a beehive.

Keeping Healthy Bees (Mutts)

A beekeeper always wants to have colonies of bees that are resistant to parasites. Such surviving local bees (mutts) give good performance throughout the beekeeping operation.

Inspect Hive Every 7 to 10 Days

Inspection of a beehive helps beekeeper to get an idea: there is enough space for bees, presence of any parasite, or bees are working properly.

Keep Hives Close Together

Keep the beehive close to each other. In this way colonies will be more accessible for checking than beehives placed at long distances apart.

Avoid Opening Hive Needlessly

Some passionate the keeper who love their bees too much and keep on watching them every day. This makes bees' operation ineffective.

How to Start Beekeeping for Beginners

Here I go again...  Before you jump into getting your first hive and colony, you need to learn!

If you are in a beginner coma you might suffer anxiety but with the passage of time you will get confidence by reading books and talking with people who are doing it in your area. Observe the activities of bees and beekeepers carefully.  

Join the local beekeeper's association to get some hands-on experience.  If you are really serious, you can even go to college to become a professional beekeeper (but that's if you are planning on going commercial)! 

From there, here are a few more things you will need to do to start beekeeping.

Get Approval from Your Local Authority

The type of approval you are going to need will depend upon where you live, and what your plans are. For example, if you live in a development you may need to get approval from your homeowner's association. Even if you are going to have a single hive, if you live in an urban or suburban area, it's best to get approval documents to confirm that beekeeping is permanent permitted within your municipal limits.

Another thing you will need to do is find out whether there are other beekeepers in the area, especially if they have businesses with a full-scale apiary.  One reason this is important is related to they types of flowers you intend to have for your bees. Honey gets its flavor from the types of flowers bees visit, and if your apiary and flowers are within a few miles of another, it will impact the taste. This may not matter to you, but if someone else is running a business selling specific types of honey, it will to them.

Get Registered with Local Beekeeping Association

If you are doing beekeeping in your backyard, it is still strongly recommended that you get yourself registered as a loyal beekeeper with the local beekeeping association. However, if you are starting a beekeeping business, your business must be registered with the beekeeping association of the respective area. You will also have to set up your business license. 

Get the Best Location for Your Hives

As we know that beehives nearest to any garden are best for successful beekeeping. When choosing the location for your hives, make sure of its suitability for beekeeping. 

Bees perform their activities more efficiently if beehives are kept nearest to your garden or where flowering plants are present. Adjust the time of introducing bee colonies with the flowering pattern of plants. It will be helpful for bees to give maximum production of honey and beeswax.

Get Beekeeping Equipment

Order the beekeeping equipment after consulting with an expert beekeeper to ensure the purchase of quality products. Beekeeping protective equipment and hive equipment are the two types required to set up an apiary. 

Get Your Initial Bee Colony

You can get very first one bee colony from your beekeeping association member, your friend, or you can purchase it from online supplier. One must consider the traits of that specific strain of bees you want for your apiary.

Get Access to the Local Honey Market

Whether a person starts beekeeping as a hobby or business, he would definitely get ample supply of honey. If you have more than you need (or can give away), you can make some money. Do your research and find out if your town requires a business license if you are just selling a little bit a the local farmer's market.

If you are planning a full scale honey business, you can start small by visiting local Mom & Pop stores, restaurants and markets to see if they will sell your products. This is a great way to build up to something bigger.

Get Evaluation Report of Beekeeping Operation

Evaluate the whole beekeeping operation after harvesting honey for the first time. You need to determine whether you get profit or loss after the first operation. This will help you in expanding apiary.  Even if you are keeping bees because you love them, you should observe them on regular basis to avoid any parasitic infection.

Video: Tips for Beekeeping Beginners

20 Beekeeping for Beginners Tips | Courtesy of Black Mountain Honey in UK

Closing Remarks

I hope this introduction to beginner beekeeping has inspired you to take the next step in your journey. Whether it's simply planting more flowers in your yard, becoming a hobbyist, or going all in and starting your own beekeeping and honey business.

Anything you can do to help save the bee population in your area is a step in the right direction!

For more information about beekeeping, check out our review of the best beginner beekeeping books.