Friday, October 9, 2009

What You Need To Start Bee Keeping

By Tony Scwartz

Bee agricultural in it's form has been around since 1851 when Langstroth invented the first movable hive to take into account "bee space", which is the amount of room (about 1 cm) that bees will not construct honeycombs in. This development produced bee hives that are not only movable, but that you can gather honey from without damaging the bee colony. These hives are called Langstroth Hives.

Why folks have bee farms.

The reasons people look after bees are as diverse as the people themselves. Some people keep bees strictly as a for profit firm and bring in the honey and beeswax as well as let their bees out for to pollinate farmer's fields. Others engage in bee farming as a leisure pursuit or to make some additional side earnings. Beekeeping is perfect as a small supplemental business, because bees mostly take care of themselves.

Yet others keep bees simply because they are fascinating. A lot of people find honey bees to be fascinating.

Time involved in bee farming.

A lot of hopeful bee farmers get discouraged because they think that keeping bees is difficult. However the truth is that unless you are allergic to bee stings, beekeeping is actually pretty easy. Once you learn about the bees life cycle and own the correct bee farming gear, it only takes around 2 to 4 hours a month to maintain several hives. This is where I recommend that you start.

Of course, if you plan to make a full time income farming bees, you can expect the time responsibility to be much more, but by starting small and working your way up to a large bee farm, you will not only know what to be expecting, but you will also be prepared for the quantity of exertion involved.

You will require these bee keeping materials.

Of course like any brand new undertaking, when you begin keeping bees you will need various specialty materials. You may want to obtain more, but this is what you have to have to start out with.

Bee hives: To avoid spreading disease from an used hive you will want to either build these by hand or get them new. Most modern beekeepers use Langstroth type hives with detachable frames. These are necesary if you need to harvest honey and wax from the bees. If you are more interested in learning about bees first hand, then you will want an observation hive instead.

Bee keeping suit and veil: Many skilled beekeepers only use a veil, but if you are just starting out I would recommend getting the entire bee keeping suit if you want to minimize bee stings.

Bee smoker: Low-cost, but not to be overlooked. A bee smoker will calm the bees down and will allow you to work with them more easily.

The bees themselves: Since you are just starting out you will want to buy your starter bees. This is just much easier than attempting to catch a bee swarm.

Overall, bee keeping is a very satisfying and appealing pastime or profession. If you love to care for things and enjoy the out-of-doors I would advise you give a small scale bee farm a try and see how you enjoy it. - 16890

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