in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
instinct each act in service to the whole and
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
part poet, they move along their hives with the
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
the bees' needs as best they can comprehend,
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love Beekeeping
presented by our great friends and partners in
beekeeping, Man Lake. Today we'll have a discussion
with two of the most fun beekeepers around, Kim
and Steph. If you're thinking about getting into
beekeeping, believe it or not there are some
big decisions you need to make before you take
the leap. What kind of honey bees should you
start with? What kind of hive design? Why are
you getting into beekeeping in the first place?
In this multi -episode series we're taking a
deep dive into the 10 decisions you need to make
before you start your beekeeping journey. But
first let's take just a minute to go inside the
hive this feature presented by Primal Bee. So
you see a cloud of bees pour out of a hive and
land on a tree branch in a big clump and your
first thought is oh something has gone very wrong.
Actually it's the opposite swarming is how a
healthy colony reproduces. When a colony gets
strong enough, starts running out of room or
is just ready to reproduce, the workers raise
new queen cells. When those queens are almost
ready to hatch, the old queen takes off with
about half the bees in the colony. That terrifying
cloud of bees, they're actually in a great mood.
They've gorged on honey before leaving and they're
not defending anything. They're just temporarily
homeless. They'll cluster on a branch while scout
bees go house hunting and those scouts are incredibly
picky. They want thick walls, a small entrance,
the right amount of space. When a scout finds
a good spot, she comes back and does a waggle
dance to pitch it to the rest of the group. Sometimes
you even have multiple scouts lobbying for different
locations at the same time. The colony basically
votes. Once enough bees agree, the whole swarm
lifts off, flies together to the new location
and moves in. Back in the original hive, a new
queen hatches and takes over. Now there are two
colonies instead of just one. In bee terms, that's
a success story. Next time on Inside the Hive,
we'll take a deeper dive into the waggle dance.
Bees literally give each other GPS directions
by dancing. Now how about a warm welcome for
our very special guests. I am so happy to have
on the line with us today Kim and Steph from
Mandalay, Clearback in Pennsylvania. How are
you two this morning? Good, how are you? Fantastic.
You were asking about our weather earlier and
I am so happy to report here in the mountains
of Utah we are finally getting winter. We have
a big snowstorm going on and it's fantastic.
You guys already got yours a while ago, now it's
our turn. We did we did so now we're just enjoying
a rainy day today. It's a little drizzly out
there What are your bees doing today right now?
Well, if I had to think about it, I would say
they're probably still a little clustered up
It's been a little chilly. Well yesterday was
a little warm but with the rain They're probably
taking it easy today. They were out yesterday
foraging. I'm sure so today. They're probably
taking it easy after those cleansing flights
and little foraging they may have done. I wish
you would have asked me yesterday. Yesterday
they were all out and about but today they are
safely in their hives. Cleansing flights are
such a good thing but I worry a little bit about
my bees on some of the really warm winter days
that we've had here because they go out foraging
and obviously there's absolutely nothing for
them to find and I'm afraid they're wearing themselves
out. That is something that we do worry about.
And in fact, seeing them all out yesterday, taking
the dead out, their movements you can see around,
sometimes they'll drop in the snow and not be
able to get back out. We know this time of year
is very tricky in February because they'll be
going out on warmer days, but less and less will
be coming back to the hive to keep that cluster
and keep the queen warm. All right well I want
to jump into today's topic because we have a
lot lot lot to talk about. What we've come up
with is everything that you need to know before
you take the leap into beekeeping. So for seasoned
beekeepers out there you might think this is
a little boring but hey don't go away because
you'll probably be helping somebody or there
may be some gaps in your knowledge that you need
to fill in too. But especially if you're new
to beekeeping or just thinking about it, this
is your big list of things to do first. And that's
why I have Kim and Steph with me today, because
they know what they're doing. They've been beekeeping
for a long time. Have you guys taught classes
too? No, we haven't taught classes, so to speak.
It's something to think about. We teach more
of what we do on TikTok. And you've got a lot
of fun content out there. And this is not a beginner
beekeeping class today. That's not what this
is. This is a whole different thing about things
to think about first. And I have a whole big
list here. You guys are welcome to jump in with
whatever you want. Now these are in no particular
order. So I think people should define why they
want to get into beekeeping before they do it.
Why is that a big deal? Kim and I were discussing
this and it's important to understand why you
want to do it because you're going to invest
a lot of time in doing it. You're going to invest
your summer days, you're going to invest your
spring, you're going to invest a lot of energy
into doing it. So it's important to really think
about, are you doing this for the honey yields?
Are you doing this to pollinate your garden?
It's just important to have a, you know, why
you're doing it. I do it. for a little bit of
everything. I like the honey. I like a pollinated
area. I like that we're helping our food sources
out there. And of course you invest a lot of
money into it. There's that. Let's be honest.
There is a financial investment here. Yeah. What
would you say for your average beginner jumping
in with two hives, what's their investment? Give
us a round number. First year. I'm gonna say
easily could be a thousand dollars. Easy. And
that's your full setup, though. So that's going
to be with us. That's everything with your bees
and your heads. A thousand dollars is a very
good starting point. Just to get into a little
bit more of the why, I think another reason why
people need to define their why is because beekeeping
is harder than most people think it is. You may
get stung. You may get stung a few times. You
may have bees die. You may have neighbors mad
at you. There are things that can happen and
with that really defined why it helps you keep
coming back. It helps you put in the effort that
you need to learn what you need to learn. Instead
of avoiding, oh man, I don't even want to deal
with varroa. I don't even want to know what it
is. No it'll help you go, I need to figure out
Varroa, I need to figure out the climate where
I am, I need to do my homework to do this right.
Because being an irresponsible beekeeper, that
doesn't make a lot of sense for anybody. Not
for you, not for the bees. So to find that why,
like for me it was hey seasonal allergies, and
I had read a whole bunch of things about how
raw local honey can really help those allergies.
And I'm the kind of person that just likes to
test stuff. So I bought some raw local honey.
It was from some beekeepers about 150 miles from
me. And I religiously like ate some of this honey
every day and it didn't do anything. Have you
heard this before? Okay, and so I read more and
it said no really local like hyper local honey
Because what I have growing around me is not
the same thing growing around that guy 150 miles
from here That's why I got bees at first and
I'll tell you what it helps in a big -time way
My allergies are so so much better. They're not
gone They're not cured. They're like 75 % better.
For me, that's a huge thing. Then, like you said,
there's other reasons too. Maybe we can actually
help the bees some. We can help pollinate our
orchard that we have at our house, whatever it
is. And most of us love honey too. Yeah. Yes.
I was going to say that that's one of the reasons
why I got into it. I have seasonal allergies
very badly in the fall. And I remember years
ago, riding my bike to a few miles down the way.
There's a backyard beekeeper. I would buy their
raw honey. And I wanted to be able to use it
in things that I make. I like to make a lot of
skin care and natural products and the food.
It did help some. But when we moved and I started
working at Man Lake and I realized what local
truly meant, then yes, I wanted to have bees
on my property that would forage in my area.
And I have noticed the same, that I hardly have
any allergies in the fall. It's really helped
tremendously with that. To add on to the benefits
of that, I find that beekeeping keeps me grounded
in a healthier state of mind. That's one reason
I really got into it. I was, you know, not as
healthy as I could have been. And then I got
into the beekeeping from working where I'm at.
And I found that It really put me at ease and
all the other added benefits. It's very therapeutic
for me personally. That is so true. I've had
a guest on the show from Hives for Heroes and
we talked about the therapeutic aspect and dealing
with PTSD and stuff and beekeeping is such a
good hobby for that, for your mental health.
It truly, truly is. Let's just go with our next
thing again in no particular order. One of the
decisions that you need to make when you first
get into beekeeping is what kind of beehive design
or style or philosophy of the hive itself, the
box, what kind do I want to get into. Would you
ladies just tell us what are some of the different
options and then we'll talk about some pros and
cons of them. Sure. Yeah. So we work with the
Langstroth hives. That's what I am most familiar
with because that's what I've used throughout
my entire journey. There are so many different
types of hives out there. Just this year alone,
I learned about hives that people who are not
as able to walk around can use themselves just
by opening and looking. So there's so many different
kinds of hives out there. I'm just personally
know more about the Langstroth than anything.
I have used Langstroth. I've had a top bar hive
and I really enjoyed that. We had talked about
that a little previously before recording. That
one is great. I will say that in using that style,
you really need to make adequate weekly inspections.
You don't want to miss any inspections because
in a top bar hive, you'll want to add a little
bit of wax to the top of the top. far and then
the bees will draw everything out themselves.
However there's a lot of cross comb that can
happen in that situation where they start out
really well and then they're going to start cross
combing meaning they put comb on one but slide
it down to the other and then when you try to
lift that out you get a lot of breakage you know
and you don't want that to happen but To say
I really enjoyed my top bar hive, and I would
definitely go back to that method again. Along
with that would be the horizontal hive. So that's
also great for those that don't want to do any
type of heavy lifting, but you want to be able
to use the same frames that are in a Langstroth
hive. That would be probably a little bit easier
to work with. It's still that long horizontal.
hive, but you can put regular frames in there,
which would be easier for inspections. I know
there's a few others like the Flow Hive, which
I think is just beautiful. I've done research
on it. I found it to be a little too expensive
for me at this time, but I do, I love watching
videos of people using it. And I know it's great
for getting that honey and the, I think it was
the RZ method where it's in. Primarily in Europe,
which just reminds me of like a library where
you're just pulling out the droid But I don't
have too much familiarity with that one So I
know there's many different methods and I would
say you know as much as we always say this do
your research On the different methods out there
to see what you think you might want to work
with and also cost -wise Some things might will
be more expensive if you take a first -year beginner
beekeeping class They may push one kind over
another. If you happen to have a mentor, they're
probably more familiar and like one kind of hive
more than another. I will say that Langstroth
is really the standard. It is probably, what,
90 % of the hives in the United States and Europe
and other places. We have a lot of listeners
in Australia. Theirs are very similar. The sizes
might be a little bit different, but basically
the design is the same. There are AZ hives. and
a lot of other kinds of hives. We've talked about
poly hives which are basically a Langstroth but
not made out of wood. There's the primal hive
which we've talked about on here too. I better
not go down that road I could spend 20 minutes
on that. But it's a little bit different but
the beekeeping is quite similar to Langstroth
kind of beekeeping. There are a lot of different
designs and part of it's going to be how are
you going to learn and how easy do you want it
to be to buy equipment. Langstroth in general
is a pretty good place for most people to start.
It's easy to get the equipment. Mann Lake and
a lot of other places are going to stock it.
And then you have to decide do I want to use
10 frame or 8 frame. Why don't you talk about
the difference there? Sure. So I started out
using 10 frame equipment and just this past season,
I adopted an eight frame hive and I'm glad I
did because now I'm going to be able to, for
me, it's going to be easier for me to lift just
the supers and the box in general. So with the
eight frame hive. that's something to look at.
Do you want as much weight? The eight frames
not going to give you as much weight as a 10
frame would. So it might be easier for some people
to have an eight frame as opposed to the 10 frame.
I'm excited to see how much honey I get in that
eight frame though. And then most people are
going to use deep boxes for their brood boxes.
I'm transitioning towards mediums for the very
reason that you just talked about, which is the
weight issue. And that changes things up a little
bit. So there's a lot of things going on and
a lot of decisions to make even as far as this.
I think, yeah, just just how much weight do you
want to manage? That's most important because
you don't you're going to you don't want to be
out there struggling with a heavy honey box.
That's why I switched from one deep. brood box
to then the rest medium boxes. Same. And I will
say real quick before we move on, when I was
a brand new beekeeper, before I knew really anything,
I had no idea the difference between 10 frame
and eight frame, no idea that it was even a different
box. And so I remember asking some people I work
with, like, do you just put eight frames in there?
Or how does that work? So yeah, it's not as complicated
as it seems to begin with. But the answer is
no, you don't just put eight frames in a 10 frame
box. You'll be sorry, we'll leave it at that.
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you're gonna love it. Let's move on from there.
Let's talk about different kinds of bees. What?
There are different kinds of bees? I know, right?
That's amazing. They're not just honeybees. There's
many kinds of honeybees, for sure. Another thing
I have no idea about, I was thinking, what do
you mean? There's there's Buckfest and there's
Italian and there's Southern Italian. What? And
there's California Italian. What? And there's
Russian and there's hybrids. There's a few others
in between. Where do people go find information
to figure that one out? So actually, if we could
just St. Man Lake is a great place to get that
information. We've broken it down so well for
the different types of bees that we carry. When
you go to the website, you can take a look at
the different attributes, their energy levels,
how they're going to act as far as swarming.
So we've really broken that down for you and
put that right out there. Our website is full
of so much rich, just educational knowledge and
just so much stuff out there. About all the bees
really and you can call us and you can call him.
We would be happy to discuss it further So just
to give people an idea of what you're talking
about. You've got a chart that will say something
like Italian bees have more swarming behavior
or less swarming behavior and and this kind of
bee does better in cold weather, and this kind
of bee may be better in warmer weather. This
kind of bee, speaking of Russians, they're a
little bit cranky. This kind of bee, like Buckfast,
they're just sweethearts and they'll come give
you a kiss on the cheek. So you can look through
all those traits, find out which are the most
important to you, and which fit best with where
you live. Hopefully talk to somebody in your
area too. that's a beekeeper to make the right
decision. I had somebody call me a couple of
years ago from up in my area saying, ah, can
you come help me? I don't know what's going on
with my bees, but they're just mean. And she
was a first year beekeeper and turns out she
had bought Russian bees and I wouldn't recommend
that for first year beekeepers. Right. And they
were just, they were very aggressive and she
was scared and I don't blame her. And that's
important when you're, you don't want to be scared.
You don't want to have that mindset when you're
going into your hives. So to be scared, that's,
that's not enjoyable. You're not going to enjoy
yourself and ultimately beekeeping should be
enjoyable. So what are your favorite bees, by
the way? Well, funny you say that because I actually
have Russians. They're my partners, but we've
loved them. They haven't attacked us. They haven't
attacked him. They haven't attacked me. They're
just sweet. They're amazing what what they do.
But aside, but not for a beginner beaker. I did
wait. I did wait. I will preface that with it.
I think it was my third year before I got Russians
or before we got them. I started with the Carniolans,
which are beautiful, gentle, docile honey makers.
They go out on cool days to forage early. So
Carnolians, beautiful breed. We are Carnolean
lovers over here. Yeah, we are. I haven't worked
with Buckfast yet. Do you like them? Well, we
haven't either, but this is going to be our first
year doing it. We are actually getting a package
of Buckfast so we can take Everyone along with
us, we plan on showing some footage of that and
going along this season with our buck fast. And
we're going to be putting them in an eight frame
hive, which is also going to be new for me. So
a lot of new experiences. And so even beekeeping
for years, you know, you're still going to have
new experiences. And we hope to really enjoy
working with the buck fast. And then we'll be
able to talk a little bit more about that breed.
Absolutely. I'm really looking forward to the
buck fast this year. I haven't heard. anything
but good things about them. So I'm really excited
for our bug fast journey. I don't need new bees
this year, but maybe I should get some of those
too, just to give them a try. I think you should
try them. We could talk about our experiences
together. That'd be fun. Yeah. We'll have a part
two of this. Now you mentioned the term package
a minute ago, package of bees. There's another
term that if you're new, you're going what? And
that is a nuke of bees. Why don't you explain
what those two things are and why you need to
order one or the other? Sure. So I'll actually
show a package if you want to explain about it.
I'll grab one. Yeah, that's another thing that
can be a little confusing to someone who's just
trying to order for the first time. This stuff's
going to show you can get a package of bees which
come in a bee bus. We like to use a fun little
term. They'll be either in a white plastic bee
bus such as this one, which essentially is a
brand new bunch of bees, about 10 ,000 bees,
roughly three pounds. They've just been put together.
Right then and there they put them in the package.
The queen is separate will come in a queen cage
So has not been acclimated with that particular
colony They do come with a syrup can so you can
get those either by picking them up at a facility
Or you can actually get them by USPS through
the mail they go to your local post office where
you can just go there and Pick up your bees and
bring them home within the bee bus. They're pretty
secure in there. So they won't be able to really
get out and fly around. The one thing I like
about the bee bus too when you're getting the
package is you actually get a chance to see what
a cluster of bees looks like in your hive in
the wintertime too. They make such a beautiful
cluster so it's fun to see. It's nice if you
really want to experience it from the very beginning.
If you want to really grow along with your bees,
a package will help you do that because you're
going to take them home. You'll have your hive
set up and you just gently put the bees in there
and you all start together really. And a package
of bees you can put in any of the hive styles
that we talked about. Whether it's top bar, length,
trough, AZ, whatever it is, primal hive, they'll
work in anything. Now a nuke is a little bit
different. Explain a nuke. So a nuke is going
to be a set of bees. So it comes in a nuke and
it's usually four or five frames that's already
been started. So think of it as a package that
has a jumpstart because you're getting a queen
that's already been introduced to her fellow
bees in there. There's already brood in there.
There's nurse bees ready to go. So your frames
and then you have you generally have a frame
of honey in there too. They'll give you frame
of honey. So then that's where you probably will
need a Langstroth because these nukes come on
frames already. So you want to make sure you
have equipment that those frames are going to
fit. These bees are ready to go. So they're going
to go out foraging faster. They don't need to
do a whole lot to get ready there. That's why
a nuke is sometimes a good jumpstart. If you
want to see maybe honey production that year.
You want to, you know, maybe harvest a little
more. A package might be somewhere to start as
well. Or a nuc, I'm sorry. A nuc is, yeah, ready
to go. And nuc stands for nucleus colony. It's
basically a small colony of bees. It's like a
small beehive. You're going to then take the
frames, put them into your full -size equipment.
And if you're using traditional 10 frame boxes.
Well, they don't even have to be 10 frame boxes.
They could be eight, but they need to be deep
boxes. Then a nuke could work for you. Can you
have a nuke ship to you? No, that is never a
good idea. These bees have already, they're probably
a little, you know, they want to get to their
permanent home. So you can only pick up a nuke
from us, but you wouldn't want to ship a nuke
anyway. You'd be on the receiving end with some
angry bees. Well and it would weigh more and
be bigger and all that kind of stuff. It's just
not really practical. So a nuc you're gonna pick
up from a local supplier like a man lake in your
area or some other bee supplier in your area
or even a local beekeeper might be selling nucs.
And that's also a really great way to get bees
because they're probably acclimated to your climate.
Thanks again for joining us on Bee Love Beekeeping,
presented by our great friends over at Man Lake.
Hey, and don't forget to order your bees. And
a shout out to Vita Bee Health for their support.
Vita's Varroa Control Ranger products includes
Epistan, Epigard, and now Varroxan Extended Release
Oxalic Acids Trips. Thank you so much, guys.
If you haven't yet, please subscribe and follow
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or topic that you'd like discussed on the show,
shoot me an email, eric at BeLoveBkeeping .com.
And remember, if you're not just in it for the
honey or the money, you're in it for the love.
See you next week.