Beekeeping Basics

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Many states require that such purchases be examined by a bee inspector (contact the agent through your county agricultural extension service). The examiner will inspect the colony for signs of highly contagious bee diseases, such as American foulbrood. (If you don't have an inspector look into your hive, you should both expect the seller to go through the hive in your presence ... and have read enough to be able to spot problems yourself .)

Some beginners start their colonies with mail-ordered package bees (a cluster costs around $25), and this is surely the safest way to be sure you're buying the kind of bees you want. (There are several varieties of Apis mellifera , but the vast majority are variants of the "Italian" strain.)

If you choose to go the package route, however, you should place your order as soon as possible . . . because most bee suppliers will become quite busy in the warming months ahead. Your package—which will be shipped four to six weeks before the first spring bloom—will contain a healthy, mated young queen . . . two or three pounds of worker bees . . . a can of syrup for the insects to eat en route , and complete instructions for both installing the colony in your hive and feeding its members until the first honey flow. This method costs less initially than buying a working hive, but remember that—since you'll be starting out with a small nucleus—your new bee community may not make any surplus honey (beyond their own wintering food needs) during the first year.

COMB OR LIQUID

After your bees are in place and prospering, you should consider adding your first honey super to the hive. But before you can take this step to expand your colony's lodgings, you'll have to make another fundamental beekeeping decision: whether to harvest comb (chunk) or liquid (extracted) honey.

Chunk honey, you see, is produced in frames that contain thin, chewable foundation . . . while the foundation used for honey that is to be extracted must be thicker and reinforced with either preset or hand-inserted wires (so that it will be sturdy enough to withstand the pressure of the centrifuge machine, called a honey extractor, that spins the liquid harvest out of its combs).

As a beginner, you'll probably encounter less trouble and expense if you start off using comb foundations. By doing so, you'll be able to harvest your golden goody by simply cutting the honeycomb and all—out of the frames. Then, if you want to separate some liquid honey out of the yield, you can smash all the comb cells with a kraut chopper (or a beater from an electric mixer) and let the honey drain out through a small-mesh screen lined with cheesecloth.

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