I decided to start keeping bees this year - after starting too late last year to obtain bees.  I attended five, two hour classes held by a local beekeeping society, plus a 3 hour field day with plenty of hands-on work.  In a photo thread a few days ago - an Arfcommer suggested documenting the process from the beginning.  This thread may help, inspire or educate some who have been on the fence about beekeeping and wondered what is involved.  This thread will document some of the basics of beekeeping illustrated with photos.  If you find this thread useful or informative - post in it and I'll keep it up through the year.  This thread is NOT sufficient instruction for you to start up on your own.  I recommend you enroll in classes or find a beekeeping mentor to learn the important details that one cannot learn in a photo thread and to ensure your safety and success.

I did a self-assembly of the hive and honey supers (the latter a hive body that the queen is physically excluded from where honey is stored and later harvested). I painted both hives with latex paint.  I am using 10 frame "deeps" - which are vertically deeper than a standard hive and thus hold more foundation/honey/brood - but are heavier to lift.  Both are sited in my vegetable/pumpkin garden.  There are two basic ways of obtaining bees:  1) a "Nucleus" (aka "Nuc") colony which is a miniature hive with five frames of honey, several thousand bees, a queen, brood and pollen, or 2) a Box of Bees (several thousand including a queen).  I went with two Nucs for my two hives in order to get a strong start to the season.  I picked up my Nucs Tuesday night.  It rained Wednesday so I skipped the transfer to the hives waiting until sunny, warmer weather.

Today I did the transfer of both Nuc colonies to their hives.  I wear a jacket (with veil) but prefer to not wear gloves, which I feel are clumsy.  I wear latex gloves to keep the propolis off my hands.  This is a Nuc:



They may be waxed cardboard or wood.  They have ventilation flaps front and back to provide critical air flow.  The small opening on the bottom is the door, which is opened by removing a plastic mesh door.  It contains 5 wood "frames" with well-developed wax foundation containing eggs, brood (larvae), honey and pollen and of course, many bees and a queen.

A smoker is used with a few puffs of smoke at the entrance and under the roof of the Nuc to calm the bees.  Then the lid is removed, exposing the frames and some of the bees:



The first frame is gently pried from the Nuc (the bees have "glued" them into the Nuc body with propolis - a substance made from tree sap), lifted and checked for the queen.  It is then placed into the hive body:



The process is repeated for each frame, inspecting for the queen and looking at the eggs, larvae, pollen and honey stores and checking for problems.  The frames are placed in the hive in the same order they were in the Nuc.







You are then left with all frames from the Nuc in the new hive.  A quantity of bees remain in the Nuc box - a little disoriented.  I inverted the box over the hive and gave it a sharp rap and 90% 0f the bees fell into/onto the hive.  I rest the open Nuc box near the entrance for stragglers to find their way.



Now its time to give the bees some quick and easy food while they get used to their new surroundings and locate local forage.  This is done in any one of several ways.  I use an inverted plastic pail with small holes punched in it, filled with 1:1 sugar water.  First a honey super body is stacked on the recently filled hive body to enclose the sugar water feeder.  A vacuum in the sealed pail prevents leakage.



Then the inverted sugar water pail is placed on two supports to allow bees access to it:



Then an inner cover is placed:



... and an outer cover/roof is put in place - finishing the task.  Later, an entrance reducer is placed (once the bees completely enter the hive (there were many hundreds in the air) to allow the small Nuc population to guard a smaller entrance with fewer guard bees.




That completes the first installation.  The second installation is a carbon copy of the first.  Here is a different set of photos now that you understand the basic steps of the process:


Nuc # 2 is on the left:



The hive body is placed:



Ready to open the Nuc:



Opening the Nuc cover just enough to smoke:



A gentle smoke to calm the bees:



Cover off and one more puff to settle them:





Removing the first frame (the queen was found on this frame):





Placing the first frame in the hive:



Second frame:



Third frame - chock full of bees.  Fully drawn and populated frames are surprisingly heavy:



...and the fourth:



... and the fifth and last frame:





Add the remaining new (un-drawn) frames to bring the number to ten:







Tap in the remaining bees in the Nuc and add the feeder:



... and cover:



... and declare victory!






I hope you find this useful.

CWO

Are the nitrile gloves in some way providing sting protection or are you just using them to keep your hands clean?

Nice photos,  thanks for the writeup.

Would you consider re-sizing all your photos to 800x600?  Looks like you uploaded the full resolution originals (2592x1944), but arfcom doesn't display anything larger than 800x600 without automatically scaling it down.  Thus everyone spends time downloading the full resolutions originals but only have the smaller shots displayed, and can slow down people's browsers a bit.  Just no point in wasting all that bandwidth and time, you know?

If you aren't familiar with doing it yourself, let me know –– I'd be glad to help.

Where are the holes in the buckets? I'm trying to understand the system.

Great post op!

Few questions:

1. I couldn't explain the hive limiter (limits the entrance to the hive).  Could you expand on this?

2. Where did you get your extra frames?

3. Do you have blueprints or a general idea of how to build the boxes?

Thanks again for the post, really great stuff

I'll do that when I have time (there are quite a few as you can see).  I have resized the ones to follow.

Are you referring to the Nucs - the waxed cardboard boxes?

Just to keep my hands clean.  They don't offer any protection from stings that I know of.

1.  A Nuc (and even a box of bees) is a small, under-populated colony.  It isn't up to full numbers - therefore the number of guard bees is far less than a fully established hive.  An entrance reducer reduces the size of the hive entrance slot to reduce the guard work to a manageable level while the hive grows.  This prevents other bees from "robbing" honey from an undersized hive.  It looks like this on its own:



...and this installed:





2.  I purchased my hives, supers and frame as a DIY combined package.  Each need assembly - but its simple.  Extra hive woodenware (including frames) can be purchased through the big suppliers:  Dadant, BetterBee and Brushy Mountain.

3.  I don't have blueprints - but search online for hive plans.  The style you see is what you want.  It is know as a "Langstroth" type.  You will want to dovetail join the corners of the hive body and supers.

Perfect.  Thanks again OP :)

No, the upside down sugar buckets.



 

The tiny holes are in the lid.  The feeder bucket is inverted over the hive so that the bees can get underneath and stick their tongues in the holes to get sugar water.  

I know they have quickly located a good nectar supply in the area because the hives look like a busy airport with bees returning with nectar and pollen.  I'll be interested to find out late next week how much of the sugar water they have used.

Tag.

Very interesting... thanks, OP.

My dad and grandfather were both beekeepers... though by the time I was a child, my dad had stopped keeping bees.  However, every time we went to my grandfather's house, I'd go out by the hives and just watch the bees go in and out, in and out.

At dinnertime, we'd have that fresh honey, straight-from-the-comb.  It was outstanding.

OP;
Nice  thread and good job! I have a few questions if you don't mind? I too have two new hives ready to paint, place  and waiting on my bees to come in.
1) I see you're in MD, is that why you didn't paint the metal tops?  It seems customary here in Texas to paint the hive tops to reduce the heat factor in summer.
2) Is there any reason you two toned your paint scheme on the hives?
3) When or will you add pest strips, etc?
4) With no frames in the super, do you just plan to deal with the comb they will build in the super until you remove the feeder and then add your queen excluder and frames? I opted for the feeders than fit in the entrance way.
Thanks, GM15

Fair questions:

1)  I won't paint the tops unless I find internal hive temps warrant it.  Locally, most beekeepers aren't painting them - but Texas sun is tougher than here.

2) The paint scheme was brilliant white on the East and South sides for temperature control (greatest sun exposire), light green on the West and North.  My house is to the West and the front yard to the North - and I want the hive to blend in.

3)  I grow organically and will probably not add any anti-mite/moth/Nosema treatment unless I identify a problem.  I have a Varroa screen and sticky board and will inspect weekly.

4)  They have 5 empty frames to work in the hive.  When they have 95% of those frames drawn and full - I will add a super atop the hive with 10 new frames for them to work.  Bees like to work vertically - so I'm going to make them work laterally to capacity and only add frames when they have done so.  Otherwise they will fail to work the outermost frames.  I'll see how much of the sugar water they have consumed - as there is a LOT of nectar and pollen available right now.  I have been watching flights in and out of the hive and they are clearly busily working both nectar and pollen.

Locally - it was recommended that we not use entrance feeders due to probably competition from other bee types.

One of the most interesting posts I've ever read on this site.  THANK YOU for sharing!

 How many times did you get stung then???
In your opinion, how big a piece of property should you have in order to keep a hive?  It seems that my half acre would be too small an area to have a hive.  We have small kids, and I don't really want bees swarming them or my house....

Thanks for the reply. After I hit the submit  I thought that well the reverse is true there, you want the lid to gather the heat in the winter. My hives will be well away from any structure so don't need to blend in. Good luck on your hives. I'm looking forward to working with mine and some good ole honey!

GM15

I wasn't stung in the transfer - or since then.  The first time you do it there is an apprehension as to what is going to happen when you open a box with 5,000 bees.  The reality is that if you have some hands-on experience in advance - the bees are going to just focus on their task at hand.

I know people that keep bees on less than a quarter acre.  Some people in Washington DC keep them on rooftops.

Bees need roughly 10 feet in from of the hive for landing and exit.  You'll want to keep that area clear.  You could fence it if you want or surround it with a flower garden.  Honeybees aren't going to swarm your house or family unless they tamper with the hive and cause great alarm.  I stood 12 inches in front of the hive this afternoon studying landing bees.  They paid me no mind - as long as I don't block the entrance or beat on the hive.

I recommended that you find a local beekeeper and visit their hives to build some familiarity and comfort with the hives.  You'll find them surprisingly gentle.

I am not familiar with Africanized bee migration incidents in your area  Link.  You'll want to ask you local beekeepers and/or Agricultural agents about that and whatever risks they may pose.

Update:


At one week old I checked both hives to see if they had emptied the sugar water buckets.  They had.  So I replaced them with full sugar water buckets and noted a tiny amount of burr hive being constructed at the base of one of the buckets. I decided to leave it and remove it next week.

Well - a week later they had really begun building this "burr" (or wild) comb up in the empty honey super that was housing the sugar water buckets and it was becomeing quite a structure.  It looked like this:

East Hive:







West Hive:







Put another way - they were wasting time and energy building comb that couldn't stay there.  The sugar buckets were half full - an indicator that they were no longer dependent on them.

So I did two things:

1.  I removed the sugar water buckets and scraped out the burr comb.  It was roughly 80% stored (uncapped) sugar water and 20% larvae.  (I hated to lose those larvae).  
I then re-ordered the frames in the hive - putting the 3 new frames that they had not yet started drawing comb on in the center of the hive (their favored location) and the drawn comb on the outside edges.
2.  I removed the honey super boxes (empty) and replaced the roof.

This should get them drawing out comb on the yet undrawn frames in a week or so.  Once they are 90% full - I'll add the honey supers and 10 frames on top to get them working on those.

Before:  Darker (full) frame in the center:



After:  Undrawn frames towards the center:

Good thread. Thanks. I have always been interested in beekeeping it used to be quite common in my area but it seems every where I go I see abandoned destroyed bee boxes.

Thanks for the update OP :)  When will you put your second stage of boxes over the two original boxes?

Once they have 90% or more of the existing 10 frames built up and filled with honey and brood.  Probably within the next 10 days.

While I have no plans for beekeeping at this time this is an excellent thread. Knowledge is always a good thing. Thanks for taking the time to do it.

tag

What an awesome thread!  Great pics, and nice-looking hives.  Wish mine still looked pristine like that.


kitties

Is each box considered a seperate hive? I take it they are ok next to each other? This is something I am going to do eventually.

Tag for future reference.

Thanks for posting.


GM

Each vertical stack is considered a separate hive.  Each has its own queen.  

They are fine next to each other.  Here are some hives close-spaced at an orchard I visited for classes:

An article on beekeeping in the Wall Street Journal here


A few important quotes...

That's actually very encouraging.  Here we've explored all kinds of ways to interest new (young) beekeepers.  Not much luck there.  Our beekeeping associations usually sponsor one kid per year by providing and interested middle or high school student with a hive starter kit, and one of the beekeepers splits off a nuc for the student.  Sometimes we have no takers.

However, both of the beekeeping associations I attend locally have doubled their membership in the past year.  In the big association it used to be 20 or so beekeepers every month.  They've had to move to a larger facility because now they have between 50 and 60 beekeepers every month.  

That's hopeful for the honeybee population because they're not just beekeepers, but they'll be educated beekeepers.  Encouraged ot managed their hives without misusing pesticides and bringing about the whole ball of problems that creates for other beekeepers.

Question - what impact does keeping bees have on other stinging insects in the area?  Suppress, encourage, or no impact.  I'm very allergic to the hornet family (including yellow jackets) and was wondering if a hive would suppress their local population due to competition, etc.

Honeybees are focused on nectar and pollen.  Hornets, wasps, yellow jackets etc do not directly compete for these resources in a meaningful way.  As long as other species do not try to enter a honeybee hive - they will co-exist.

Cool thread!



Question -  How far do these little guys travel.  I have always wanted to try this at the BOL, but I do have a few neighbors.  Is 25 acres enough room for them not to be bothersome to me, my neighbors, or my cattle?

Honeybees can travel up to 3 miles to forage.  They don't bother cattle - and should have no interest in your neighbors.

Lots of great pics and explanations.  

I got a pretty cool up close tour of some hives last summer.  

Thanks for sharing.  

In the pics of the hives at the orchard, why are some bricks standing up and some down?

Any idea how many bees per acre are rquired to pollenate a garden or farm?

The bricks are used for two purposes:

1.  They keep the lid from being lifted by animals and give the small nuc some stability
2.  The up/down use of the brick is to signal whether the hive was opened and inspected that day or cycle.  That prevents repetitive disturbances to the bees.

As to the second question - I don't know.  This was at a ~50-60+ acre orchard.

Wow those are amazing little fellas.

That depends on what you're growing.  There are some fairly specific guidelines for this, since the majority of the hives in the US are kept for just this purpose, and are trucked around the country following the crop/orchard blooms.  Look Here in the commercial beekeepers/pollination forum on Beesource

Any updates?

The hives are doing well. Honey supers were placed on to of the hives 3 weeks ago and the bees have moved up and started drawing comb on the new frames.

From the base hive:







Bees drawing and filling new comb in the new honey supers:





You can see the honey glistening in these uncapped cells:






A Queen Excluder between the hive and the honey super:






If they continue at this pace - I'll need to buy and assemble new honey supers to add in July or so.

<3 this thread.  Have you given any thought to what you'll do with the honey you harvest?

I will leave it all to the bees for use over this coming winter (unless they fill a second honey super - yet to be placed).  I plan to harvest honey in 2011 - and use it as mostly gifts to friends.

I'll probably also do two splits next year to bring my hive count to four.

Great thread!!!! This is a TAG!  

Any more new pics?

I am picking new (additional) brood chambers this Thursday.  Given theta we are now in a seasonal dearth of nectar - I need to begin feeding again and I need some supers to house them.  I'll take and post pics later this week when I place them.

As the heat of summer settles in - nectar production in the bee forage dwindles.  This is a time to supplement bees with sugar water feeders to allow them to store nectar for the long winter.  Today I added a brood box on top of the two existing boxes.  The purpose of the boxes is to house sugar water feeders.  If feeders are put in the open - there will be robbing and well as a lot of competition from wasps, yellow jackets and wild honeybees (which I happen to have nearby).

Before starting you can see both hives and the new brood boxes to the left:




So I open Hive #1 and smoke it a little to let them know I'm coming and to settle them:



Hive 1 opened:






The girls at work:








They are hard at work.  You can see honey glistening in the uncapped cells at the upper left of the first photo:







More frames:






Capped and uncapped honey:



A frame of honey backlit:







The sugar water feeders are watertight plastic buckets with tiny holes punched in the lids.  They are flipped over and beads of sugar-water appear at the holes.  Bees feed from these holes and store the sugar-water in the hive.  These are known as "friction feeders".

I suspend the first one from plastic bottle caps:









It will drip for a minute until a vacuum forms.  The bees will do a 100% cleanup and put the puddles to good use.


The new brood box encloses the sugar water feeder forming a third story to the hive:




The lid goes on with a small stick to aid in airflow because of the heat:





The same procedure is used for hive number two.  I support this friction feeder with two plastic rods:

Hive cover off:




The girls at work:










Backlit honeycomb:




Placing the sugar-water feeder:






All done.




In mid-August I will change this new brood box from sugar-water supplement to a protein bee patty.


Hope this is informative to those considering beekeeping.


CWO

Really cool thread, thank you so much for posting!