Katrina Warnick
Adams County Master Gardener
The novice beekeeper had a good feeling about performing the check on her hive. The week before had brought in the first of many crisp days, but today the afternoon sun had increased the temperature to 70 degrees and there
was no wind. It was the beginning of fall and she was headed out in her beekeeper suit to see if the bees had begun preparations for the upcoming cooler weather. This excursion to the hive, however, was not to be a pleasant one, not at all.
Approaching the hive from behind, she removed the top cover and noticed that the population seemed smaller than her check a few weeks ago. As she looked toward the front of the hive - where the bees enter and exit - her heart sunk. There were dead bees scattered around the front entrance. The excitement of successfully
getting her first colony of bees through a season of activity had vanished and in its place was a cold hard lump of failure. What had she done wrong?
The novice beekeeper knew the forecast had warned of chilly days ahead so she needed to take full advantage of having the hive open. She went through her hive, one frame at a time, looking for the queen. She was able to find her, always the biggest bee in the hive. There was capped honey in the frames and she saw no sign
of the earlier infestation of ants or the dreaded mite or moth takeovers she had heard of. She replaced the frames, stacked the boxes back in the same order and made sure the top cover was set in place. She walked around the area, noting that the mulch had done a good job of keeping back weeds from under the pallet that supported the hive. There
was no sign of rodent activity, no nearby competing hive and the water source nearby still appeared fresh. There did not seem to be any obvious reason for the dead bees around the hive entrance.
The nagging question of what went wrong would not go unanswered. When she began her beekeeping adventure, she had joined her local beekeepers association. Through their support she knew she would find the answer in the resources they had suggested -experienced beekeeper blogs, research books and direct connection to
beekeepers in her area.
The answer was simple. It was Mother Nature! She was taking care of the hive herself. Toward the end of the season as the bees realize they need to position themselves for survival, they begin to cull the population of the hive. Like almost everything in life, every bee has a role. Within the hive the queen lays the eggs,
her attendants keep her fed, the worker bees (or house bees) take care of the inside of the hive and the drones go out and gather the nectar. In the fall, the house bees decide that the drones have fulfilled their role and it is time for them to get out. They will remove any drones from the hive, including the undeveloped drone larvae and they
refuse them reentry into the hive.
The novice beekeeper was relieved to learn that this natural culling of the hive was not a result of poor hive management on her part. It is helpful to remember that Mother Nature is pretty capable of managing things like hive activity on her own. It may not surprise you to learn that I was that novice beekeeper. For me,
the decision to begin bee keeping started as a desire to acquire honey but it has developed into an intense appreciation for the opportunity to get closer to Mother Nature. I have found that watching the changes in the hive, observing bee behaviors, and sharing the experience with those that are interested, is sweeter for me than any honey on
earth.
Beekeeping today is recognized as a hobby that welcomes beginners, offers a variety of choices to get started and can be as cheap or expensive as your wallet will allow. Whether you grow a pollinator garden or enjoy managing an apiary of twenty hives, I encourage you to share your experience with others. The upcoming
holidays may be the ideal time for you to help someone else become a novice beekeeper or find someone with experience to get you started on this journey.
Beginning as a Beekeeper
Most adults remember the nursery rhyme about bringing home a baby bumble bee so mom would be so proud of me. As I planned my first year of beekeeping, I learned there was a little more to it than cupping my hands around a furry, small, black and yellow being. Today I share with you key steps of my journey, with the hope
that you’ll consider walking down this same path.
For 12 months I studied beekeeping. I created a long list of bookmarked websites, read books on the subject, attended beginner beekeeping classes, joined the local beekeepers association and had a few coffee chats with experienced beekeepers. Yet I still did not feel prepared. I signed up for another beekeeper class, just
in case I had forgotten all I had learned. What I learned is this - I was just plain scared to take that first step. What if they stung me, what if I killed them, what if I do something wrong that I haven’t even thought of? This line of thinking was not productive. But I got lucky in that the instructor for this second class was my Oz. He told
me, "Just do it". Bees have been getting along just fine without me for centuries, so I was not an important factor in their success. To be sure, it was the
humbling sting in the butt that I needed. I took my first step that afternoon and placed an order for a package of bees.
That order was placed in November for a package of bees that would be arriving four months later, in March. I had until then to prepare. My first step was to understand how a hive works. Imagine rectangular wooden boxes that have no top or bottom, stacked on top of each other. When you look into the top box you can see all
the way to the bottom. Inside each rectangular box you hang frames just like you might hang files in a drawer. It is on these frames that the bees will build those famous honey comb shapes out of wax. Then they fill those cavities up with delicious, golden honey. To complete the structure, you add a bottom board for the boxes to sit on and a top
cover to protect the hive from the elements. This gives you the key pieces of a Langstroth hive. The bottom board is designed to keep the bottom box off the ground and to provide a gap for bees to fly in and out of the hive. I ordered a kit with the key pieces for a Langstroth hive. I chose high density polystyrene for its construction, instead
of a traditional wood hive. It was my hope that this material would help the bees regulate the temperature inside the hives year round in our cold Pennsylvania climate.
I selected a site for my hive that would provide several environmental essentials for a healthy hive - dapple shade in the heat of summer, a wind block against harsh weather and proximity to a water source that was not a neighbor’s pool. It took me a weekend to put my hive kit together and set it up on a pallet resting on
a weed-free patch of ground that I had mulched. When I got the call in March to pick up my bee package, I did not know what to expect. Would I be given a bag of bees or a jar of honey with bees feasting at the top, or maybe a box from another hive with my bees already settled in and at work???
When I picked up my package of bees, I discovered that it was shoe-box shaped with sides of screen material and a covered hole on top. It was 3 pounds heavy with approximately 7,000 buzzing bees and a queen. I had studied a variety of ways to get my bees into their hive and cupping them in my hand was not one of them. I
was nervous when the time came to open that cover until I heard the Oz beekeeper in my head whisper, "Just do it". It only took me two minutes to open that cover, bump the box to get the bees grouped together and then turn that box upside down to empty bees in the hive just like you dump cereal in a bowl. It was a moment I will remember, and I
look forward to that same excitement each time I start a new hive by ordering a new package of bees.
Here are a few other lessons I learned in my beginner beekeeper days:
- If you are no good at keeping the smoker going, use a spray bottle of sugar water. The bees like it!
- Don’t forget to breathe, even when you are moving your first swarm of 10,000 bees off a fence post and into a box.
- Walk near low hanging branches on your way back to the car to distract those last few bees that are determined to tell you what they think of you invading their hive.
And the last sweet lesson is this: share the experience with others. Your experience may encourage others to start on their own beekeeping journey or they may decide to at least begin growing a pollinator garden to provide nectar for bees.
Read other articles on birds, wildlife & beneficial insects
Read other articles by Katrina Warnick
