How To Get Started –

The Buzz On Beekeeping

By Jeff White

Tired of having your gardening chores result in painful joints and a withering bank account? Beekeeping can help you turn over a new leaf in your gardening as well as soothing those aches, bolstering your bank account, and breathing new life into your blooms.

Dominic Gaeta, a lifelong beekeeper and the proprietor of Candlewood Valley Apiary on Route 7 in Brookfield, believes there are three main reasons why people choose to take up the hobby.

A large colony of bees helps to pollinate gardens, and many people hoping to obtain a flourishing garden choose to enlist the efforts of bees.

Other people want to make their own honey, which is how Mr Gaeta got into the hobby almost 40 years ago. Bee honey can sell for up to $4 per pound, and one beehive, depending on its size, can yield close to 200 pounds of the viscous delicacy.

And then there are those people, as strange as it might sound, who want to keep bees in order to get stung. Many gardeners who suffer from arthritis claim that a bee sting actually soothes their pain and allows them to bend joints that are normally stiff and swollen.

Despite how it might appear, beekeeping is a relatively easy hobby to start and maintain. According to Mr Gaeta, 65, it’s all about obtaining a comfort level with an insect many view as a common pest. “Most of working with the bees is being comfortable with them. As your hive grows, you grow in your understanding,” he says.

Although the weather during these inconsistent days of March and early April might not bring the immediate thoughts of our gardens and back yards to mind, it really is the perfect time of year to get started on a beekeeping hobby, Mr Gaeta says.

It can be as simple as getting a book. Mr Gaeta suggests an $8 copy of The New Starting Right with Bees, an instructional manual that covers everything from how to light smokers to how to extract honey and assemble a hive. Reading through a manual like this can help a prospective beekeeper think of questions that he or she might want to take to an apiary for answering.

Although the equipment involved in beekeeping might seem complex to the uninitiated, starting out with just a hive or two is relatively simple.

A hive typically involves two “deep boxes,” a foundation, an inner cover, and a metal, external cover. Each box contains 10 “frames” — a sheet with a wax foundation out of which bees draw their combs. Most people opt to start their beeyards with two hives. You can get a hive for as little as $125, which usually includes a feeder, into which a sugar syrup is placed to help facilitate the bees’ manufacturing of wax.

Mr Gaeta’s Candlewood Valley Apiary also offers a slightly more expensive kit for $195, which includes a stainless steel smoker (used to calm bees before opening a hive to extract honey), a hive tool, a helmet complete with veil, and a free hands-on class for beginners.

Hives do not come assembled, but kits will include all the necessary tools and screws needed to construct the hive.

Mr Gaeta will get his shipment of bees toward the end of April. They are trucked up from the south, and a package of 10,000 bees (about three pounds worth) can be had for around $55.

Now that your first hive or two are assembled and stocked with a small supply of bees, the rest of the next year’s work is up to those bees. The honey that people think of when they think of bee colonies is really the surplus that bees create after they have built their honey combs, which generally takes a good amount of time. Bees gorge themselves on honey in order to secrete wax, which they turn into the combs. It takes about 1½ lbs of wax to make a typical comb, and just to secrete 1 lb of wax bees need to consume 7 lbs of honey. “You don’t expect to get honey in your first year,” explains Mr Gaeta.

Once your colony is established, in a year’s time the honey your bees produce will be in excess of what they need, and that is the time you will begin to cultivate the honey for your own uses. For much of that year, you will not need much more equipment other than your hives, a smoker, and the basic tools of the trade. But when the time comes to extract honey, you will have to begin thinking about surplus boxes and extractors.

A surplus box is mounted to the top of your hive and fitted with a screen to keep the queen bee from laying eggs into the combs that her workers are busily preparing. From these surplus boxes will come the honey that you will want to jar, and the number of surplus boxes you have on top of your hive (some have as many as seven or eight surplus boxes) will determine your honey yield. Typically, a shallow surplus box will yield around 30 lbs of honey.

Plan to spend around $85 for a kit that includes two shallow surplus boxes, a “queen excluder,” and shallow frames with wax foundations.

An extractor, a large metallic barrel into which you put the honeycombs you have removed from your hives, is easily the most expensive piece of equipment your colony will require. But variations in size bring variations in prices, with the smallest extractor costing around $250. It is not uncommon for neighboring beekeepers to pool their resources for this big purchase, opting to share the cost of a larger extractor.

An uncapping tank ($119.95) is typically used in conjunction with an extractor. Wax foundations are mounted onto steel spikes in an uncapping tank, which makes scraping off the honeycomb easier. Mr Gaeta admits that most of these tools really just make the hobby of beekeeping easier. It is up to the individual how serious he or she wants to get with the hobby, which in turn determines how much money he or she will want to put into it.

But the one mistake many entry-level beekeepers make is skimping on their equipment, Mr Gaeta says, and he concludes that one’s bee colony will only be as good as the equipment invested in. Although most people starting out with beekeeping opt to have one or two complete colonies, Mr Gaeta says that those serious about the hobby should eventually amass between three and five complete colonies. With that many setups, one can really start to work with the bees and see the difference between strong and weak hives. By noting differences between your colonies, you can pull surplus honey from one colony and add it to a struggling colony. “You have more resources,” Mr Gaeta explains.

Another mistake beginners make, Mr Gaeta notes, is trying to do too much right away. He maintains that beekeeping takes patience and time, and those interested in taking up the hobby should try to take things slow and not bombard themselves with too much information.

As far as where to keep your new bee colony, the most important thing to consider is keeping the hives relatively isolated from the traffic of everyday life. Bee colonies should be located away from public walkways, and away from any pets. They do not need to be near your garden, as bees will travel some distance for their nectar. Typically, you’ll get good pollination if the bee colony is located one-quarter mile from your garden.

“Beekeeping is more like a passion. You get very attached to your bees, and they are like you pets,” says Mr Gaeta of his lifelong hobby.

He says that the best part about his passion for bees is sharing it with other people, and getting them started with the hobby. After 40 years caring for the tiny insects, he knows that there is immense satisfaction in beekeeping. “Your neighbor comes and buys your honey, then [he or she] comes back for more,” he explains. “They say, ‘that’s great honey,’ and you know what went into making that honey. It gives you a sense of pride, and gives you a feeling that your really have something great here.”