I'm sure there are some beekeepers on here.

I've been rolling around the idea of getting into bees.

Honey seems to be some of the better allergy medicine I've found.
Locally grown honey that is.
And I like me some good honey anyhow.

I know there are many benefits to having been hives

My wife isn't 100% on board yet, still about 50%

I'd like to hear from members that are bee keepers to help me build my case

Join bee club and learn the proper methods, it will save you SOME money , not cheap to get into beekeeping

My dad has been keeping bees for over 50 years. He has had anywhere from 2 to 200 hives. He had two going into last winter and both died off. He is planning to get a couple nucs this spring. It can be very time consuming, or not, depending on how you approach it. It is a very rewarding endeavor, expensive starting out, but worth it, if it's your passion. Dad always said, "Bees seem to survive in spite of everything you do to help them, or they croak". They can be quite fickle. Go for it and good luck!

I run 6 hives definitely join a bee club will shave years of learning off if you were closer I would be more than happy to help find someone locally that has been doing it and learn from them

X2 on the local club. If there's one thing us beekeepers love it's talking bees.

Get a mentor. Whether club or not having an experienced beekeeper to bounce questions off of will cut your learning curve greatly.

Get two colonies to start. Two is one, one is none. Two can be mutually supporting as you can borrow from the strong to bolster the weak.

Nucs while more up front cost grow better than packages as they have all the essentials versus a package which has to start from scratch.

READ, READ, READ

Beekeeping is continuing education.

Now to help the missus. Bees are not by nature aggressive, they are defensive. They would much rather be busy making honey than stinging. There are many benefits other than honey to having bees. Every product of the hive is both edible and useful. Propolis has antimicrobial properties. Beeswax has many uses from candles to polishes to balms and lotions. Your garden and fruit trees will thank you.

Oh, and do not expect to harvest a honey crop in year one. Year one goal is to get them strong enough to get through winter. Strong colonies coming out of winter are your honey producers. You'll get a taste of honey year one but don't expect a bumper crop.

And the fastest way to make a small fortune in bees is to start with a large fortune.

Another rule of beekeeping, ask ten beekeepers a question and you'll get ten different answers and they'll all be correct.

I’ve had bees for 50 years, got my first hive in 1974. I learned from my Uncle and Grandfather.

Today, new guys got a big advantage having the internet as a reference. Thousands of YouTube clips, bee sites, bee forums, articles etc out there to learn from.

Like trapping it becomes very addicting and there is so much to learn. It can be overwhelming in the beginning and it can be expensive until you have your set up but once you have everything it's a very cool hobby with some reward. I think everyone should learn beekeeping. I grew up with my dad and grandpa raising bees and wanted nothing to do with it until I got my own place and started really cherishing time with my dad a lot more and now it's one of my favorite hobbies. Make a swarm trap and try to catch some and start out cheap. There's also lots of good videos on YouTube that explain things very well to help the learning curve. I say go for it!

I have been reading a lot on bees/bee keeping the last few days.

I attended a "seminar" over the weekend.
It was VERY uninformative. The ol boy spent more time pimping his honey and handing out thank you's to the green house where he has his hives than he did offering any information or covering the topic.

I'm going to join the Missouri Beekeepers Association this week coming. As well as reach out to some of the local beekeepers for information and direction.

Sounds like beekeeping will be just like the rest of my interests. Expensive !
But I'm used to that.

Bigbrownie touched on something, the massive availability of information. Much of it good much of it not.

Do not buy into "treatment free" hands off do nothing styles of keeping bees. Bees are livestock and subject to all sorts of diseases and parasites. You would not get a flock of chickens and not do what you can to keep them healthy or prevent predators from carrying them off. Do the same for bees.

My advice learn to walk before you try to run. Go with what works and has worked for over a century, standard langstroth hive and standard practices. Once you got that down then feel free to try other things. The good things is that bees will be bees and they know what they are doing. Learn to work with them and not against them.

When you're ready to tackle the varroa issue go to www.scientificbeekeeping.com and read everything. That'll keep you busy for awhile.

Do not adopt an anticommercial position like so many try to get new beekeepers to do. The commercial guys love bees just as much if not more than the backyard keepers. Matter of fact many of them rely on backyard keepers for bee sales such as packages, nucs, queens or equipment and many go out of their way to help new beekeepers.

One youtube channel to watch is Bob Binnie's.

I second Bob Binnie on youtube. Also Kamon Reynolds is another good source.

The treatment free folks are the ones lining up to buy new 3# packages every Spring.

I have a qustion is the high flow hive any good??

OOooo boy you did it now. Lol. Id steer clear and learn the age old techniques of standard equipment vs flow hive

Read anything by Michael Bush. Bees can be very rewarding - and frustrating. And it costs some money to get in.

Disagree on Bush. Probably killed mores bees than any man alive.

I've tried almost all of his recommendations and all were failures.

Amazing bit of engineering. Problem is bees didn't read the manual.

Bees prefer natural wax over plastic. Bees are the original redneck, if it moves and it ain't supposed to then propolize it.

It can be made to work BUT you have to know how to convince the bees to work it. Kind of like mule wrangling, you convince them that it was their idea to do it.

And most egregious, I ain't never seen a bee tree with hot and cold running taps. It ain't natural and you have no way to determine if the honey is properly cured in all of the frames before draining it.

It promotes a terribly abusive mindset of no care take all the honey, leave the canoli, beehaving.

Raghorn67, you got a grifter in your area promoting a style of hive and beekeeping that probably worked quite well a hundred or even fifty years ago in his native Russia but is entirely unsuited in today's situation of varroa, viruses, small hive beetle.

Another tip in beekeeping. Those with doctorates in beekeeping, or other fields, rarely go around calling themselves Dr and those that do you learn to question. Beekeeping tends to humble you that way.

Been keeping bees 60 years. I think used equipment could be cheaper than new, especially if you find someone going out of the business that was a hobby bee keeper. Wish you were closer as would have you over every time I worked my bees and that is really the way to learn, hands on.

I have made every mistake a bee keeper could make at least a couple of times and still learning. You could really start with little cost with right priced used equipment, coursing wild bee trees and with permission cut the tree, remove the bees and you will have a hive that will make surplus honey this year.

Every bee keeper thinks what he does is the best way and getting two keepers to agree on some things/procedures is impossible.

I have been a real estate broker for almost 50 years and still work a couple of days a week but call me any time after you get a list of questions. How far are you away from Mountain Home,
AR as I might have some used equipment I could help you with.

Kent Smith
kent@century21Lemac.com
870-405-0500

Short answer NOT a good idea. Look cool I can't see it working successfully. No good way to work the hive check queen health or if you have one, tell if they are ready to swarm or know if honey it at the correct moisture content.

First do not tell her how much it will cost to get into bees, That is a deal killer with most women lol. Do not be afraid to treat your bees, dead bees can not produce honey.