Bees in the garden or on the balcony have been trendy for some time. But what do you have to consider in order to become a successful hobby beekeeper?
Are you considering getting a new pet? Would you like a few more, like 60,000? That's how many honey bees live in a beehive during the summer. If your adventurous spirit starts to hum at this performance and you want to start beekeeping, we will help you find answers to the most important questions in a nutshell.
contents
- This must be taken into account with beekeepers
- Become a hobby beekeeper: Instructions and checklist
- Hobby beekeeping checklist: everything you need to know at a glance
Theoretically, beekeeping is not a complicated thing, but without prior knowledge it can seem like a science in itself. We will inform you about the most important points on your way to becoming a hobby beekeeper.
This must be taken into account with beekeepers
As with any type of livestock husbandry, you also take responsibility for living things in beekeeping. This is not possible without certain investments and a regular workload. Before you decide to be a beekeeper, you should therefore consider the following points:
- If you start with three colonies, you have to pay around 1,500 euros for the minimum variant Investment costs count for material, bees and course.
- Think about that too physical requirements. Beekeeping means lifting heavy loads often. It also means you have to endure stings. Because even the most prudent beekeeper with the most gentle bees gets stung every now and then. Are you allergic or do you have bee allergies in your family? Knowing about it can save lives. Since allergies can develop over time without being noticed, you should be aware that some risk remains even if no one in your family is currently allergic. It is important to take protective measures, especially when visitors visit your apiary.
- Do the math enough working time a. Work or inspections on the apiary must be scheduled at least every two weeks, and more often in the high season from April to August. Since the beehives are only opened during the day and when the weather is nice, a family outing can be thwarted. A longer vacation is not possible before the last honey harvest and varroa treatment of the insects. Do not forget to include the working hours for material preparation and the processing and marketing of bee products. A general estimate is difficult for this. However, beginners tend to underestimate the effort involved.
- Livestock husbandry means responsibility. The occurrence of dreaded and reportable diseases requires a high degree of conscientiousness. Avoiding epidemics must have top priority in all decisions, because diseases spread very quickly in a state-building insect. The beekeeper is also responsible for the safety of the people who will encounter the defensive insects. Meekness must be the top breeding goal, especially in the urban area. In this context, it is also important to mention that beekeeping is not vegetarian. If the bees are too aggressive, the queen has to go, even if it hurts. Beekeepers kill hundreds of drone larvae in the fight against the varroa mite. Nothing for weak nerves. Last but not least, the beekeeper takes responsibility for the products he sells: The production of food also requires knowledge and implementation of the legal hygiene regulations.
- Frustration tolerance: You will have guessed it - beekeeping is not that easy. Both expertise and experience are necessary to keep healthy bees. Many other challenges have arisen in the last few decades. The media is full of reports of "bee deaths" and for good reason. Pesticides, diseases and the varroa mite are a massive hit on insects. Unfortunately, beekeeping does not mean sitting on a bench with a freshly filled pipe and watching the entrance hole at the end of your life. You can read here why it is still worth the effort.
Become a hobby beekeeper: Instructions and checklist
You have come to the conclusion that Bees make sense in the garden are and should be supported and have thought about your suitability to be a beekeeper. If you are not put off by Varroa and Co. and want to get started with beekeeping despite various adversities, we recommend the following procedure:
1. Beekeeping course: It is not necessary to do a skilled worker training straight away just because you want to keep a few bees. However, newbies can get their heads spinning at the wealth of information that inevitably comes to them. One of the first sentences you hear in the club is: “Ask three beekeepers and you will get five opinions.” A good beginners' course offers valuable orientation. It should be practice-oriented and designed in such a way that the young beekeepers accompany the bees through the entire bee year. With some providers, the course participants produce their own young colonies and compare their development with the economic colonies.
2. Beekeeping Association: Attending a meeting of the local beekeeping association and best of all becoming a member is a good idea. Membership is not compulsory, but it has great advantages: The association usually owns equipment that is shared and that you don't need to buy straight away. A honey extractor is a good example. Many associations have committed themselves to promoting the young and provide newcomers with a bee sponsor at your side, who helps with the important decisions and to be present at the apiary for the first few weeks can. In addition, an insurance is included in the membership, in some cases it also opens the door to financial support.
3. Location: A suitable apiary is half the battle. Every beekeeper needs a home apiary where the bees can stand all year round. This must meet a number of requirements: It should be as sunny, warm and sheltered from the wind as possible. The entrance hole should be oriented to the south, even better to the southwest. The distance from the entrance to the property boundary must correspond to a legal minimum value that is regulated in the respective national laws. In addition, there must not be any heavily frequented garden paths, playgrounds or beds directly in front of the entrance hole are located: This is where the guardian bees sit, and they are on the attack even with the meekest people programmed. In the area there should of course be as complete a supply of nectar and pollen as possible.
Furthermore, the apiary should be easily accessible by car or at least with a wheelbarrow, as bulky and heavy loads will often have to be transported. If there is room for the sticks on a roof or balcony, an elevator is worth its weight in gold. In the urban jungle, water is a limiting factor. Bees absolutely need a good source of water in the immediate vicinity, firstly to meet their own fluid requirements and secondly to keep the hive warm. Otherwise there is a risk of overheating, especially on hot flat roofs without shade. Protection from the weather is also important in exposed locations: in places sheltered from the wind is usually enough simple brick to weigh down the lid, but on a roof you have to have a storm-proof fastening plan on. Ultimately, however, the following applies: Try it out. Sometimes a location that is perfect according to formal criteria turns out to be not that good at all, whereas the peoples thrive on what are supposed to be less good ones.
tip: Even if you don't become a hobby beekeeper, you can support the bees in your garden. Just sow a bee-friendly seed mix like ours Plantura bee pasture in a flower bed or a pot and soon watch the wild hum.
4. Ask homeowners / landowners for consent: If you have found a suitable location that is not on your own property, the next step is the approval by the owner. In allotment settlements, cooperatives or communal housing projects, the respective Garden regulations about whether bees can be kept and whether the neighbors have a right of co-determination to have. But no matter whether you have to ask or not: It is always advisable to inform yourself in advance and to dispel any fears. A friendly invitation to the apiary and one or the other glass of honey (resp. Honey wine) can often work wonders.
5. Find prey system: The thing with the box - depending on the region in which you want to beekeep, you will come across different historical formats with names that sound like "Dadant" or "Zander". You will hear people talk about tree hives and trough hives, wild mining, styrofoam boxes, Nepalese and African systems. Don't get too confused. Which format you choose is ultimately not that important. It is important that the things are new so that diseases do not stand a chance. Also think about your back: you should be able to lift a box full of honey (stackable unit of a booty) on your own. Because even the lightest frames weigh between 15 and 20 kg when filled.
6. Plan the time for the start: In principle you can start beekeeping throughout spring and summer. If you do not take over fully developed economic colonies, but get a young colony, it is advisable to start in spring. The people then have a better chance of becoming strong enough by midsummer to survive the winter unharmed.
7. Order bees from the breeder: The sooner the breeder receives the order, the better. So new breeding queens can only be bred in spring and early summer. It takes about 40 days from order to delivery of the fertilized queen. It is recommended to start with three colonies in order to have the chance to breed independently after winter losses in the following year.
8. Order / buy / prepare / tinker material: Now things really get down to work. About a month before the bees can move into their new home, the hives must have landed with the young beekeeper if they are made of wood. Because they should be treated twice with a non-toxic wood glaze and then have two weeks to "evaporate". Depending on the system, wooden frames have to be built, wired, and middle walls cast from wax and soldered in. The apiary needs a platform for the hives. Water must be made available when there is no natural source. The wax for the center walls must be free of pesticide residues. Ask for a certificate! You still need protective clothing and all kinds of small appliances, which you can find on our checklist at the end of the article. Have sugar syrup ready for feeding. You also need empty honeycombs from a trustworthy source in which the queen can lay her eggs for the first few days.
9. Bee parade: The big day is here, the hives are ready, the bees can move in. Grab your bee godmother and get to work. The workers fasted in a closed box for three days until possible germs were eliminated from the digestive tract. Now, together with their new queen, they are "pounded" into the new hive, including the frames, and fed. The queen is protected in a small cage that is closed with fodder dough, the workers slowly get used to her. After about three days the workers ate their way to the queen and freed her. She immediately goes to the finished combs to begin laying eggs. A colony of bees is born. Congratulations and welcome to the crowd of beekeepers!
Hobby beekeeping checklist: everything you need to know at a glance
As different as the modes of operation are, the accessories required will also be different. In the specialist trade there is an almost unmanageable variety of useful and less useful articles that would go beyond the scope to discuss here. We therefore limit ourselves to the basic equipment that is absolutely indispensable for the beginning in the following checklist. Beekeeping with modern magazine hives as the most common mode of operation serves as a guideline.
| Checklist for three bee colonies | lot |
|---|---|
| Pure breed queen | 3 |
| Art crush | 3 |
| Hives (bottoms, lids, lining frames) | 3 |
| Wood glaze | 2 l |
| Frames | 15 |
| Barriers | 3 |
| Frames | 100 |
| Organic dividing walls | 100 |
| Invertase sugar syrup | 150 l |
| Food bowl | 3 |
| Chisel | 1 |
| Brush, natural bristle | 1 |
| Smoker | 1 |
| Leather gloves | 1 |
| Beekeeper protective clothing | 1 |
| Varroad diagnostic grid | 3 |
| Formic acid 85% | 1 l |
| Universal evaporator | 3 |
| Dosing syringe | 1 |
| Protective gloves, acid-proof | 1 |
| safety goggles | 1 |
| Respirator | 1 |
