This post is all about natural beekeeping tips and resources.
We have tried keeping bees twice on our homestead. We have failed both times…. 😪 But you can learn from failure! So here is what we wish we had done and other natural beekeeping tips and resources we wish we had known about or done better.
REsearch, FInd a Mentor, Join a Beekeepers Club
Do your research! Talk to beekeepers in your area, join a beekeepers club, go to keeping classes in your area, watch YouTube videos, read lots and lots of books, read blogs, find a bee mentor. Learn your stuff, it will be invaluable.
Learn the basics, but then get bees and keep researching. You don’t know what you don’t know so when you get the bees they will help you learn what you need to learn. Here are a couple of youtubers and books we have found helpful.
DOn the Fat Bee Man
This guy is more in the queen breeding, hive dividing business, so that is his area of focus. He has lots of good information and beekeeping tips on natural and conventional methods. Here is one of his videos where he covers natural mite treatments.
THe Bush Bee Keeper
This Australian beekeeper is not afraid of trying new things and has some really interesting experiments. He also catches a LOT of swarms.
Dr. Leo Sharashkin
Dr. Leo has many YouTube Videos and lectures that are VERY helpful. He also has free plans for his beehives. Find them here at his website. He also edited Keeping Bees With a Smile by Fedor Lazutin. You can find it here on Amazon.
Catch Or Trap Your Own Swarm (Don’t Buy Bees)
Catching wild bee swarms is the way to go! They are free and you are more likely to get more genetic resilience and diversity from the wild bee population. Call your local government and pest control companies and let them know you are looking for a swarm. When they get a call about bee swarms they can call you to come get them.
Here is a video to get you started.
You can also set up swarm traps. Swarm traps are basically beehives that are the perfect size, smell, location, everything for bees and it will attract swarms to come and start building a hive in there. They are slightly more passive and can work really well.
Also when you are installing bees make sure it is the right weather and the right time of year. We are located up on a mountain and the people we were buying bees were lower down in the valley, so when they were ready and delivered the bees to us it was still early and nasty weather for us.
If you absolutely want to buy bees, avoid getting packaged bees, buy nucs or nucleus hives instead. Nucs are made with a queen and worker bees that are already together and have brood and honey already so they are much less inclined to abscond. They have a much higher success rate and are well worth the extra money.
INsulate Your Hives
Insulating your hives keeps your bees warmer in the winter so your bees don’t have to use so much honey to stay warm in the winter. Think of honey as their fuel to stay warm in the winter. Bees in the wild usually live in a hollow tree, which is usually much thicker than the 1/2 inch of wood most hives are made of. Insulate your hives.
Extraction on the CHeap: Crush and Strain Extract
Extracting honey can involve lots of very expensive equipment. It can be helpful to use the crush and strain method as it takes very basic affordable tools and is a good introduction to honey harvesting. Plus you get a lot more wax out of the deal this way.
The crush and strain method is where you remove the honey comb from your frames, which can be easier if it’s foundationless frames. Smash it all up so all the cells are broken, and then strain through a mesh into your honey container. Here is how one person does it, though Don the Fat Bee Man has a some good stuff on this too. He also covers how to process wax if you are interested.
Check out the homesteading resource page for more awesome books and resources on homesteading!