Beekeeping is a wonderful hobby. The life of a honey bee is a fascinating thing and taking care of them isn't a whole lot of work. In this section of my website I show you all the tips and techniques for raising bees easily. And of course I have plenty of videos for you.

If you specifically want my beekeeping videos I have a page with them right here

New: How to Winterize your beehive

You don't have to do it but if you live in a part of the country that gets cold in the winter you might consider insulating your beehive. It helps the bees maintain the temperature they like and helps them expend less energy through the difficult winter period. Winterizing your beehive

How to Build,Stain and Seal a beehive

You can save money by purchasing the wooden parts and putting them together yourself. And it gives you control over the look and color of your hive. We do two hives and take you through the steps right here: How to Build, Stain and Seal a beehive.

Make Stained Glass Beehive Ornaments

This is a fun little project. We make stained glass flowers shaped out of hexagons that look like honey comb. I show you how to do stained glass from start to finish. And we mount them on the beehives. How to make Stained Glass Beehive Ornaments

New Video - In this video and article we take a look at the installed beehive after twenty days. We are just doing an inspection of the general health of the hive. Is the queen there? Is she laying eggs? The beehive at 20 days.

When opening the hive for that last video I showed you some neat new tools including a frame grabber and a perch tool. I have more about these tools and links if you want to buy them right here: Some Neat new Bee Tools

I have found a whole bunch of free ebooks about beekeeping. They are for kindle of the kindle emulator for PC (which is free). Pretty neat and if you are learning about beekeeping but don't want to spend any money yet these are a great place to get started: Free Beekeeping ebooks.

What is a bee package? And how do you get one?

In short it is an easy, and great, way to start your hive. I explain it all right here: Bee Packages. )(I also have a video with this, showing exactly what to do)

How to Set up a beehive explained the easy way

I show you step by step exactly what to do. And we do it in a way that is very gentle on the bees. Lots of pictures too.

New: Adding a Shallow Honey Super to your beehive. This way you can get more honey! I have a video that shows what to do. Adding a Shallow

What is a Nuc? It is the term commonly used to refer to a nucleus hive. This is a 3 or 5 frame hive that you get when ordering bees and you take those frames out and install them in your hive. More pics and info here: What is a Nuc?

NEW: I How to set up a beehive. I take you through all the steps including choosing a good location and putting together all the parts that make up a beehive. How to set up a beehive Includes lots of pictures.

NEW: A look at the parts of a hive. I give you an explanation of a typical Langstroth hive and explain the various parts.

Carving a miniature beehive.This is a fun little project that took less than an hour. The miniature beehive is only two inches in height. I made this for a diorama and you can see more about it and how to make one here: Carving a miniature beehive

New video and new information: Splitting the hive and finding the queen - We have one good hive and one hive with no queen so to get it going we split some of the resources. Interesting process and you have to find the queen so you don't move her. I have pictures of the queen and a video! Splitting the hive and finding the queen

New: Some amazing Closeup pictures of bees. The last time I opened the hive I took some pictures. You can see them here.

Getting a Honey Extractor

I took a road trip to a place that makes honey processing equipment (Maxant Industries). They gave me a tour of the facility and I bought an extractor so I could get the honey out of the frames. Nice company and nice product! See pics inside the company here and pics of the extractor here. I also show you how a honey extractor works.

New Video: Opening up an active hive in late June: This hive is active and filling up so we added another layer called a super which is an empty box of racks. Now the bees can grow and expand by filling this new empty box with honey: Video is here

OKAY, I got the beehives and am having some fun with them!

Starting off the New Season With the Bee Hives

I and my partners have started this new beekeeping season by opening up the beehives and inspecting them. It was a lot of fun and I have some pictures and videos for you.

Here are our beehives. The one on the left is a traditional wooden one and on the right is a newer style styrofoam one. The styrofoam hive appeared to have more activity but as we opened them up we discovered both hives were doing very well.

Here is the smoker that we use to calm the bees down.

Inspecting the hive.

Here is a feeding of the beehive. This gets them off to a good start for the new season. It is a mixture of sugar water. About 2 1/2 pounds of sugar dissolved in water. That is a special section of the hive that is like a container to hold the liquid. The bees have a small access slot so they can go in there and collect the sugar water.

Here is a look at one of the honeycomb frames. Pretty cool huh? Those bees were very busy.

Want to learn more about bees and beekeeping?

Beekeeping For Dummies

Interested in raising honey bees? This friendly, practical guide presents a step-by-step approach to starting your own beehive, along with expert tips for maintaining a healthy colony. You get the latest on honey bee medication and treatments, harvesting and marketing your honey, and the impact the sudden disappearance of the honey bee has on our environment and economy.

• To bee or not to bee? - understand the benefits of beekeeping and whether it's right for you
• Build your first hive - gather the right equipment, obtain your bees, and transfer them safely to their new home
• Get up-close and personal - see how to open and close the hive, inspect your bees at the right times, and know what to look for
• Handle common problems - from swarming to robbing to pesticide poisoning, find simple solutions
• Understand Colony Collapse Syndrome - learn what you can do to help save the honey bees
• Gear up for the golden harvest - use the tools of the trade to extract honey, store it, and sell it

The Backyard Beekeeper - Revised and Updated: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden

The Backyard Beekeeper , now revised and expanded, makes the time-honored and complex tradition of beekeeping an enjoyable and accessible backyard pastime that will appeal to gardeners, crafters, and cooks everywhere. This expanded edition gives you even more information on "greening" your beekeeping with sustainable practices, pesticide-resistant bees, and urban and suburban beekeeping. More than a guide to beekeeping, it is a handbook for harvesting the products of a beehive and a honey cookbook--all in one lively, beautifully illustrated reference. This complete honey bee resource contains general information on bees; a how-to guide to the art of bee keeping and how to set up, care for, and harvest honey from your own colonies; as well as tons of bee-related facts and projects. You'll learn the best place to locate your new bee colonies for their safety and yours, and you'll study the best organic and nontoxic ways to care for your bees, from providing fresh water and protection from the elements to keeping them healthy, happy, and productive. Recipes of delicious treats, and instructions on how to use honey and beeswax to make candles and beauty treatments are also included.

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