In order to start a hive, a hopeful beekeeper needs to buy bees — a lot of them. About 10,000, to be exact.
Since 2008, the Athens County Area Beekeepers Association has hosted a “Beekeeping for Beginners” class aimed to introduce new beekeepers to productive, and sometimes cheaper, ways to start and maintain their hives.
Formed in 2007 as a response to Colony Collapse Disorder and an interest in beekeeping from the public, the association holds monthly meetings for Athens-area beekeepers and provides a mentoring service for beginner beekeepers who may need an extra pair of eyes to find the problem with their hives.
Colony Collapse Disorder was most prevalent in 2006-07, ACABA President Michael McAvoy said, when beekeepers were losing as much as 90 percent of their bee populations. Although the rate has since dwindled to about 20 percent to 30 percent, he said it is still “historically high.”
Beekeepers who avoided importing bees and instead sustained their own bee populations, he said, generally avoided the effects of colony collapse.
McAvoy, who has been beekeeping since he was six or seven when he helped his father tend to the hives, taught the class of about 18 people.
Pam Cooper, a member of the class with no prior beekeeping experience, said she was surprised at the amount of information a beekeeper has to keep in mind, including information concerning pests and maintenance.
“I always thought it was — you have the box, you got the bees, you take the honey out,” she said. “I’ve learned through a couple of the classes and some reading that there’s a lot more to it.”
Cooper said she became interested in beekeeping as a way to spend time that is also sustainable, in addition to the possibility of selling the honey her bees produce.
“It was helpful talking to somebody that is local,” Cooper said, referring to McAvoy’s inclusion of Athens-specific advice regarding climate.
The bees, which have about a 60-day lifespan, are shipped in a large box that contains a food source so they don’t starve. Then, they must be introduced to the queen and the hive box, also known as an apiary. Depending on the size the beekeeper wants, hives can range from a few small components to standing at eye level or higher. A few parts are needed: a section for the bees to lay eggs and a section for honey production, as well as areas for feeding.
When establishing a new hive, insect regicide might be a problem. If a beekeeper fails to properly introduce a new queen bee to the hive, the bees will instinctively attempt to kill her.
All the equipment costs start to add up, but McAvoy recommended that beginners attempt to save money by using materials such as spare wood or bricks instead of buying new and expensive parts. The hive, bees, tools and protective clothing can total between $350 to about $600, he added.
“The best equipment you have for your apiary is what you happen to have on hand,” he said.
Much of beekeeping relies on manipulating bees’ natural instincts. For example, when a beekeeper wants to access the inside of a hive without causing the bees to swarm out, he or she would blow smoke into the hive, a process known as “smoking” the bees.
Despite popular belief, McAvoy said smoke does not calm bees. Instead, the smoke actually triggers an instinct in the bees that dates back to their origin of forests in Europe. When the European bees smelled smoke, they began drinking as much honey as possible in preparation to escape the hive and to save some of their honey. By causing that reaction, the beekeeper has a few minutes to work inside the hive without triggering the bees’ usual instinct to consider the beekeeper a threat.
While the bees do most of the work as far as production goes, beekeepers still need to maintain a watchful eye over their hives, McAvoy said.
“Neglect is one of those things where people just don’t realize they need to be looking at their bees every week,” he said. “They might let a month go by; well, a lot can happen to those bees in a month, and if you don’t have enough time to recover from it, you’re stuck.”
In addition to neglect, McAvoy said beginners also run into problems such as a fear of making mistakes or being overwhelmed by the amount of bees in their hive. In response, McAvoy included the concept of a “nucleus” hive into the presentation this year. A nucleus hive is a smaller but fully-functioning hive that is better suited for beginners.
Elizabeth Rogers, another member of the class, has had prior beekeeping experience. She has been beekeeping for two years but said the class was still beneficial to her.
“It seemed to open up a lot of things that I wasn’t aware of before,” Rogers said. “I really didn’t have a mentor.”
Rogers, who owns a small farm and plans on selling the honey at a farmer’s market in addition to the meat she already sells, said she was actually afraid of bees at first.
“The first year I was really deathly afraid,” she said. “But then after I got stung a few times, and I got used to working with the bees a little bit more, my fear kind of left, and I feel more comfortable working with them now.”
Toward the end of the class, McAvoy showed a graphic displaying the expansion he planned for his hives this year — which accumulates to 18 hives total.
“My wife hasn’t seen this yet,” he said.
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