#2 Getting Started - Your First Year Seminar from the Great Plains Growers Conference by Grant Gillard, delivered in St. Joseph, Missouri on 2020-01-09

1. #2
“Getting Started – First Year.”
Grant Gillard

2. www.slideshare.net
Search:
Great Plains Growers Conference
Grant Gillard 2020-01-09

3. How does one get started?
Neil Bergman
Entomology 222
https://extension2.missouri.edu/g7601https://extension2.missouri.edu/g7601

4. Beekeeping 1981
1. Subscribe to ABJ (American Bee Journal)
2. Order equipment
3. Order bees – likely packages
4. Assemble equipment
5. Install bees – maybe feed a quart of 1:1 syrup
6. Come back in three months, harvest honey crop
7. Let bees coast until September
8. Treat with terramycin and powdered sugar
9. Wait for spring, anticipate 10% loss

5. Beekeeping Today
 Read a few books
 Search the Internet for youtube videos
 Take a class
 Join a bee club
 Find a mentor
 Listen to an old man at the bee club tell you
if you don’t treat your colony it will die.

6. Beekeeping Today
 Buy equipment – rejoice in free shipping
 Order bees – likely nucs
 Set up hive – listen to neighbor complain
how they’re allergic to bee stings
 Feed supplements and protein patties
 Replace queen after two weeks

7. Beekeeping Today
 Find empty, absconded hive
 Avoid talking to the previous old man at the
bee club
 Wish you had started two hives instead of
just one
 Begin to consider the “Flow Hive”
 Buy honey from your mentor to satisfy in-
laws who feel entitled to “free” honey

8. What’s at Stake?
Beekeeping is very expensive
Wood boxes – hive set up $250
Bees (package or nuc) $150
(and we suggest you start with two) $400 x 2
Personal equipment $200
(suit, gloves, smoker)
Total Starting Investment $1,000

9. What’s at Stake?
Honey bees are still dying.
The greatest threat to
honey bees is the new beekeeper.
(Bee Informed Partnership)

10. What’s at Stake?
Within two years
80%
of all new beekeepers
will call it quits.

11. What’s at Stake?
Within two years
80%
of all new beekeepers
will call it quits.
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12. What’s at Stake?
Within two years
80%
of all new beekeepers
will call it quits.
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13. Never as easy as you think…..

16. Take a Class

17. Find a Mentor
“A mentor is a coach who gets you in the
game, but can’t play the game for you”
“A mentor is a person who doesn’t tell you
how to think, but what to think about.”
Find a mentor that fits your goals.

19. Join a local bee club
Networking resources
Building relationships
Seeing what others are doing
Sharing ideas, finding help
Learning to be fluent in the
language

20. Four Main Areas of Beekeeping
1. Pollination
2. Honey Production
3. Queen Rearing and Nuc Production
4. Backyard Recreational Hobby
5. Bee Rescue – cut outs
One will prevail… others may overlap.

21. But what is a “hobby?”
Something you spend money on,
for enjoyment, with no intentions of
expecting a financial return.

22. Jamie Ellis, U of Florida
Three keys to being successful in beekeeping
1. Understand honey bee biology
2. Decide what you want to do with your bees
--Produce honey
--Raise queens, make nucs
--Pollination
--Backyard recreational hobby
3. Incorporate #2 into #1
(put the colony’s agenda ahead of your agenda)

23. Find the best way,
the way that works for you.

24. The best way…
…all depends on what you
want to get out of beekeeping.

26. What does it take to be a
successful beekeeper?
1. An area of diverse floral sources
2. An environment free of pesticides
3. A young and productive queen
4. Minimal parasite levels
5. A working knowledge of honey bee
biology and the seasonality of the hive.

27. What Do You Need to Start?
1. Site Selection
2. Protective Clothing
3. Boxes and Woodware
4. Bees
5. Flexibility and Patience

28. Site Selection
Back yard? Neighbors?
Away from livestock
Away from human activity
Protected from strong winds
Access with vehicle or wheel barrow
Level

35. Level!

36. Protective Clothing
Comfort
Confidence

42. Dress for Success!

43. Bee Suits
“Ultrabreeze”
Ventilated bee suit
https://beekeepclub.com/best-ventilated-bee-suits/

44. Types of Hives
Langstroth
Warre
Top Bar Hive
Long Hives

45. Top Bar Hive
www.goldstarhoneybees.com

46. Top Bar Hive

47. Top Bar Hive Variations
Longitudinal Hives – Horizontal Hives

48. Langstroth

49. Langstroth

50. Flexible,
Accommodates growth

51. Boxes and Woodware
 Brood Box 9-5/8” high
 Medium Super 6-5/8” high
 Shallow Super 5-11/16” high
 Langstroth Boxes 16-1/4” by 20”
 Eight frames vs. ten frames

52. Frames
Wood with wired wax
Wood with “foundationless”
Wood with plastic foundation
Plastic, one-piece molded

55. Bees – Races
Russians
Carniolans
Italians
Saskatraz
Cordovan
Caucasians
Hygienic behavior
VSH
Mite resistant

56. Bees - sources
Nucs – nucleus colonies
Packages
Swarms - pheromone baited traps
Splits
Cut-outs and “rescues”

64. Smokers

66. Hive tools

67. Frame Grip
Really necessary if you use gloves

69. Any Questions?