Beekeeping Lecture delivered by Grant Gillard in Effingham, IL on February 27th, 2016 on where to set, and develop, an apiary or bee yard for beekeeping.

1. Grant F. C. Gillard gillard5 @ charter.net
www . grantgillard.weebly.com
www . slideshare.net

2. Your First Bee Hive – Where?
 Convenience
 Back yard or close to garden
 Store equipment in garage or shed
 Mulch around hive stand, neat and orderly
 What about neighbors, curious children?
 Fencing or privacy screen? Locked gate?
 How many hives is too many?
 Liability coverage, homeowners insurance

3. Location Factors
 LP tanks, mail boxes, on-farm stores
 Fences and gates in a pasture
 Local ordinances, city codes
 Home owner’s association, CCR’s
 Test cases
--Set up two empty bee hives in front yard
--Sting incident, moved hives, repeat incident

4. Finding a Suitable Location
 Full sun
 Offers floral diversity, water source nearby
 Sheltered from prevailing winds
 Away from direct pesticide applications
 Far away from people traffic, human activities
 Respectful of neighbors (swimming pools)
 Accessible in all kinds of weather (mud)
 Floods, flood plains, bottom ground, intermittent
gully washes

5. Some sun, sheltered from wind

7. Leveled on hive stands

8. Usually relegated to the side of a field,
out of the way, but with access

11. Seasonal Flooding

13. Expansion – where to find?
 Advertise
 Scout out locations by watching blooms
 Pollination opportunities
 Approach homeowner or landlord?
 Questions to ask if solicited or invited?
 Opportunities conducive to management

16. ☻

17. ☻
‫ס‬‫ס‬

19. Remote Yards
 Theft and vandalism, visibility, remote
locations unattended, locking gates
 Accessibility by truck or wheel barrow
 Proximity to your “home” base
 Livestock
 How do you get notified if things go wrong?

21. Legal Stuff
 Written lease
 Rental agreement
 Landlord relationships – communication
 Damage to landlord’s property
 Damage to your bee hives
 Legal structure, LLC “individuals acting on behalf of a
company are personally liable for their tortious conduct, even if they
did so on behalf of the company.”
 Business Insurance

22. Criteria for Developing Outyards
 Sufficient number of hives to justify my trip to that
location.
 Distance between outyards, comp vs convenience
 Does this location have sufficient forage, or a specialty
crop that produces a varietal honey?
 Related issue: water
The greatest benefit of multiple outyards is
that you spread out your bees.
The greatest hardship of multiple outyards is
that you spread out yourself.

23. Criteria for Developing Outyards
 Distance from home
 Neighbors and adjacent property owners
 Related issue: swarming
 Storage and equipment hauling
 Related issue: tools I need every time
 “Social Rent”

25. Grow Slowly – Grow Internally
 Option 1: Buy a bunch of hives, spend $
 Option 2: Start slow, split your own hives
 Year 1: Double from 4 to 8 hives (12 hives*)
 Year 2: Learn how to manage 8 hives
 Year 3: Double from 8 to 16 hives (24 hives*)
 Year 4: Learn how to manage 16 hives
 Year 5: Double from 16 to 32 hives (48 hives*)
Sustainable Growth
*Attrition Factors

26. Keeping Good Records
The biggest lie I tell
myself is,
“I don’t need to write it down;
I’ll remember it.”

27. What info do you want to track?
 What information is important? What’s not?
 What details are vital? What’s the minimum?
 What do you need to make good decisions?
 What do you need to remember?
 What stuff is just “stuff?” T.M.I.?
 What information helps you make things
happen, makes you a better beekeeper?
 After you write it down, is it accessible?

28. There are three kinds of beekeepers:
Those who make things happen;
Those who watch things happen;
Those who wonder what happened.
The Purpose of Record Keeping:
“It’s not what I have to do,
it’s what I want to make happen.
Nothing important merely happens.”

29. Low-Tech Record Keeping
Just remember stuff…sure.
Bricks…but what do they mean?
Writing on the lid
(Sharpie, permanent marker, pencil)
Writing on the side of the brood box
Note card
in between the inner/outer covers
Pocket calendars
Spiral notebooks

30. On-line, digital options
 www.hivetracks.com [hive tracks review]
 www.beetight.com [bee tight review]
 Can you access Internet from apiary? Cell phone
coverage? WiFi? Coverage voids?
 Can you enter data (gloves)?
 What kind of protection from propolis, honey?
 Alternative: hand written paper records in apiary,
transfer to computer at home. Redundant!

31. On-line records, in “the cloud”
NSA and Big Brother
Do not enter:
“I’m going to kill
off the queen!”

32. Paper/Manual options
 Create Your Own: Excel Spread Sheet
 Google: “printable hive inspection sheets”

33. Four parts to my records
 Clip board with a spread sheet of all my yards
 So I don’t miss any or forget when I visited last
 “Field Notebook” – temporary notes of each yard
 “Yard Notebook” - back in the office
 File holding my notebooks
 When I want to go out, I consult my notebooks and
load my truck accordingly.

34. My System - simplified
 I tend to treat apiaries as a “whole” not a
bunch of individual hives
 I take a generic, “field” notebook into the bee
yard and crudely write down three things:
*What I saw
*What I did on this trip to this yard
*What needs to happen next time,
and what equipment I need to make
that happen

35. End of the day
 Each bee yard has its own “Yard” notebook
 End of the day, transfer field notes to my
yard notebooks
 I transfer my thoughts, interpret my ideals,
order my list of things “to-do” into the
notebook, so when I go out the next time, I
know what to bring.
 Notes and records = efficient management

42. Are Records Necessary?
 No, but what are you missing?
 ELAP loans
 USDA assistance
 Crop (Precipitation) Insurance
 Kevin Gummels (402) 360-2626

43. Why keep records?
 Be better organized (don’t forget stuff, “CRS”)
 Better time management (self management)
 Stay on schedule, anticipate equipment needs
 Be more efficient (“Time is money”)
 Get things done, a “to-do” list (procrastination)
 Remembering to get things done, on time
 Get the most potential from the bees (honey)
 Wintertime, “sabbatical” planning time*