If this is the year you plan on getting bees than order your bees now!(January or February) My son and I have been attending bee school. See how my son was awarded a bee keeping scholarship from the Trinity Valley Bee Keeping Association;here. If you live in the Dallas area then come join us on the second Tuesday of every month. Link to TVBKA  here. Bees must attract good people because we are meeting some of the most wonderful souls we have ever encountered. We have found bees so fascinating! A few of the things we learned about bees that we found amazing are:

In the bee hive the girls rule, literally! The queen bee lays worker bees that are all girls. She does lay some drone, or male bees, that are pampered fed and then go out to continue the bee population. Get this, these drones (male bees) have a “drone hang out”, meaning that somewhere in the Dallas area all these young males meet. A drone bar if you will. This conjures up images of the movie “Top Gun” where Tom Cruise and all his wing men meet and try to seduce the ladies with good looks, cheap drinks and bad karaoke.

The story gets better! Back in the hive the new queen cell opens and the new young queen has to literally run for her life, because there can only be ONE queen bee in the hive. The young virgin queen somehow knows where the drone hang out is and flies there to mate with up to 20 drone bees in that, hopefully, sunny spring day. Get ready for more excitement; she mates in flight. Let me just give you a moment to imagine what a wild ride late would be! 

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In bee life, this day is VERY important. Why? Because this seed from the male bee will last this queen for her whole life, up to 3 years! The miracle of this will become clear to you when I tell you that she can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day. So to sum it up; from this one day, she stores enough seed to last her for 3 years laying up to 2,000 eggs a day! No wonder bees are a fragile thing. There is so much that could go wrong here. This Spring it rained almost every day. Not very many mating flights going on there, I bet. I have questions; How do the drones know where the “drone hang out” is? How do the new virgin queens know where the drones are? Maybe I will ask God when I see him. I can just see me finally encountering the creator of the universe and saying, “If you don’t mind, I would like to talk bees for just a moment.”

If you are ready to start your bee adventure you need to know the two type of hives you can choose from.

The Langstroth hive is what most bee keepers use. It is basically file cabinet of bees. The idea is to keep stacking boxes, full of frames, up as the hive grows.

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Your other choice is the Top Bar Hive, which is like a manger with a lid and legs. They can range from basic to a work of art!

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There are advantages and disadvantages to both. I started to list the good and bad points to both ,but then decided I would just tell you what I would do if I were just starting out.

If I had some money tucked away for a fun, educational, fascinating hobby, I would order a basic starter kit from Dadant Bee Suppliers. A big shout out to Dadant for donating the hives for this years scholarship students! Thank you! Here is a list of the things you will need to get started. Dadant has a bee keeping supplier in Paris Texas so you can avoid shipment charges if you are willing to drive a bit. link to Dadant here.

Bee Keeping Equipment List- Langstroth Hive

• 1 deep super/box with 10 frames with foundation
• another deep box to put on top when your bees outgrow the first one.(optional, could buy later) With 10 frames and foundation
• 1 outer hive cover/lid
• 1 inner hive cover
• 1 bottom board: solid or screened
• 1 feeder
• 1 smoker
• bee suit or if you are really brave, calm and dare I say foolish? Just get the hat and veil.
• 1 pair of beekeeping gloves(goat skin-not canvas)
• 1 hive tool(special bee crow bar)
• 1 bee brush(optional)
• an entrance reducer(to keep your new hive from getting robbed of honey)

Total cost: $193.95

Here is a good starter kit: from Dadant You save a bit by assembling & painting yourself. As you can tell all this is going to cost you and we haven’t figured in the bees yet. Brace yourself, bees are expensive.

You will need to order a Nuc for a Langstroth hive. (short for Nucleus)

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A Nuc is short for a box of bees, with a queen, that have already started building a hive complete with brood or bee babies. Transfering the frames full of bees (and baby bees) into your hive will help it get off to a great start. A Nuc will cost you between $ 200. – $300. I know! I guess we have to remember that there is a shortage of these amazing insects, that can have a tendency to drive the price up a bit.

If on the other hand you don’t have money tucked away, because you have many teenage mouths to feed like I do, you have another option. Scrounge, glean and gather scrap lumber and build a top bar hive or in my case beg your brother to build it with you. Thank you Don, for getting excited about this new adventure! I am no building expert, couldn’t even read the plans, but my brother says it will be a fun and easy project. You will still need to order some things.

Bee Keeping Equipment list- Top Bar Hive

Top bar hives can be built simply & inexpensively by using scrap wood or higher priced works of art. This part is up to you.

• 1 jar type feeder to put down in the hive(or make your own)
• 1 smoker
• a full bee suit or hat and veil and make do with baggy clothes for the suit
• bee keeping gloves(soft goat leather)
• 1 hive tool
• 1 bee brush(optional)

Now you will need bees.

You will need to order a package of bees for a Top Bar hive.

A package of bees will cost you $130.-$150. Basically the name says it all. You will get a box of bees with the queen. I was told you shake the bees into the top bar hive. Now I don’t know about you, but the word shake and bees just makes me cringe! See us install our first package of bees on video here

What if you don’t have money for a package of bees? Well, as you might have noticed I am a believer in never letting lack of funds stop you from your dream.

Two options come to mind:

1. You could ask someone to purchase the bees for you in return for your first harvest of honey?

2. You could build a swarm trap and attract bees to you. See how to build a swarm trap here. We have caught two swarms of bees in our traps so far. See our exciting bee capture: We Caught a Swarm of Bees In Our Trap, Again!

Maybe this is an urban farmer’s idea of living on the edge! I hope I have you thinking about getting bees, but don’t think too long. Live on the edge with me and build your trap or order your bees!

Local bee suppliers: Hurry many are selling out!

Texas Bee Supply: Blue Ridge TX, http://texasbeesupply.com/

R. Weaver : Navasota, TX http://www.rweaver.com/index.php

Christi Baughman :(best teacher ever!)  http://beegirl.biz/  nucs only Limited number available

While these are local to Dallas there are others that will ship from around the country. This one day mail will add to the cost though.