Guidelines for Newbee's
Unfortunately, many people think that they bought their bees, they located their hive in a good spot, and now they can just take a hands-off approach and they will not only survive, but thrive, on their own. We wish that were the case! It would make life a lot easier. However, in our experience, that is generally not going to lead to a successful outcome for you or your bees in the 21st century. Things are very different in US beekeeping today than they were even 40 years ago. Challenges such as varroa mites, loss of natural forage, increased environmental stressors are just a few of the tougher challenges facing honeybees and their keepers these days. In our opinion, you can take a hands-off “natural” approach to your bees (after all, they are your bees), but you probably won’t be a beekeeper for long. So, rather than dooming them from the start, we suggest that maybe a thoughtful caretaker/interventionist approach may be better for both the bees and the beekeeper.
Let us start by prefacing that we certainly don’t have all the answers, nor do we pretend to. In fact, in our opinion, that’s actually part of the excitement of beekeeping – the fact that you never ever stop learning about these amazing creatures, and what works for one person, or even one hive of bees, may not work for another. In fact, we’ve learned that what worked well for us one year, didn’t work for us the next year with the same hives in the same locations! (e.g.: going from 0% losses one winter to 60% losses the next doing the same thing as the winter before…)
Let us start by prefacing that we certainly don’t have all the answers, nor do we pretend to. In fact, in our opinion, that’s actually part of the excitement of beekeeping – the fact that you never ever stop learning about these amazing creatures, and what works for one person, or even one hive of bees, may not work for another. In fact, we’ve learned that what worked well for us one year, didn’t work for us the next year with the same hives in the same locations! (e.g.: going from 0% losses one winter to 60% losses the next doing the same thing as the winter before…)