How to Start a Beehive

Here's a general overview for starting a hive. Be sure to follow the specific instructions given by the manufacturer of your hive.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Location

1. Check local city ordinances or covenants about keeping bees in your area.
2. Select a location that provides morning sun and late-afternoon shade.
3. Avoid a location where bees might fly into a neighbor's yard.
4. Make sure bees have access to water without having to use a neighbor's pool.
5. Consider planting flowers and shrubs that attract bees and that provide a good source of pollen.

Hive Setup

6. Set up your hive before early spring to catch the first nectar flow.
7. Purchase bees and install them in your hive.
8. Feed bees until honey flow begins - when plants and trees begin to bloom.
9. Check bees periodically for disease.
10. Add a super when six frames are full of capped honey.

Tips & Warnings

• Bees love cotton, soybeans, holly, black gum, white clover, sweet clover, black locust, honey locust, willow, rattan vine, buckwheat vine, sumac, brambles, fruit tree blossoms, and redbud, among others.
• Do not use pesticides on blooming plants. This is one sure way of wiping out an entire bee population.