Bee Keeping - New Adventure!

Many people are surprised to learn that bee keeping is fairly complicated. I was one of those people! I have always thought it would be a wonderful thing to try, though I honestly had no idea what I was getting into.

To start, it is recommended that new beekeepers join a local beekeeping club and start going to "bee school." This is a 6-week program where students learn from experienced beekeepers. I spent Friday nights this past winter soaking up as much of this information as possible.

Admittedly, most of the information was overwhelming. I learned that there a many ways to kill my bees. Bees can die of bacterial infections, viruses, mites, pesticides, starvation...the list goes on.  I also learned that most likely, my bees would not make it through the harsh New Hampshire winter. In fact, there is a 60% chance that the bees will die over the winter.

Despite this harsh reality, we decided to go all in and commit to purchasing two bee colonies. Once this had been decided, we had to research which hives to buy and what equipment we needed.

Matt and I have decided to try the relatively new technology of the Flow Hive. This type of hive will allow us to harvest honey without buying all of the traditional honey extraction equipment. It also limits the stress on bees during harvest time. The inventors of this hive have had one of the most successful campaigns ever on the startup site, Indiegogo.

The Flow Hive is a bit controversial in the beekeeping world. This type of hive has made beekeeping easier and more accessible to new beekeepers, like myself. Unfortunately, not everyone understands the responsibility involved in caring for bees. Many worry that having large numbers of new beekeepers will contribute to the downfall of bees, instead of helping their numbers recover. Let's hope that we can keep our bees alive and have thriving colonies!