05/07/2020
Getting Ready…
A beginner beekeeper has much to do and many decisions to make to prepare the apiary for actually getting the bees. One of the big decisions is what sort of hive components, called “wooden ware,” you want to use. The most common hive is a Langstroth wooden hive (named for the man who pioneered sustainable beekeeping, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive). I was looking forward to the fun of making my own wooden Langstroth hive components when I stumbled upon Apimaye insulated beehives while surfing through the thousands of beekeeping video clips on YouTube. Winter losses are a major challenge for sustainable beekeeping, and the Apimaye hives help the colony survive the winter months by conserving heat and minimizing condensation and moisture in the hive during big hot/cold temperature swings in fall and spring (wet bees become icy dead bees in freezing temps). Apimaye hives certainly cost more than the cheapest wooden hive components, but are roughly the same cost as a better-quality hive, and have many great features you won’t find on wooden hives, like latches to connect hive components, divider boards, pollen traps, and integrated feeders. Cost is not a huge factor for me because I don’t plan on having more than 2-4 hives, and I really like the versatility and thoughtful design of the Apimaye hives, so that’s what I went with (see https://apimaye-usa.com/).
Apimaye hives are built to Langsroth specifications, so I still had the choice of using Langstroth wooden frames inside the hive itself. There is something compelling about the memory of the smell and feel of a wooden frame pulled from a busy hive that made me choose to assemble wood frames rather than use plastic. My bee crew and I enjoyed the project of building 50 “deep” frames to fit the larger hive body boxes that will be the nursury and kitchen of the colony, and 50 more “medium” frames for the more shallow “honey supers,” the smaller boxes that are the pantry of the colony where honey is stored.
For protection against stings, our first choice was to get full head-to-toe suits. After we got our bees and learned that they are mostly docile, Wendy and I got well-ventilated jackets with hoop-style veils, and they give plenty of protection on days when the bees are calm. We still have the full suits if we need to work when the bees will be grumpy (rainy days, for example), and the extra suits means we can have extra helpers.
The most excited part of all this is sharing the experience with my family. My sister sent us wonderful bee paraphernalia to fuel our enthusiasm, and our granddaughters are cheerful helpers. My mother and other siblings, and my in-laws too, take interest in our beekeeping and ask about it often. Even family members who have passed on are present in our beekeeping enterprise. I named our first two hives after my two grandmothers, both of whom died in the months just before I was born. I think about them and the legacy of industry and dedication to family that they left us whenever I go to work the hives.
In modern beekeeping, a Langstroth hive is any vertically modular beehive that has the key features of vertically hung frames, a bottom board with entrance for the bees, boxes containing frames for brood and honey (the lowest box for the queen to lay eggs, and boxes above where honey may be stored)....
