setting up your hive

Buy a home for your bees. While honey bees can create hives in all sorts of spaces, most naturally occurring hives dont respond well to having honey harvested from them. Store bought hives are designed to allow you to collect the honey with minimal effect on the honey bees. Langstroth Hives are the most commonly used in the beekeeping industry because they provide movable frames that wont interfere with the bees inside when removed. Langstroth Hives will not stick together because they were designed to provide passage for the bees in the gaps between the movable pieces. Top Bar Hives are designed to be shallower and sit higher for people who have trouble bending over and may be a good choice for people with back issues. Ware Hives are shaped a bit like a house and can be difficult to manage large colonies in, but are great for small hives.     

Find a place for the hive.  You can keep one colony in most typical sized housing lots. While many people think that means their backyard may be big enough to house a hive of honey bees, there are some other things you will need to consider before placing your hive

• Find out if there are any zoning requirements for keeping a bee colony in your local area.
• Make sure no one in your family has a bee allergy.
• Let your neighbors know about your hive to see what concerns they may have about their families or health.

Make or purchase a hive stand. You will want to keep your honey bee hive off of the ground to make it easier to access and prevent the wood from rotting. A good hive stand will stand about eighteen inches off the ground to protect the hives from wild animals as well.

• A typical hive stand is made of treated 2x4 pieces of lumber laid across stacked cement or concrete blocks.
• Consider putting down mulch, gravel or stones under your hive stands to limit the mud you will have to deal with.