10 Common beginner beekeeping mistakes

After our love of beekeeping, going to fairs, talking to many beekeepers, studying beekeeping websites and forums and reading books, we have synthesised the 10 most common mistakes when starting out in the world of beekeeping and honey production in a more commercial way. Moreover, they are mistakes that we can easily avoid and will take away some headaches if you are starting out in this beautiful world.

Summary: Common mistakes that a beekeeper usually makes with his first hives. We have also supplemented this information from our beekeepers in Madrid, Brihuega and Zamora. Also, in our shop we offer you a fantastic selection of Spanish honeys such as; heather, eucalyptus, rosemary…

Related articles: Where to buy quality raw honey? Raw unpasteurised honey.

1. The ten most common mistakes when starting beekeeping

Like any new activity, it is always difficult to get started, and even more so if you do not have any prior knowledge. Consequently, it is normal to make a lot of beginner’s mistakes, but if you are told what they are beforehand, the start is much easier. For this reason, we have investigated which are the most common mistakes, and among them, we have the following:

1) Only external evaluation of the hive.

One of the common mistakes for beginners in beekeeping is to believe that the hive is doing well just because the bees are coming in full of pollen. However, they may be attacked by wasps and ants feeding on their pollen.

One should also look around, as one should inspect if there are many dead bees near the hive.

You should also make a comparison in the coming years with the bee traffic in the hives. We should also take a look inside the hive to see if anything unusual is found and be able to remedy the problem before it becomes too serious.

Nor should we go to the extreme side and inspect the bees too often. This is because uncovering the hive too often does not help the bees either. It is recommended not to open the hive more than once a week.

Photo 1: Lavender in flower

2) Not recognising the disappearance of the queen

Another problem that first-time beekeepers often have is the loss of the queen. At first it will not be so noticeable, but later it will lead to the loss of the hive. First you will see the brood chamber disappear. Then you will notice an increase in honey and pollen production, as no new brood is being fed as there is no queen. Finally, as there is no replenishment of bees, the hive will die.

What we have to check is if there is egg laying, because if not, it is a clear sign that there is no queen.

Therefore, we must check that the queen is still there, because without her, the survival of the hive is impossible.

3) Leaving gaps where they should not be left

Another aspect that a new beekeeper has to look at is that the bees always have enough space for themselves. If the lid is badly placed or not sufficiently high, we will find hives in places where they should not be.

Sometimes beekeepers leave less space in the hives to work on them. However, once the work is finished, sufficient space should be left for the hives.

4) Harvesting honey too early

Another common mistake is to be in a hurry to collect the first honey when it is not yet formed. Harvesting too early will result in a very runny honey of poor quality. Also, if this honey has a high water content, it will end up fermenting and will not be drinkable.

Also, collect more honey than you should. Taking more honey from the hive than you should can lead to problems of food shortage during the winter.

Photo 2: Eucalyptus and pine forests

5) Inadequate feeding of new swarms

Ideally, the hive should be fed with its own honey in times of scarcity. However, the vast majority of beekeepers do not do this for economic reasons. It is much more profitable to sell all the honey and feed it with sugar and other supplements.

Therefore, by feeding the hive with sugar and other supplements, if these do not have the necessary nutrients, the hive will eventually die. For this reason, the beekeeper must be careful how he feeds the hive if he does not leave part of the production to the bees.

6) Not placing the hives in the right places

Good placement of the hives is very important for both the beekeeper and the bees. Careful selection of where the hives are placed must be made.

The new beekeeper must also make sure that where he places the hives is permitted and complies with all municipal regulations. Otherwise, he will have problems with the hives and therefore with feeding them.

7) Failure to protect oneself adequately

Lack of protection due to an idyllic view of bees. There are some beekeepers who, when watching videos of beekeepers, believe that bees are harmless insects and where other beekeepers hardly use any protection. This mistake, which in most cases will not be very important, will be solved very quickly once the new beekeeper suffers a bee sting.

Therefore, we always recommend using all means of protection such as a smoker to open the hives.

8) Do not use a smoker

Not using a smoker is a big mistake for several reasons. Firstly, you scare them away by making them think there is a fire. Firstly, you are preventing them from communicating with each other and preparing a joint attack on you. Secondly, when they leave the hive, they do not crush each other and therefore many of them do not drown.

It is true, however, that when they receive smoke, they gorge themselves on honey and production decreases. However, the benefits of the smoker are much greater and hardly harm the bees.

9) Too few hives

Another mistake beginners often make is to start with too few hives. Believe it or not, starting with a few hives at a time is very advisable, because if one queen is gone, we can take another queen from other hives. In addition, if a hive is weaker, they will help each other.

10) Not increasing knowledge

Another mistake, although this no longer happens to first-timers, is to believe that you already know everything. It is very important to keep on training and to know how bees behave in order to tackle possible problems from the beginning.

2. The equipment that a beekeeper should never be without.

The equipment that a beekeeper should never be without: protective overalls, gloves and a mask to protect the eyes and the rest of the face. This equipment is essential when approaching a beehive. He also needs a smoker to scare the bees away and a spatula to be able to separate parts of the hive from the wooden frame of the hive.

3. Mistakes during winter

Bees often die during the winter months for the following reasons:

Extreme cold
Lack of adequate feeding
Poor ventilation of the hives.

a) Extreme cold

When it is cold, bees move and cluster together to keep warm and not freeze to death. However, with long and extreme cold, this may not be enough and they may end up dying from the cold. In Spain this does not usually happen, as we have a fairly warm climate and the winters are not very harsh. In northern European countries and other very cold areas of the world, this is a problem.

On the other hand, we could have a problem for hives that are not healthy, as weaker bees would be more exposed to bad weather.

b) Lack of adequate food

A lack of food can lead to the death of bees, but this is not the most normal case. What sometimes happens is that the cold is very intense, and the bees cannot move to the part of the hive where they have food, and this leads to their death.

c) Poor ventilation of the hive

Another cause of death in winter is water condensation. Bees, as living beings, expel water vapour and this can condense in the higher areas of the hive. Once this air is condensed with water vapour, the water vapour can change to a liquid state and fall on the bees. Bees tolerate the cold quite well, the problem arises when water has fallen on them.

When the body is wet, the water takes the heat from the body to evaporate, causing the bee to become cold. If we combine the cold environment with the cooling caused by the evaporation of the water, this can lead to the death of the bees.

4. Deoperculation

The uncapping process consists of removing the thin wax layer from the comb, which is scientifically called the operculum and closes the cells. This allows the honey to escape from the cells and a subsequent centrifugation process removes the honey from the comb.

a) How to uncap?

This is a very simple task that anyone new to beekeeping can do. There are machines that do it automatically, but it can also be done manually. If it is done manually, all we need is a bucket or bench to collect the honey that drains out of the comb.

Therefore, if we do it manually, the first thing to do is to remove the frames from the supers by taking them by the apexes with the thumb and forefinger of our hands. Once we have removed them, we place them on the support or tray. Then, we tilt it slightly and with the tool we unoperculate it. Once unoperculated, we place it in the extract in order to remove all the honey from the comb.

b) Tools

There are numerous tools to carry out this process, it will only depend on the amount of mechanisation that we want to have. Among the most common are the following:

Uncapping combs
knives with serrated or smooth blades
Electric knives
Roller
Within the more automatic machinery, we have:

Horizontal uncappers with rotating chains
Vertical unpickers
The chopper

5. Shops to buy beekeeping products

Among the shops that I have found most interesting for the purchase of beekeeping products and utensils, these are the most interesting ones:

Apitienda: Shop to buy the necessary products for beekeeping.

Source:

Our beekeepers

Ecocolmena.org