Let’s face it, the allure of treatment free beekeeping and
being in tune with nature was just too much to bare. You wanted to start
beekeeping for some reason, and you chose to add the extra hurdle of treatment
free on top of that. Why am I writing this article? I notice that many (myself
included) go on to treatment free forums and ask the exact same questions many
have asked before. They might do this because they have not found the search
button, or that there specific case may be unique –it’s probably not. I know this because I have scoured through
every single article on Beesource’s treatment forum, and STILL managed to ask
the same questions, so on that note do not feel bad –I am not scolding you. The
reason I mean writing this is because I want to save you the trouble, answer a
few of your questions, and set you on a path.
Now, that in mind, I am not an expert I am a new beekeeper just
like you! I got bee fever a year ago, read everything I could get my hands on,
watched every Youtube video, and awaited spring where I could get my own. I now
have six happy little colonies of girls: still don’t know shit, have made some
mistakes, and ran into a great deal of hitches along the way.
So let us continue, I am going to coin a term for you called
the GI JOE method. Why? Because knowing is half the battle! I mean that both
optimistically and pessimistically. Knowing everything there is to know about
beekeeping (and as you’ll learn there is always something else to know), is
only half the equation. You still have to learn the practical aspects of how to
be a beekeeper, treatment free or not. Now optimistically knowing is half the
battle in the sense that, you are better off having a solid plan going in, and to
understand the reasoning of “why” you are doing the specific things that you
are doing.
How to Learn
Start educating yourself long getting bees. Luckily
information is relatively free in this work: YouTube, has an absolute plethora
of bee related videos on there; Beesource, has an awesome collection of
articles by many well-known beekeeper (btw, read all of them! Not just the Dee
Lusby and Charles Martin Simon ones), as well as a massive archive of forum
posts; Michael Bush, has made a great deal of information available on his
website ; and the Library, grab every single book you can get on the subject.
Next start thinking long and hard about buying books, and
start absorbing them. Michael Bush’s The Practical
Beekeeper is something I would consider essential. He offers most of the
information on his website for free, but he’s a nice a guy, and chances are
when you ask a question on a forum about beekeeping he will happily chime in. Dean
Stiglitz’ The Complete Idiots Guide to
Beekeeping is also an excellent primer to treatment free oriented
beekeeping. Guess what? He also answers a ton of questions on the forums! But don’t
stop strictly at treatment free books! Kim Flottum’s books are great! As are
many of the other simply beekeeping oriented books. If you get a chance read
some of the more historical books like Langstroths Hive and the Honeybee, AI Root ABC
and XYZ of Bee Culture, etc. They will all teach you something, and help
you get a plan of attack. Here is a few links to get you started:
Main Page of Beesource’s Articles (note: Dee Lusby, and
Charles Martin Simon)
Michael Bush’s Website
Natural Beekeeping Symposium in Philadelphia - has amazing
presentations by Michael Bush, Sam Comfort, and John Seaborn –absolute much
watch
Towards a Treatment Free Apiary - the people who wrote “the
idiots guide”
Organically Managed Beekeeping Podcast – some great Podcasts
by great people!
Develop a Plan of
Attack
A common quote that is brought up is that “If you ask ten
beekeepers a question, prepare to get eleven different answers”. This should
precipitate you to learn that they all have their own opinions, their own
ideas, and what works for them. There are only two things I have ever seen
beekeepers agree on: the first, most of them hate Neonicotinoids; and the
second, develop a plan early on and stick to it! Every good introductory book
will stress this point! Why? Because they probably made that mistake!
The list of choices you have to make can quite literally go
on. I spent two seasons researching and am still coming across situations I did
not think about!
Is this a business I plan to make money off? How am I making
money off it? Pollination, honey, beestock? Or, am I going to define success by
simply keeping bees alive and at what point do we define that success? Seasons?
Years? Or, is your goal management oriented? I want to regress my bees down to
a 4.9 cell size, integrate foundationless to get rid of contaminated wax, and
be treatment free? All of these are noteworthy goals, but depends solely on the
beekeepers intentions. However with: CCD, weather/climate, varroa, AFB, etc. Many of these things are out of your control!
What strains of bees do you what? Where do you live? Do you
have cold winters? What types of bees are less susceptible to this? If you live
in the North as I do you probably want to find an overwintered nuc (so it’s
proven to survive the winter) from a local breeder. Russian, and Carniolan bees
tend to do well in these climates. Some will survive, some will not. I stress
finding the best, most acclimated bee to your area, so do some research, pick
some brains! Conversely, do you want a bee that’s going to pile in the honey
for you? Perhaps getting that extra few pounds of honey might be worth the
extra winter loss in terms of monetary gain. What about something that’s proven
disease resistant? Or demonstrates hygienic behaviour?
What kind of equipment do I want to use? Many older
beekeepers with botched backs will not smirk at you for going with all mediums
–it’s a smart idea. It is not traditional. Find out what works in your area,
what other people are using, and make your choices. Your budget is also a
consideration, working with all mediums costs more than a traditional deep
brood box setup. Or, maybe you want backyard top bar hives! What kind of shape
are you in? Boxes full of honey are deceptively really heavy! One deep can
weigh over 100lbs, are you ok lifting that? How many times?
If you decide to adopt an all medium, topbar, or other
setup, you have to think about how you are going to get there? Will a breeder
make a package for your topbar, or a medium nuc?
Do you really want to be a treatment free beekeeper? There
are many things you must consider, as this is not an easy question. Firstly,
are you OK with your bees dying? They will either way, but how much are you
willing to tip the scales in the survival category? This is something many
beekeepers fight over. However it is important to note that the guys, who do
treat their bees, don’t do it because they want to, but because they have to.
Don’t begrudge them for doing so! They probably have more to lose then a first
year knows it all beekeeper. Conversely if you do decide to go treatment free,
the guys who do treat will tell you that your bees are going to die, or they might
shun you completely because IF your bees get AFB, mite infestations, etc and
swarm (remember you are a newbie, and will make mistakes!) It can find its way to their hives and ruin
everyone’s operation! So, there is something to think about there. If you
decide to be treatment free, you are probably best to keep your mouth shut, and
keep those older beekeepers accessible for their knowledge…
Big Brother likes to get his dirty hands on everything and
strangle you with an endless supply of red tape! Now you have to look at what
is in place regulating what you want to do. You have to look this up for where
you live. These will usually entail federal, provincial (state), and municipal
laws. I can only speak about the regulations for where I live, and how it frustrated
the hell out of me!
I wanted bees in my backyard, but then I found there was a
city bylaw preventing that. I had to go find land I could use. Before I could
sign a land lease, I needed liability insurance. Luckily the Ontario Beekeepers
Association provides that (at a cost) to its members. Once you have that in
place, then you can get your land and start preparing it for bees. Then you
need to register your colonies with the provincial apiarists and conform to
their regulations (may need to put a sign up, fence, etc). Then you can pick up
your bees! Sounds easy? Not really. All this took over 4 months to get going,
and it wasn’t until mid-May that I could even get my bees.
What happens once you want to sell your honey? In Ontario
there are a shit ton of laws regulating this! Firstly, you must have a certain
type of jar. Jars are sold by liquid measure, honey is sold by weight, so you
have to find jars that will accommodate this –note mason jars don’t work here).
Then you need a food inspected place to process the honey. The jars have
certain labeling requirements. Fuck me, if you want to export it you get into
federal laws and you have to get it graded, tested, etc
Assuming you are reading this, we are much the same: Eager
new beekeepers, or those eager to get started. I will give you my personal
story of beekeeping and how I got started. Hopefully it helps you make your own
plan, or helps you make your own plan. My genuine hope is that it answers some
of those new treatment free beekeeper questions. It might save you from looking
like an idiot or feel like an ass, because this year I did it for you!
My Plan of Attack
I am a Chef by trade, though I don’t do fancy fine dining
shenanigans anymore I still make my living cooking. I spent ten years or so in
the woodworking field, gone to college for it, did everything from working in a
cabinet shop to framing houses. The recession hit, there was no work, so I took
the chance to goto culinary school. After culinary school I worked at a few
very high end restaurants, kicked ass, and took names. However, what I learned
was that I liked the process of creating fine food products more than slinging
the plates. I started learning more about how curing meats worked, how to brew
wine and beer, and even how to identify wild edibles and mushrooms. After
several years I simply burned out. It’s a pretty common occurrence. I did
however realize I wanted to do something more agricultural. Bees became quite
the obsession. It was affordable, profitable, knew there was a ton to know
about it, and it combined my two skill sets –food and carpentry.
So I did some searching on the Internet, learned a bit
there, but didn’t find it quite as absorbing as a book. Meandered to the
library, took all the books out, and very obsessively read. Drove to chapters,
bought every book they offered. Now up until this point I started to grasp how
beekeeping worked, but something seemed really strange to me. I never realized
so many chemicals went into the hive. Frankly, it never occurred to me. I couldn’t
understand how working at ‘farm to table’ restaurants, watching a million food
documentaries, reading an endless amount of literature, how not once had I not
known chemicals went into bee hives. Sure, I think I recalled something about
sugar syrup in a CCD documentary but that’s about it. So I bought the idiots
guide, already had the dummies one, figured it was the same thing. Then the
whole treatment free/organic beekeeping world opened up to me, and I realized I
had a great deal more learning to do! Long story short, months of research I
decided this is what I was doing, and that was how I was going to do it. Boy
was I wrong.
I was going to be treatment free, all medium,
foundationless, narrow frame, and small cell. Oh, and I was going to make all
my equipment myself!
Having decided to go down this path, and adopting support
and enthusiasm from my father, it was time to start getting this in motion for
the upcoming spring. First, I had to prove it was going to be profitable, so I
spent a month or so crunching some numbers, calculating costs, generally seeing
it was going to be a viable business. Initially I was going to start very small
in my backyard to test the waters. Although I would fail the minimum
requirements in the provincial laws, I learned that they were kind of lacks and
I could “get away with it”. Unfortunately, the municipal bylaw was not. Two
hives in the backyard was going to be out of the question. So the search for
land started. My father working for the county, and being generally more
bureaucratically savy then myself decided to approach the local conservation
authority. Turns out the conservation authority was very enthusiastic about
this idea as they had just retired an old field and repopulated it with wild
flowers. However in order to sign a lease with them I needed liability insurance.
Now, I didn’t know shit about insurance. But I learned that the Ontario
Beekeepers Association actually sold it as part of their membership. So signed
up for that! In order to have colonies in Ontario you have to register them. So
here I am… in April, waiting for my insurance paperwork to come in, to get a
hold of the guy to sign the land lease, to register bees. Nightmare of paper,
and I needed to get bees shortly. Well that got done; it wasn’t pretty, it was
frustrating, and was very glad to have my Dad sort it all out. By the time
everything was kosher and sorted out I had to pick bees up in two weeks.
Now to find some bees! I did a great deal of research on the
different varieties, genetics, etc. I even by chance ran into a cute beekeeper
girl who I expressed an interest with in getting into beekeeping who suggested
catching swarms, letting weak colonies die, and other ideas I had never heard.
This was pre learning about treatment and whatnot. Frankly, I think I made an
ass of myself… having never actually talked to another beekeeper I was
pronouncing nuc like a popular swearword instead of “nuke”, and I can’t even
remember how I pronounced Carniolan! Learning curve. Did I mention she was
cute? Damn.
In Ontario we are kind of blessed with some very great
breeders, and a proactive academic community. I knew I wanted something locally
acclimated, and something disease resistant. I decided honey was not quite as
important as genetics. I ruled out Italian, they just didn’t really seem my
style. There is a Russian breeding program in Ontario, I heard they were aggressive,
but they would survive the winter. So I looked into Russians only to find out
the only breeder I could find was way up north and their website was defunct. Ontario
has probably one of the best Buckfast breeding programs in the world, and
frankly after reading about the bees, and the history, I was sold. Now I did
some more research and learned that the former University of Guelph head of
apiculture (the guy who helped bring the Russian and Buckfast stock to Ontario)
had his own business with his son selling bees. So I looked into Szabo bees,
and found they were breeding a locally acclimated, mite resistant “Ontario bee”.
Frankly, I can’t even tell you what kind of bees they are, but if a guy spent a
lifetime developing a bee less than an hour away from my house I was totally
sold. So I noticed on his website something I’ve never seen before, they would
sell a whole hive body instead of a four frame nuc (yes four frame up here). So
I called him up and placed an order for six colonies. Now I was committed.
PS: I know you Americans are reading this, and before you
lynch me I am already setting plans in motion to set up a Buckfast yard using
Ferguson stock next spring. Yeah… I saw your eyes rolling a minute ago ;)
Well push came to shove, realized probably didn’t have the
room to make my own equipment, and was a little nervous because I didn’t even
have a template to work from. Lent my table saw out, came back broken, and now
that was out of the question -Which was a blessing in disguise. I now had to
look up where I could locally buy equipment, and realized I drove by a place on
my way to work every day. This introduced me to John, the local beekeeper,
supplier, teacher. I will say this once: go meet local beekeepers, you WILL
learn a great deal. Now that blessing in disguise came in the form that
although most literature, online suppliers, and plans indicate ¾” pine, that is
not the case in Canada! I would not have known that in Ontario they use 7/8”
pine to help with overwintering if I had not met that local beekeeper. So if I
had made boxes myself, or ordered online, I would have learned the hard way and
wasted time, cash, and equipment. I bought a bunch of medium boxes with some
frames, and no foundation –don’t want any of that nasty contaminated wax. Oh,
and this was days before I had to pick up my bees, so naturally this equipment
HAD to be built. Many tired eyed days at work. Note, there are some great plans
for building jigs for putting stuff together, I really suggest you take the
time to build them. Crown stapler is a great idea as well. At least that worked
out right! Well kind of, didn’t have “time” to build a jig to assemble frames,
God those were long nights.
So fast forward, time to get some bees! Borrowed an
Avalanche off a friend figuring my open top pickup probably wasn’t a great
idea, and really had no idea what to expect. I show up at Tibor Szabos places,
and we drive out to one of his yards. I brought all my equipment with me: suit,
gloves, veil, smoker, brush. He gets out, lights a smoke, get his smoker going
and makes small talk. Talk about one cool guy. After some questioning finds out
I am new and asks if I did the course. I said it filled up too fast (and they
do fill up really quickly so keep that in mind). OK. So smoker going, cigarette
hanging out, no protection, starts getting to work and giving me a bit of a
schooling. So naturally I figured if he could do it, so could I. So never seen
a colony, no protection, I start helping loading stuff up, and find out to
learn you DO NOT want them covered. These things need air! Take the detachable
tonneau cover off, load up the hives, shoot the shit for a while, pay the man,
and we are off!
I got the bees to my yard, and realized… I’ve never lit my
smoker before! Well I got kind of lucky with that, there was some cardboard in
the truck, some pine needles; it stayed lit as long as I needed it to. But it occurred
to me… maybe I should practice lighting a smoker, and maybe become even
proficient at it. So every day before work I lit the smoker, played with
different fuels, and finally got something that worked. Sounds like a stupid
mistake eh?
Anyway, dropped the bees on the stands, made sure everything
was level, let em out, and went home. One or two days later I REALLY couldn’t help
getting inside of them, which was about that time I also learned… I didn’t really
know how to manoeuvre that damn hive tool! It’s a glorified paint scraper, how
hard can it be? Well let me tell you, people on Youtube videos, and old hands
at it make it look a lot less awkward then you WILL be.
A week later it was about time to super a few, and a thought
occurred to me. I have a box full of deep frames, and only medium boxes with no
foundation to super with. I read it should be ok, the little 90 degree wedge
turned and stapled in should be enough of a guide. Well, I wasn’t feeling that
comfortable with this idea, and decided to ask on the forums.
It was too late to
put some cut up plastic foundation in as a guide, they were already made.
Someone mentioned putting a medium foundationless into the deep, let them draw
that out, and put that in the super as a bit of a guide. Well a few hives had
not fully drawn out frames 1 and 10, so I wouldn’t be sacrificing too many of
their resources by taking one out. So I tried it, and it worked! The weaker
hives I did that on have ended up drawing out more comb then the ones without, and
have been more productive! A technique I highly recommend.
Through sheer unpreparedness, when I supered the last hive,
I was a frame short, I only had nine. This was also the time it occurred to me,
all my deeps were nine frame brood boxes, if I made a nine frame super would
they draw it out better? Sure enough they did, but not by much. Out of the six
hive, two drew it out great, two needed moderate fixing, and two were screwed.
A lesson about fixing up that crazy comb: I watched
Kirkobeeo of the Backyard Beekeepers do a million cut outs on Youtube. I couldn’t
find much in the way of rubber bands, but I did have lots of string. Out to the
bee yard I go. I elected to actually wear protection this time; until now I haven’t
used any, and haven’t had to. But I figured messing with their comb might get
them riled. Suit on, gloves, on I open the first one up, get my string, cut the
comb. Then I realized, it is basically impossible to tie a knot with the gloves
on. Imagine this, you are trying to hold a frame, hold the comb that’s supposed
to go in that frame, there are bees everywhere, you trying to be gentle, and
you can’t perform a basic knot. You feel like a kid who cannot tie their shoes,
an adult who needs an extra set of hands, and like a monkey screwing a
football, because yes, it is that awkward. What did I learn? Go buy some damn
rubber bands you lazy bastard.
So treatment free is working out, because nothings gone
wrong in that sense yet. Foundationless has been a bit of a fun learning curve,
and still is until I have some great guide combs.
How are all mediums going? So far alright, but how am I
going to phase out that deep brood box? In Ontario everything comes as a four
frame deep nuc (or box in my case), there are not any packages available, and
never bothered to ask if he would do mediums. Well that is an interesting quandary
if I do say so myself. Having been a beekeeper for all of one month, with the
better part of a year of planning, yet another thing I failed to think about.
Back to the good old Beesource forum!
Bees like to keep things organized. They will keep their brood
in the middle, at the bottom; it is just their nature. They keep frames of
honey and drone closer to the outside, and above when we trick them by adding
supers –basic bee behaviour. So it was suggested to me that if I add the
mediums to the bottom, underneath the deep brood box it should coax them to
move the brood down. Consequently, they will fill the top deep with honey which
can be harvested. Then cut down the deep box and frames into a medium over the
winter. You needed something to do anyway. Presto! All mediums accomplished, and moving
both large cell foundation, and contaminated wax out of the hive! This is too
good.
But how is this small cell thing going? So I measured some
of the new foundationless comb, not so small, not much of a difference at all.
It will come right? It just takes more work, and more time. Since you are
currently still reading this, it is safe to say you have bee fever. Its night,
maybe raining, maybe it is just over casted; In other words, not good weather
to go play with the bees. You are at home, on the computer reading more about bees.
If you weren’t doing that you are reading a book, watching a movie, or in the
workshop, but all having to do with bees. Well that’s how I feel, and that’s what
I was doing when I learned something new. Many proponents of treatment free beekeeping
will indicate that small cell is imperative to the survival of your bees. In
order for this to work you need to get them down to 4.9mm! Well foundationless
has been slow so far; maybe I should just order up some PF-120s from Mann Lake
and get them regressing faster. No problem, I just got paid, and have some
money to spend on the bees. Boy I was about to learn something!
Well here is a lesson to those not living in the lower forty
eight. Total up the amount for a few cases of frames, about fifty bucks give or
take, not too shabby right? So go and send off an email for that shipping
quote. Grin. I sent off a quick email for a shipping quote and word for word:
Hi Andrew,
Postage for 1 box of
each is about $165.00.
Jesus Christ! That quadruples the price! What the hell! I
have ordered tons of things out of the states and shipping is never that bad!
Well that was clearly not a feasible option. The nice fellow at Mann Lake was kind enough
to give me a list of some local suppliers that “might” carry it so I start
calling. One of them is close by, out of business. One is way too far up north.
Finally get a positive response from the last possible option. Yes they have
them, an hour and a bit away, I have a day off coming up, great. Well something
you learn about Canada is that we don’t use the terms medium and deep. They use
Dadant terms, you have hive bodies, and supers. So when I say I am going with
mediums for a brood box I can get weird looks. Keep this in mind.
So I am as happy as a pig in shit. They have PF-120s. I am
saved! Gas up the truck, get coffee, and I am spending my day driving, it’s
worth it right? So I pull up to the place, and mention to the very nice lady at
the counter I had emailed about these small cell frames. At which points she
gives me the most confused look ever. She then pulls out a PF-100 (deep) frame,
and asks if it’s those ones. I pull out a ruler, double check to make sure, get
all excited when it measures out to 4.9, “Yes! That is exactly what I want,
just in mediums,” “oh.. Well, we only have them in this size. “She says. Well
kind of dejected I buy em. They are my only option for small cell in Canada,
without paying an arm and a leg. On the plus side they were also a meadery, and
the nice lady offered us many samples. We also left with many bottles.
So now I have drive to my local supplier, ask to by some
deeps, and explain to him why I don’t need frames in them. I felt like shit,
but being an awesome sport we got into a great talk about regression and cell
size. On a side note, a few weeks later I was in there and he introduced me to
another guy as a natural beekeeper. I never told him, I suppose he figured it
out on his own. Hilarious.
So now we are up small cell, down all mediums, added more
plastic, and now I needed some wax so brush onto the plastic frames. Well guess
what guys? Treatment free wax really doesn’t exist…and you just started out so
you don’t have any… back on the chemical treadmill. This treatment free thing
is fun right? Also its worth noting your 5.4 bees will muck up 4.9 a bit
drawing it out. Be prepared.
So what have we learned about my experience so far? The best laid plans of mice and men, often go
awry. Your own personal goals are important to set out in the beginning, but
they are something to strive for. If you have the means to make it work from
the beginning, by all means best of luck. I do not regret my mistakes,
miscalculations, and experiences. Conversely, I feel in this very short time of
having bees by virtue of confrontation, and complication it has imbued me with
a better understanding of them, and a larger conviction to achieve my goals.
I hope this helps.
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