17 expensive blunders in beekeeping and how to prevent them
It takes a lot of time for new beekeepers to learn the ropes. When you are uncertain or confused, take a deep breath and think about what to do next. The worst blunders can be avoided if you think about how your actions will influence your bees.
A lot of beekeeper blunders are little offences that escalate into major issues down the road. The whole beekeeping process will become much easier if you fix the little things right from the beginning. Presenting 17 issues that are simple to avoid:
Common errors include:
Establishing a single colony
Keeping bees is already a challenging hobby; adding more than one colony will be an enormous challenge. I can honestly say that this is among the most challenging tasks. While it's certainly doable, the prospect is far from pleasant.
Taking resources from another colony is a common way to solve difficulties on our own. To get through a crisis, like the death of a queen, one colony may borrow workers, eggs, or open brood from another. Your options are limited because you cannot access a second colony.
2. Overly worried about complete sunlight
Commercial beekeepers are the ones who first spread the belief that honey bee hives need direct sunlight. Keeping bees busy for as many hours a day as possible is crucial for beekeepers' bottom lines, whether they're growing bees for honey production or pollination. For the bees to work tirelessly, their hives must be located in full sun.
Having said that, bees might have a different opinion. When given the freedom to live wherever they like, bees will often choose a shaded spot near, but not directly in, a sunny region. This is touched upon in Thomas Seeley's most recent work, "The Lives of Bees." Looking at swarms as they choose a permanent home, nevertheless, will provide you with a glimpse of this phenomenon.
Aside from my top bar hive, all of my beehives are in partial shade. For eleven years, it housed a single colony and was in deep shade for twenty-three hours daily.
Just keep in mind that bees may have different objectives than their keepers. Perhaps the best spot for both would be in the early morning sun with some shade in the late afternoon. Instead of stressing out over it, you should focus on finding an alternative arrangement that would likely work perfectly.
3. Not providing enough food for newly established colonies
There is no food supply to get a new colony going, particularly one that originated from a package. Bees require energy to carry out their daily activities, including gathering nectar and pollen, creating comb, caring for their young, protecting the hive, and maintaining a warm nest.
Brood rearing will be sluggish, and the colony will wilt if an excessive number of workers are occupied with gathering food. In addition, they cannot start raising brood at all if the weather is excessively chilly, rainy, or windy. All you have to do is combine sugar with water and keep feeding the colony till it becomes strong.
4. Simplifying tasks to an excessive degree
Beekeeping is generally a breeze. Don't make a hash of things like treating varroa, burning a hive, or creating sugar syrup.
Advice that comes with a long list of dos and don'ts should raise red flags. Even if everything doesn't go according to plan the first time, the majority of the time, it will still work. In general, bees are resilient organisms that can endure occasional mistreatment. Get over your beekeeping blunders by learning from them. I have faith in you.
5. Putting off tackling a challenging task till later
Keeping bees is a year-round hobby with few absolute necessities. Do those things punctually, though. The point of performing them at all is moot if you fail to complete them by the due date.
Your colony is in danger if you do not treat the mites in a timely manner. Failure to provide timely feeding can lead to starvation in your colony. Your bees will perish at the hands of thieves and predators if you do not intervene quickly enough. It is possible to overlook a brood problem if you do not inspect it promptly. I could go on and on. Do what's necessary for you to do immediately.
6. Ignoring the symptoms of being without a queen
Find out what happens when a queen gets lost. The next thing to do is to observe if your bees become queenless. Believe in yourself and take a peek; a quick inspection could save your colony.
Nothing would have happened if you were incorrect, and she's perfectly well. A typical and expensive beekeeper error is not caring about the queen's health.
7. Excessive use of smoking
To calm bees down before opening a hive, smoke works wonders. Restrain yourself. Smoking calls for a delicate mist of smoke from a cool-burning fire, as can be seen by the dense plumes of smoke. Bees' wings can be burned by smoke if it's too hot, and an excess of smoke can be annoying.
Keep in mind to softly smoke the hive, then close it and wait a few minutes. Instead of continuously introducing smoke, wait for the bees to react.
8. Assuming a thriving colony is housed in a bustling hive
Staying active is more important than staying occupied. It might not be good news if an inactive colony suddenly starts to produce a lot of eggs. So, be careful. Bees or wasps robbing could be the source of the unexpected activity.
If there's a dramatic shift in activity, you need to check on the colony. Put up a robber screen or do something else to stop robbing if you notice it.
9. Assuming the weather is not warm enough to allow hive to open
This is the most outrageous example of bad beekeeping I've ever seen. Even though the colony is about to starve to death, you put off opening the hive to feed the bees because you're afraid it will be too cold. To avoid losing some bees when adding feed, you opt not to enter the hive, resulting in the loss of all bees. Excuse me? What gives rise to this logical argument?
You need to plan ahead and determine your exact procedure if you want to open a hive in the winter. Identify what tools you'll need and write them down. Go over the procedures again, and then when you're ready, just do it.
10. Thinking you're smarter than you actually are
Reading twelve books and viewing one hundred and twenty-six videos on YouTube won't make you an expert beekeeper. Doing it yourself is what you should do. You can't learn to be a good beekeeper without first getting your hands dirty and learning to identify the smells, sounds, and movements of the bees. For a long time. Research on the Dunning-Kruger effect should be prioritised.
11. Honey harvesting excessively
Keep in mind that your share can be zero and that you shouldn't take more than what is yours. This is inevitable. Quite a bit.
In the event that you are unable to resist sampling your initial harvest of honey but your crop is not yet large enough to harvest, I suggest consuming a little spoonful. In any case, you get a taste of it. Plus, nothing beats warm honey that has been directly harvested from the beehive. (But don't do it more than once a day.)
12. Pretending that mites won't be an issue in the first year
I constantly encounter this. "My first year, I didn't have any problems with mites." Is that so? Imagination is abounding. You should expect mites in your new package, nuc, or swarm because they are a constant nuisance. More bees are killed by mites than by any other mistake beekeepers make.
13. Establishing a beehive without a strategy
My general principle is as follows: always have a strategy before opening a hive. You should have a clear goal in mind before opening the hive, such as what you want to discover. Leave once you have gathered all the necessary information.
Even now, before I open a hive, I make sure I have a clear goal in mind. I'm going to treat the mites, I'm going to check the honey supply, and I want to know if the new queen was released. Having a well-thought-out strategy in place allows you to swiftly and easily gather the necessary tools and equipment.
14. Performing any activity without a justification
Do not rotate brood boxes, for instance, unless you are certain that doing so will benefit your birds. One cannot determine the need for an action without first understanding its rationale.
This is common when it comes to mentors. They give you a tonne of busywork to perform without ever explaining why they're doing it. Make sure you fully grasp the rationale behind these actions by asking plenty of clarifying questions.
15. Missing the signs of a nectar shortage
When there isn't enough nectar, bees could act strangely. Knowing whether a dearth is occurring can aid in understanding what you are seeing. You should also consider feeding your bees, but if you are unaware of a shortage, you might as well let them go hungry.
At what times does honey become scarce? Always, but notably between the months of January and July. There is no dearth just because there are flowers. Knowing which flowers are in bloom is crucial because certain blossoms are useless to bees.
16. Making a hasty decision leads to more significant errors.
In my mind, there's always our next-door neighbour who, after just three months of successful beekeeping, ordered 500 hives for the next year. I attempted to imply that he should take it easy, but he was far more knowledgeable. After eight months, he had had enough bees and had vanished.
Do not risk your entire financial future on it until you have saved enough to last a full calendar year.
17. Making use of definitions that are not literal
My biggest gripe is that many don't bother to learn the meaning of the terminology used in beekeeping unless they really want to learn the craft. Leave it to us. Tragic mistakes abound when beekeepers are unable to exchange information with one another. Examples of miscommunication can be found in this post.
After you've read this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think are the most common and expensive rookie blunders.
