complete start up advice please

Hi, I am looking to start an apiary from scratch for a local group. We have funding, and the local association is on board.

I have put together this list.

Anything I've missed? Once we are up and running, we can buy more from our profits, but the funding is only available now, so I need to make sure I get everything I need for the first year, and the second year harvest (forward planning) It is a business venture, not a hobby.

I'm aiming for 5 hives, each with 3 supers (there's that planning again!) A local joiner has offered to make the basic nationals for us: floor, brood, super, crown, roof.

What else do I need...?

DN4 frames
DN4 frames
supers and frames package
queen excluder
national entrance block
extra supers
national sloping hive stand
foundation cut to starter strips
Frontier Hive tool
smoker
suits
feeders
knife
uncapping fork
extractor
settling tank
filter
book
jars
labels

Many thanks,

iawtkb

Beekeeping course?

bee's

welcome from south Leicester
bees and treatments

Don't expect great profits!

1/ You need to learn about beekeeping before thinking of starting a beekeeping business - just like any other business.
2/ Unless your joiner understands the importance of accurate beespace, he is likely to just be making problems for you.
3/ 5 hives isn't a business. (40 colonies is the entrance threshold for the Bee Farmers Association.) But 4 hives (2 in use and 2 spare) is a reasonable minimum hobbyist starting point target for the end of his/her first season.
4/ If you don't know why you need 100% spares when starting out, see point 1 above.

And of course a few persons who can become obsessive converts

Be prepared for your stress levels to rise as members of your group may not be as careful as you would like around your precious bees. That's putting it politely.

iawtkb said:

Hi,

I'm aiming for 5 hives, each with 3 supers (there's that planning again!) A local joiner has offered to make the basic nationals for us: floor, brood, super, crown, roof.

What else do I need...?

Many thanks,

iawtkb

Click to expand...

I would suggest something bigger than a standard National with DN4 (I prefer DN5 frames ) because modern strains of bees fill a Standard National with 50,000 bees too quickly and i find it better to run 70,000 bees per 14x12 box with 14x12 hoffmans frames

so i would suggest you use 14x12 National brood boxes not the standard national broodbox

so for five hives working hives you will need eight but preferable ten hives (OMF floor,roof,14x12 Brood, Crownboard) plus four 14x12 Nucs if your swarm control is pagden method or at least six hives and five to eight 14x12 six frame Nucs if your you swarm control is "splits" ( the extra brood in the later is for re combining) so that means SAY 120+ 14x12 hoffman frames

supers, i would suggest four per working hive but saying that i averaged 6 per hive this year ( between 80lb and 160lb honey per hive) and that means 5x 4x12 = ~250 SN5 frames

Starter strips,hmmmm were are these for? if brood frames you will have floppy comb very difficult to inspect in hot weather and if it is for super then you will end up with a beeswax mush honey soup in your extractor as the comb breaks up at high speed

Feeders, 5 rapid feeders (english, Miller or Bro Adam etc) and 10 contact feeders (includes for Nucs)

Five api ekes, 10 dummy boards and a few more spare crown boards

£10m product and public liability insurance

and £50 notes to burn in the smoker, or it will seem you are burning them even if you arn't

The Haynes Manual of Beekeeping .. and the time to read it several times ...

Find someone successfully doing exactly what you intend to do and take their advice.

Don't forget issues of security, prevention of theft and vandalism.

Then there will be siting to consider, possibly screening to throw the bees up high above people's heads. The neighbours. Firm grounding and stands for the hives. Storage. General access with heavy gear. Availability of water for bees and BeeKeepers.

Proper facilities for food processing. Honey buckets. Honey gates. Certified scales.

Treatments for varroa etc. thymol. Oxalic acid. Microscope etc.

Blowlamp for sterilising gear. Duct tape. Magnifying glass. Several long lighters. Antihistamines. Nitrile gloves. Oil to put on the varroa board. Kitchen roll. Frame holders.

Twice as many hive tools as you think you need. Small buckets etc for keeping hive tools & frame holders in water with washing soda when inspecting. Washing soda.

Kingspan for insulation. Possibly chicken wire to keep woodpeckers away. Mouse guards.

Record keeping systems (paper or online). Medication records.

Sugar!

You should do risk assessments. First aid kit.

I'm sure I'll think of other things.

Dusty

? Matchsticks?

" It is a business venture, not a hobby."

So ... you have had bees since early this year ....

http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=30979

How did you get on this season ? You started with at least two hives ? And were keeping them more for the bees than the honey ?

With your first season behind you and your hives in good shape going into winter you should be well placed to expand next Spring if it is anything like it was this year ...

Dusty Rhodes said:

Don't forget issues of security, prevention of theft and vandalism.

Then there will be siting to consider, possibly screening to throw the bees up high above people's heads. The neighbours. Firm grounding and stands for the hives. Storage. General access with heavy gear. Availability of water for bees and BeeKeepers.

Proper facilities for food processing. Honey buckets. Honey gates. Certified scales.

Treatments for varroa etc. thymol. Oxalic acid. Microscope etc.

Blowlamp for sterilising gear. Duct tape. Magnifying glass. Several long lighters. Antihistamines. Nitrile gloves. Oil to put on the varroa board. Kitchen roll. Frame holders.

Twice as many hive tools as you think you need. Small buckets etc for keeping hive tools & frame holders in water with washing soda when inspecting. Washing soda.

Kingspan for insulation. Possibly chicken wire to keep woodpeckers away. Mouse guards.

Record keeping systems (paper or online). Medication records.

Sugar!

You should do risk assessments. First aid kit.

I'm sure I'll think of other things.

Dusty

? Matchsticks?

Click to expand...

you should only use the Matchsticks to set fire to the £50 notes

iawtkb said:

Hi, I am looking to start an apiary from scratch for a local group. We have funding, and the local association is on board.

I have put together this list. .....

Click to expand...

If your local association is involved I'd be inclined to get them to draw up the list based on what they will actually need - assuming at least some from the local association will be helping run the apiary.

If it's a business, designed to be self-sustaining or self-funding, you'll probably find that honey sales from 5 hives won't generate enough income to cover labour costs. Will you be paying ground rent too?

MuswellMetro said:

... i would suggest you use 14x12 National brood boxes not the standard national broodbox ...

Click to expand...

Ditto what MM says about box size, and 14x12 is no harder to make than a national so your tame joiner should be able to make those easily enough.

If you're planning to use starter strips you will need to pre-wire brood frames, so need to add either frame wire or fishing line to the equipment list. (And a drill, if you don't have access to one.)

If you're seriously planning to buy an extractor to use long-term, don't buy the smallest and most affordable. With 5 working hives it will probably be better to have one that will take 4 frames minimum because it will make extracting less time consuming.

Ditto queen excluder, probably better to spend more and get wire ones than buying the plastic ones which can sag and compromise bee space.

You've got 'filter' on the list, presumably to strain honey once extracted. Some people use muslin or nylon bags, some use a double strainer (stainless or nylon).

You'll need an uncapping tray of some sort, you can use a bucket with a layer of net across the top which will filter the honey from the cappings.

You'll probably need some food grade plastic buckets to store honey.

Tempted to advise using acrylic crown boards, because they keep heat in and make it easier to take a quick look at what the bees are doing without disturbing them. As well as crown board you will need clearer boards plus bee escapes (suggest rhombus) and/or a bee brush, then feeder boards (like a crown board, but with a hole in). Feeder boards probably need to be stronger than a crown board, to take the weight of syrup.

You might need an eke or two per hive - to use for apiguard or other similar type of varroa treatment, and for fondant if you decide to use it as an autumn or winter feed.

You'll need more than one hive tool because they get lost very easily, only to be 'found' at the end of the season. Tape a strip of coloured insulation tape round them so they can be more easily spotted when they get dropped on the ground.

Smoker fuel and somewhere to keep a stock of, for example, dry wood shavings. At least a barbecue lighter to light the smoker plus spare can of gas.

Add in some gloves, including disposable nitriles, and a container for washing soda solution to clean hive tool etc before leaving the apiary.

Add in somewhere (file, book etc) to keep hive records and the treatment record.

Have you got somewhere that can be secured for kit storage?

pargyle said:

The Haynes Manual of Beekeeping .. and the time to read it several times ...

Click to expand...

and a few other beekeeping books and not to forget read my thread on not what to do in your first year beekeeping

Thank you for the sensible replies, I'm off to T's with a shopping list.

Five hives to start from scratch is three too many in my view.

Things go wrong, you do the wrong things (inevitable), lots of stress, people get stung..

Start with two...

PS: have any of your group ever been stung by bees? If not, why not? Are they likely to keel over and die when stung?
If you don't know the answer to that, then you are wasting time and money and tempting fate.

iawtkb said:

Thank you for the sensible replies, I'm off to T's with a shopping list.

Click to expand...

I suspect that you may not even know about The Sale …

The sensible replies are the ones telling you not to rush into this.

iawtkb said:

Thank you for the sensible replies, I'm off to T's with a shopping list.

Click to expand...

You've missed their autumn sale by 2/52. Maybe another one in January.