How to Become a Beekeeper
Are you seeking to become a beekeeper, but do not know how to start? You think that you have plenty of information on bees and how they behave and make honey, but have no experience in setting up a farm. Since bee-keeping has become a profitable business in the United States and some countries of Europe, becoming a professional in this field will require some experience as you surely don’t want bees to swarm all over you, hurting you in the process.
Instructions
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1
Educate yourself
Educating yourself with the basics of bee farming and how bees make honey is the key to success. You may even attend a beekeeping course. There are several institutes and bee farmers’ associations in the United States, which can give you enough help to get started. There are plenty of tools and equipment used in beekeeping, so familiarizing yourself with how to use them is very important. -
2
Get professional help if you want to make a living out of beekeeping
If you want to do beekeeping for a living, the most important thing is that you get help from someone who has been working in the industry. Just learning some basic skills and the know-how of the tools may make you a good beekeeper, but doing it for a living will require several things like strong marketing plan, realistic revenue projection, cash to invest, weather and above all—plenty of patience.
Making profit from a beekeeping business might sound like a nice idea, but due to its limited market, it is often a bit challenging to penetrate and increase your customer base. -
3
Get tools and equipment
It does not matter if you want to learn beekeeping as a hobby or a business, tools and equipment used in it will be the same regardless. Remember, beekeeping (hobby or business) should never be done without proper tools and gears. -
4
Protective Clothing
Get beekeeping clothing as it protects you while extracting honey from the comb. There are several online stores that sell beekeeping gear. -
5
Hives
Get wooden hives as keep bees in a better condition while they conserve honey in the comb. These days, ten-frame and eight-frame hives are popular and they can also be purchased online. -
6
Time to buy bees to start the job
Bees are bees and they surely will not find their way to your hives and start conserving honey for you. All you have to do to start beekeeping is buy bees. Bees are typically sold at the start of spring season. You can also search for farms that are interested in selling hives with bees in them.
