What is Beekeeping and how to plan for it?

Beekeeping, also known as apiculture, is the practice of keeping and maintaining colonies of bees. The person keeping and maintaining bees is called a beekeeper. Honey bees are kept in beehives, also called as an apiary. It is a highly valuable business in today’s market because everything from honey to beewax and even the bees is sold at high prices. Bee wax is used in a variety of purposes, from making cosmetics to candles, massage wax, etc. all have a great value.

Beekeepers harvest honey in artificially created hives. The hives are made up of wood and they come in various shapes and sizes. These hives could either be fixed or moveable. Collecting honey from wild beehives was practiced by ancient humans. Now modern techniques and equipment have made the process of beekeeping much easier than before. 

Inside a hive

A beehive is made up of three types of bee drones, workers and queen. Workers, as well as the queen, are female bees, on the other hand, drones are males. There is just one queen in a bee colony whose only task is to lay eggs. Workers are the one who maintains the beehive from cleaning to collecting pollen and other essential materials and bringing them to the hive. Drones are male bees and there is only a small number of drones in a bee colony. Their only task is to mate with the queen so that she can lay fertilized eggs.

Beekeeping Plan

If you are thinking of keeping bees, there are few things you should keep in mind before proceeding. First of all, in order to keep bees, you need legal permission from a nearby municipal corporation or other similar authorities. Before their written permission keeping bees is an illegal task.

Equipment you need for keeping bees

Beehives

First of all, you need hives for your bees. Artificial hives come in many different sizes. Few of the popular hives are.

·       Langstroth hives

·       Commercial hives

·       Traditional hives

·       WBC hives

·       CDB hives

A place for farming

Now you need a decent place for keeping your bees. It could either bee a garden or rooftop or any other spacious place. The place should be away from your house as huge colonies of bees might cause disturbance to you and your neighbors.

Honey Extraction room

For extracting honey from the hives, you need to set up a honey extraction room and an extraction machine. However, you can also visit honey extraction centers at the beginning, where you can learn how it is done. After becoming an experienced beekeeper, you can set up a machine for yourself.

Capital Investment

You need many other essential pieces of equipment for beekeeping. First of all, you need to purchase your bees from a reputed beekeeper. This could cost you anywhere from $15 to $30 depending on the beekeeper and your location.

You will also need food for your bees, a bee cage and of course a protective set of clothes including helmet, gloves and shoes. You need to invest in these things so be prepared.

Finally keeping honey bees and producing honey is a slow process which will require a lot of patience and hard work but it is also equally profitable in the long run.