Have not started yet, want to but have questions

[JM82]

Hi everyone, I've been researching and reading a bit about bees. My wife and I would like to get a Langstroth bee hive, either 3 mediums or one deep and 2 mediums. We want it for the honey and to watch the bees.

• I've watched videos about bee's living in people's home's rafters, walls, etc and don't want that in my home. I probably scared myself by watching them but is this a big concern?
  How do I prevent swarming? We would like to just have one or 2 sets and not have to keep splitting, etc.

We live in Central Maine, US

Thank you in advance,

[Dallasbeek]

Welcome to Beemaster.  You'll find a lot of good information on this forum and associated sites.  I recommend reading everything on Michael Bush's website to start.  The answers to your questions are complicated.  Read everything you can and if you still have questions, ask members of the forum for advice.  Look for a beekeeping club in your area and try to locate a mentor nearby.

[BeeMaster2]

Welcome to Beemaster.
How old is your house? The problem is not swarming but having openings and voids in your house that are large enough to provide a home for the bees. If there are only a few openings, seal them up. Foam in a can works real well. Newer homes normally are pretty well sealed.
One warning, Beekeeping is very addictive, they are so interesting and the is so much that you can learn from them.
Jim

[Dallasbeek]

I was writing my response while Jim was posting.  What he said X2.  Good luck.

[JM82]

Welcome to Beemaster.
How old is your house? The problem is not swarming but having openings and voids in your house that are large enough to provide a home for the bees. If there are only a few openings, seal them up. Foam in a can works real well. Newer homes normally are pretty well sealed.
One warning, Beekeeping is very addictive, they are so interesting and the is so much that you can learn from them.
Jim

Hi, it's about 9 years old. I've seen wasps go into the corners of the eves where there's a slight opening as well as lady buds, etc. I plan on sealing those up either way. Is there a large concern for this happening? Is it frequent? (bees moving into a home).

[paus]

If you have not experienced a swarm in your home in several years then  adding one or two more colonies in the area does not raise the probably very much.  To help with your concerns, get some scrub pads the coarse kind, cut a piece to plug the hole. Then stick the nozzle of a foam can in the hole and give it a squirt, let it cure, then trim to fit and give a couple of coats of matching paint  you won't notice it and neither will the bees.  This also works for carpenter bees.

[Hops Brewster]

While it is possible to keep just 1 hive, it is more difficult to keep just 1 alive.  When you have 2 or 3 hives with which you can share resources, it becomes much easier.  Healthy colonies will grow and want to reproduce, and swarming is the natural reproductive process of the colony super organism.  Making splits is one method of preventing swarms, and it is also one way of raising capital for the bees to become self-supporting.  Beekeeping is an expensive hobby.

Keep extra hive equipment on hand.  You never know when you will need it for some reason or another, including but not limited to, catching swarms and making splits.

The greatest challenge you will face is the Varroa destructor mite.  In itself it is a dangerous parasite.  It feeds on the bees, weakening them and making more difficult f9or them to survive winter.  Add the fact that the mites are a vector pest for several diseases, bacterial and viral, and you have a killing machine.  ALL colonies have mites, whether you "see no sign of mites" or not.   You need to plan how you are going to help your bees thrive under that threat.

Beekeeping without getting stung is like working on cars without getting dirty.  It's possible, but a PITA.  Go ahead, get stung, and stung often.   You will develop a resistance to the venom.  IMO, there is no point in being terrified of the critters you have chosen to live with. 

It's a steep learning curve.  Study as many sources as you can, and don't be afraid to ask for help.  The internet has a lot of good material.  So do good, old fashioned books.  Hit up the library.

good Luck!

[Dallasbeek]

Since you are concerned about swarms, I'll hazard a recommendation for a book.  If you like to read, Honeybee Democracy, by Dr. Thomas Seeley, (available from your library, hopefully), is a fascinating book detailing his research about swarming, much of it on an island off the coast of Maine, as I recall.  I found it to be a book that was hard to put down.

[BeeMaster2]

JM,
Wasps make small nests, especially mud dobbers. Even paper wasps make much smaller nests than any Honey Bee will. Being only 9 years old, there is insulation filling every void in your house walls. Just check your sofits and any pillars if you have them.
Jim

[Acebird]

How do I prevent swarming? We would like to just have one or 2 sets and not have to keep splitting, etc.[/li]
[li][/li]
[/list]

It will be hard to do with just 3 medium boxes.  Besides the fact that swarming is a natural urge splitting helps curb that urge.  Maybe I will get a difference of opinion here but I think it is very difficult to maintain a fixed number of hives when the number is small.  I tried to keep three which means you need equipment for four.  If you try to keep one then some seasons you will be buying bees to keep to one.  Any winter losses means you end up ordering bees in the spring that you might not get until June or July.  That means a season without honey and not good possibilities that the hive will overwinter in Maine.  Go ahead and try one.  If it makes it the first season you can split to two and try to stay at two but it ain't easy.

[cao]

Welcome. 

Maybe I will get a difference of opinion here but I think it is very difficult to maintain a fixed number of hives when the number is small.

I agree.  I usually tell people to start with 2 and plan on having 2-4 hives at any one time.  When times are good you will have 4 or more, when times are bad you may loose them all.

If you are set on only one, I would say you need to join a local bee club.  They could be a good source to get rid of any extra bees or for that matter a source to get bees if needed.

• I've watched videos about bee's living in people's home's rafters, walls, etc and don't want that in my home. I probably scared myself by watching them but is this a big concern?
  

I've had bees for seven years and have 50+ hives at my house and another 20+ about a mile away and the only bees in my house are in my observation hive.  BTW my house is over 100 yrs old and is not as air tight as the newer ones.

[The15thMember]

Newbee here, I just got my bees in April, so this is my first year beekeeping.  I have 2 hives.  One of the things that has been really helpful about having 2 hives as a newbee is that I could tell when one hive had something wrong, since I had the comparison of the hive that was going right.  I'd like to mention a scenario that happened to me as an example of why keeping only 1 hive would be harder.  In June my one hive was expanding like crazy, in just a few weeks it went from occupying 2 boxes to 4.  Meanwhile my other hive was not expanding at all, and was acting off, with the bees acting a little testy.  I would not have even known that this was abnormal if I hadn't had another hive that was doing well.  Sure enough, the struggling hive was queenless.  Then I was able to give some frames of brood from the big hive to the small hive and the small hive was able to make a replacement queen, something I was able to do because I had another hive.   

I've had bees for seven years and have 50+ hives at my house and another 20+ about a mile away and the only bees in my house are in my observation hive.  BTW my house is over 100 yrs old and is not as air tight as the newer ones.

This is totally irrelevant, but cao, you live in a 100+ year old house?!  That is awesome.