How To Start Beekeeping

How to get started in beekeeping can be tricky. Beekeeping means you need a mentor, someone that you can talk to and find out if you are doing the right thing.  Many mentors are stuck in the old paradigm of beekeeping, unconcerned about mite control, viruses or insecticides. You know better! 

Sign Up For Our ONLINE Beekeeping Course

How to get started in beekeeping can be confusing. I'm EAS certified master beekeeper David Burns.  It is so exciting to see so many new people joining our beekeeping lessons and keeping bees for the first time. Let's face it, you are confused. The beekeeper down the road is telling you one thing, folks at the club are saying something different, even books have conflicting ideas. STOP! Please allow me to help you get the foundation you need that is based on science, not folklore or wives tales. Take my ONLINE BASIC BEEKEEPING COURSE now, from the comfort of your home. I'll teach you proven ways of beekeeping through my videos. 70-80% of first time beekeepers may be losing their hives due to poor management. Don't lose your investment. SIGN UP NOW! Choose from the courses below. I recommend you take them in order listed:

Courses:

Basic Beekeeping: Learn The Fundamentals of Beekeeping

Spring Management: Swarm Control, Making Splits

Queen Rearing: How To Raise Quality Queens

Advanced Beekeeping: A Deeper Approach To Beekeeping

Getting Your Bees Through The Winter

Good for you for being interested in beekeeping! I want to encourage all of our first time beekeepers to enjoy your first year. You'll probably make mistakes like we all do. You'll have great success and probably some failures in beekeeping. But keep your chin up and enjoy keeping bees.

There's a lot of info on this  page. If you want the quick scoop, here are 3 easy steps:

1) Buy your bees and equipment. We know you can run out to a big box store and buy your beekeeping supplies.

We still have packages of bees available with our hive kits. Check them out by clicking here.

We are a small, American hard working family that would appreciate your business. Thank you for your support. We support our customers with expert advice, not myths and opinions. 

2) Take a beekeeping class if you can. You can read books and watch beekeeping videos but taking a class takes you to the next level of understanding. We now have online courses. Check out our online Beekeeping Courses. Take a beekeeping class from the comfort of your home. 

I assume there are lots of you who are sitting on the fence, wishing you were a beekeeper, but making every excuse under the sun why you can't do it. Come on! Get off the fence and put some adventure in your life. Jump into beekeeping. Convince a buddy or girlfriend to start too! It's double the fun if you can keep bees with a friend. Better yet, why not involve the whole family. As you can see, we have a wealth of beekeeping information here at your disposal. And you can always call us for advice and opinions. David Burns is an EAS certified master beekeeper and is ready to teach you about beekeeping. And we sell anything you might need to keep bees--EVEN THE BEES & Queens. Let's go!

We help all kinds of people get started in beekeeping from young people, to retired people, farmers, professors and even a plastic surgeon. Back in the day, it was difficult to learn beekeeping, especially if you did not have a mentor. Without the Internet and the tremendous research we now have, beekeeping was hit and miss back in the day.

Some of our new customers kept bees 30-40 years ago but gave it up back then and now want to get started again, but are threatened by how much beekeeping has changed. They fear they are too far removed from what's going on today with honey bees. But, basic beekeeping really hasn't changed all that much. Sure, there are new pests, but we have found new ways to combat these pests.

Beekeepers are a resilient bunch, bouncing back and moving forward. And, I'm trusting our wonderful honey bee is even more resilient, and will thrive long into our future especially as more people like you begin to give them a safe and healthy place to prosper and grow.

If you are worried that you don't know how to install your bees when they arrive, then watch a few of our instructional videos by clicking here.

You might be wondering if people will think you have lost your mind. But actually it is the opposite. When people discover you are a beekeeper, they will live out this hobby vicariously through you. They will respect your work and ask you to speak at schools, and special interest groups.

Hey, some people sit around and do cross word puzzles to keep their mind active. Why not study about beekeeping. The newspaper will probably want to do a story on you. Pollinators will be contacting you to see if they can rent some of your hives to pollinate their crops that are suffering without honey bees.

You'll find yourself intrigued and energized by keeping bees. Believe it or not, you'll want to read everything you can on keeping bees. And if you really get hooked, bees will be on your mind all the time.

Now is the right time for you to make the plunge and get going! Don't let others talk you out of it. You've always wanted to, now do it. Maybe your children are bored and wasting time on less productive things. Perhaps they might benefit from becoming beekeepers at a young age.

Now I know that you deal with some stress from time to time in your life. Some of you probably have been told that you need to de-stress your life. Let me tell you that beekeeping has been so relaxing for me. Wow! It is so therapeutic for me to just pull up a stump or a lawn chair and watch the girls fly in and out, busy working to bring me lots of honey. Seriously, it is a blast to sit outdoors, listen to the birds and just enjoy watching the bees do their thing.

I am currently accepting additional beekeepers to mentor. You'll have access to my personal cell phone and private email. And you can send me videos or pictures of your hive when it just doesn't seem right or you don't know what's going on. You'll also receive 4 new instructional videos from me and a weekly tip of what you should be doing. Click here to see if spots are still available.

David & Sheri Burns