beekeeping for pleasure and profit is carried on by many thousands of people in all parts of the United States. As a rule, it is not the sole occupation. There are, however, many places where an experienced bee keeper can make a good living by devoting his entire time and attention to this line of work. It is usually unwise to undertake extensive beekeeping without considerable previous experience on a small scale, since there are so many minor details which go to make up success in the work. It is a good plan to begin on a small scale, make the bees pay for themselves and for all additional apparatus, as well as some profit, and gradually to increase as far as the local conditions or the desires of the individual permit.

Bee culture is the means of obtaining for human use a natural product which is abundant in almost all parts of the country, and which would be lost to us were it not for the honey bee. The annual production of honey and wax in the United States makes apiculture a profitable minor industry of the country. From its very nature it can never become one of the leading agricultural pursuits, but that there is abundant opportunity for its growth can not be doubted. Not only is the honey bee valuable as a producer, but it is also one of the most beneficial of insects in cross-pollinating the flowers of various economic plants.

beekeeping is also extremely fascinating to the majority of people as a pastime, furnishing outdoor exercise as well as intimacy with an insect whose activity has been a subject of absorbing study from the earliest times. It has the advantage of being a recreation which pays its own way and often produces no mean profit.

It is a mistake, however, to paint only the bright side of the picture and leave it to the new bee keeper to discover that there is often another side. Where any financial profit is derived, beekeeping requires hard work and work at just the proper time, otherwise the surplus of honey may be diminished or lost. Few lines of work require more study to insure success. In years when the available nectar is limited, surplus honey is secured only by judicious manipulations, and it is only through considerable experience and often by expensive reverses that the bee keeper is able to manipulate properly to save his crop. Anyone can produce honey in seasons of plenty, but these do not come every year in most locations, and it takes a good bee keeper to make the most of poor years. When, even with the best of manipulations, the crop is a failure through lack of nectar, the bees must be fed to keep them from starvation.

The average annual honey yield per colony for the entire country, under good management, will probably be 25 to 30 pounds of comb honey or 40 to 50 pounds of extracted honey. The money return to be obtained from the crop depends entirely on the market and the method of selling the honey. If sold direct to the consumer, extracted honey brings from 10 to 20 cents per pound, and comb honey from 15 to 25 cents per section. If sold to dealers, the price varies from 6 to 10 cents for extracted honey and from 10 to 15 cents for comb honey. All of these estimates depend largely on the quality and neatness of the product. From the gross return must be deducted from 50 cents to $1 per colony for expenses other than labor, including foundation, sections, occasional new frames and hives, and other incidentals. This estimate of expense does not include the cost of new hives and other apparatus needed in providing for increase in the size of the apiary.

Above all it should be emphasized that the only way to make beekeeping a profitable business is to produce only a first-class article. We can not control what the bees bring to the hive to any great extent, but by proper manipulations we can get them to produce fancy comb honey, or if extracted honey is produced it can be carefully cared for and neatly packed to appeal to the fancy trade. Too many bee keepers, in fact, the majority, pay too little attention to making their goods attractive. They should recognize the fact that of two jars of honey, one in an ordinary fruit jar or tin can with a poorly printed label, and the other in a neat glass jar of artistic design with a pleasing, attractive label, the latter will bring double or more the extra cost of the better package. It is perhaps unfortunate, but nevertheless a fact, that honey sells largely on appearance, and a progressive bee keeper will appeal as strongly as possible to the eye of his customer.

By: Bill Ronin -

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For further informative articles about bees, beekeeping, and honey – please visit our website: The Health Benefits Of Honey

Utah Beekeepers Association keeps beekeepers in the State of Utah well-informed regarding events and news in the beekeeping industry. It helps in promoting beekeeping and production of honey for all types of beekeepers viz, commercial, hobbyist and sideliners. The association’s membership dues are as follows: for hobbyist who own 0-49 colonies – $10.00 per year, for sideliner who owns 50-299 colonies – $20.00 per year, commercials who own 300 or more colonies – $30.00 per year.

Another beekeeper’s association in State of Utah is the Utah County Beekeepers Association (UCBA). It is a group of individuals that shares a common passion for beekeeping, bees, and honey. Members’ participation is encouraged so as to have diverse views and opinion that helps in success of beekeeping and honey production. UCBA provides a forum for local beekeepers to share ideas, explore methods, discuss the culture and support each another. It educates general public regarding importance of beekeeping in Utah County in particular and in US in general. It aims at benefiting local businessmen, educationists and last but not the least, the beekeepers.

UCBA guides new beekeeper regarding time to begin beekeeping, temperament required for beekeeping, capital investment, supplies, equipment, selection of apiary site along with medicines and pest control information. It provides all the information regarding laws and regulations governing beekeeping in the State of Utah. It helps beekeepers regarding selection of bees, preparing hives, honey extraction, processing honey and wax and then selling processed honey and wax. The association also helps in giving tips on preparing various items like candles, polish etc. to its members.

UCBA has vast resource of books that help enrich knowledge and information for the members as regards to beekeeping. Books by renowned beekeepers are treasures that members can access and enrich themselves. The association makes available two magazines, American Bee Journal and Bee Culture which focus on broad areas of beekeeping and are helpful to all those who are interested in beekeeping. Association organizes classes for beginners each spring which lasts for six hours and it covers all the required information.

Thus, beekeeping in State of Utah has progressed rapidly due to informed beekeeping by its beekeepers and assistance provided by UCBA and Utah Beekeeper’s Association.

8. The Beekeeper’s Handbook: A Teaching Text for Beginner’s to Advanced Beekeepers by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.  This book covers changes in beekeeping.  It details the crisis created by the parasitic bee mites, mite detection and control.  It guides regarding selection and testing of bees that are tolerance to mites.

9. Queen Rearing and Bee Breeding by Harry Hyde Laidlaw and Robert E. Page: This book gives tips on Queen Bee rearing and bee breading.

10. Practical beekeeping by Clive De Bruyn: This book provides complete guidance on bee and its management.  It covers bee and its environment, management of apiary, hives and other equipment and control of pests and diseases. It has good illustrations with photographs.  This book won Apimondia medal in 1999.

11. Bee Products: Properties, Applications and Apitherapy by Avshalom Mizrahi and Yaacov Lensky: This hardcover book is a collection of 31 papers on honey and pollen, propolis, royal jelly, venom, contaminants and toxicity, quality control, healing with honey, marketing, cosmetics and other topics relating to beekeeping and using bees.  These papers also include use of honey as an antimicrobial agent.

4. beekeeping by Kim Flottum: This is the latest book which has good photographs and illustrations.  It has various recipes for candles, skin care products and food. This book is helpful for beginners as well as experienced beekeepers.

5. Keeping Bees by John Vivian and Liz Buell: This paper bag edition guides a beginner through the fundamental aspects of apiculture ranging from building hive, bee management, honey harvesting and candle making. It also provides apiary expenses and accurate information on various bee diseases along with “Africanization” problem.

6. beekeeping: A Practical Guide by Richard E. Bonney and Sandra Webb Bonney. This paperback provides useful information for new beekeepers as well as experienced one regarding every aspects of beekeeping like, acquiring bees, preventing tracheal mites, dealing with Africanized bees, etc.

7. The Honey Bee by James L. Gould. This book gives description of history of beekeeping along with biology of honeybees.  It is devoted to description of behavior of the individual bee and colony as a whole, communication within the colony, the scientific controversy surrounding nature of the dance language, programmed learning, navigation and the evolution of the dance language.

1. A World Without Bees by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCollum. In this book on beekeeping, the authors describe the history and living habits of honey bees.  They detail the disorders that are associated with honey bees such as colony collapse disorder and threat from genetically modified crops.  They provide tips on how to avert these threats and disorders.

2. Teach Yourself beekeeping by Adrian and Claire Waring: It is very informative paperback that helps in learning basics of beekeeping such as equipment, maintenance of hives and production of honey.

3. Starting With Bees by Peter Gordon: This book describes necessary procedures that are associated with beekeeping, keeping in mind new beekeeper.

Beekeeping for Beginners

Beginner Beekeeping or as it is also known ‘How to Start Beekeeping Quickly and Easily‘, starts with the history of modern beekeeping that started with Charles Dadant, who is considered one of the founding fathers of modern beekeeping.  Camille Dadent, son of Charles, carried forward his father’s experience and wrote a book on beekeeping thus parting with secrets that he had learned from his father. 

Beginner Beekeeping, in an informative way, guides the reader on how everyone can start beekeeping, step-by-step, how honey is ripened by bees, the time to start beekeeping, steps to be taken if a queen bee dies. The e-book reveals:

• The kinds of bees one should keep
• The watering strategies
• The place to select for beekeeping
• How to remove bees & Use of smoker to avoid bee stings
• Plus much, much more

The e-book provides valuable insight into:

• The direction the hives should face
• How and from where to buy bees
• Easy solution to avoid and treat bee-stings
• How to safely handle bees
• The best place to store the harvested honey.

It also provides important guidelines as to which type of cloths to wear while working in an apiary, how to divide bee colony and more. 

The e-book, Beekeeping for Beginners, also defines the advantages of beekeeping.  Surprisingly, it states getting exercise as the first benefit of beekeeping. It reasons that as people get an opportunity to move out and get fresh air, beekeeping helps in getting exercise. Next, beekeeping helps in learning about nature. It reasons that as man comes in contact with bees and other natural surroundings, his knowledge about nature expands. Another advantage according to the book is the use of time in a constructive way. Instead of wasting time in watching TV or gossiping, time is spent in an effective manner while beekeeping.  Last but not the least, one can enjoy natural honey which is tasty as well as nutritional. One can also sell it and make a tidy profit. 

The author Keith Gilbert charges $27 for this e-book along with two free bonuses.  The first bonus is an e-book named "Beekeeping Quick Start Guide” that informs about things to be considered when starting beekeeping, list of equipments needed to start beekeeping, "best resource" list for purchasing beekeeping supplies, ways to acquire the bees needed for colony, to management and raising queen bees, etc.

Second free bonus is an e-Report "How To Extract Honey". This report gives insight into the tools required to extract honey, easier ways of extracting honey, and other equipments that are used if there is lots of honey to be harvested from multiple colonies.

This e-book can be bought online using Visa, MasterCard, Echeck, PayPal and uses 100% Secure Ordering System. It comes with money-back guarantee also.

Overall, the Beginner Beekeeping package is a very concise, intelligent, well researched and well written one. It is aimed at beginners to beekeeping but the information soon moves on to more advanced topics. So, anybody with a passion for bee keeping will find plenty of benefit from this fabulous product.  

The first step that is important for a beekeeping startup is to know the seasonal cycles. As there is no period during which the colony is fully inactive, careful planning of the timing or seasonal cycle is very important.  Flowering of plants, nectar flow are influenced due to seasonal change in weather pattern.  So, first check out the seasonal cycles before venture to start beekeeping.

Next step to start a beekeeping is to manage honey bee colony.  Honey bees generally build nests in a cavity where the combs are attached to the upper part. To manage hives, you need to manipulate the combs so as to adjust the space needs or to inspect the condition of the colony. Hence, a practical system is a prerequisite to start beekeeping that allows easy replacement and removal of combs without destroying them.  Knowledge of bee space also helps in construction of hives that separate the brood nest from the honey stores.  This allows separate access to each area.

Next step to start a beekeeping venture is to select hive.  There are many options like movable hive, simple package hives which have a screened box that has honey bees and a queen bee, fixed-comb hive, etc.  Whichever type of hive you select, it should be cost-effective and provide the desired result which is speeding up the process of obtaining honey.

Next step is to select arrangement of the apiary and placement of hives.  To protect bees from toads and ants, you can opt for putting hives on stands that are at least one to one-and-half foot above the ground.  Tall grass and weeds need to be cut so as to lessen the number of ants and other insects and to keep the apiary clean.  You should not place hive close to each other in long straight rows as this might results in drifting and may confuse the bees of different colonies.  This can also lead to transmission of disease.

Once the hive place and type are decided, it is important to have a proper gear to work with and equipment needed to start beekeeping.  As it is well -known face that bees sting, to protect from bee stings, the person working within the apiary should be well-protected.  A smoker helps in controlling bees and thus minimizes stings. A veil is important part of protective clothing.  This can be made of plastic screen or metal screen or nylon mesh or mosquito net.  A veil should cover full face as well as neck.  Rubber or elastic bands can be used to hold it in place or hold it over a hat.  The veil material should be dark as it limits reflection and help in clear visibility while working in sunlight. Gloves and loose fitting full body gown are a must while working in an apiary. 

Next, find a source of bees.  You can get them from a bee farmer or other bee keepers or local outlets.  Place these bees in hive and let the colony built.  Next reap the fruits of your labor by extracting honey and selling it to make a tidy profit.