Initial Hive Equipment

[Larry Morin]

Hello Everyone!  This is my first post.  I do not yet have bee's. 

I have read several hundred pages of this forum.  The knowledge here is simply amazing.  However, I have not seen anyone address a complete hive setup for someone just starting out with no hives.

Forget about the veil, smoker, gloves stuff.  I'm only interested in the hive components.

Clearly the beginner kits being sold are incomplete.

I have already decided on all medium equipment.  Foundation-less frames. No chemical treatment.

So how many boxes with frames do I need to buy to ensure I have enough?

[Tightwad]

Wellcome to the form it sounds like you have dun your home work. All I can say is read read and join a bee club. There you can get into a beginners class. Good luck
 

[Modenacart]

What I have been told is three for brood and three for honey per hive. I would get spares too.

[Moots]

Larry,
Welcome to the forum, you are correct, it's a great resource and will serve you well as a new Beek.  To address your question concerning equipment, simply put, more is always better!  :)

I started this past January, I built my own boxes and decided to go with all mediums, 8 frame equipment.  My original plan was to have 2 to 3 hives this first year...as it stands now, I've got 9 hives and 2 Nucs.  :laugh:

Not sure how many hives you want to start with, I strongly advise on "at least" two...lots of advantages to having multiple hives for a Beek.

You can figure 3 to 4 boxes for your brood nest, beyond that, depending what kind of year it is and how your girls do, you might stack anywhere from 1 to 4+ honey supers on top of that.

As you will quickly learn in Beekeeping, opinions vary GREATLY, you have to find what works for you.  I personally like your all mediums and no chemical treatments approach...I respect the concept of foundationless but personally think you may want to gain some more experience before going in that direction...That and 50 cents will get you a cup of Coffee.  :-D

Good luck!

[10framer]

Twice as many as you think you need.  A new hive with no foundation (10 frame?) I'd start with a minimum of 6 mediums and hope I came up short (go ahead and buy 12 and extra top and bottom boards).
Good luck with chemical free.  It sounds easy but you'll find yourself making some tough choices some time down the road.  I'm chemical and antibiotic free for now and will eventually go foundationless in my brood chambers.  But in a total loss situation I can't say I wouldn't treat.
Good luck and have fun.  start with more than one hive.

[sc-bee]

Your palnning ahead will pay off because ....... not to far in the not so distant future is the free shipping season. Usually the month of Dec. Look for at least 2-3 companies to participate.

I do not run meduims but as said above I hear most refer to three as brood (I presume you mean eight frame) and honey super well depends on your area how many. Try and get two hives and not one. It helps to be able to compare and as you probably have read here have another hive in case you need a frame of brood etc. Also don't forget a nuc or two and an extra box to hive a swarm.

Of course with wood working skills (I have none) a few nucs are east to make from avaible plans.

Oh yea- welcome  :-D

[sc-bee]

Dang them guys type fast --- do as they say  :-D

[sc-bee]

Moot - how much is a senior citzen cup of coffe at mickey dees now. When i turned 55 my mother informed me i could get one now. Thanks MOM  :-D

[MsCarol]

OK ,

on the band wagon here. Moot has a serious point. I have no -or very little - woodworking skills thus have to "plan ahead" for purchasing equipment......WAY AHEAD considering the cash flow constraints......I also opted for all medium 8 frame supers. Hey, I AM WOMAN (hear me .....buzzz???) but at 58, my years of throwing 50# feed sacks is coming to a close. I "planned ahead".....except I need MORE bodies and definitely more tops and bottoms. Plus a few other goodies as life......and bees progress!!

[Modenacart]

I had almost no wood working skills, but I now make my boxes finger joints and all. It is not hard but you will need to experiment with finger spacing.  I used plans for a finger joint jig off the Internet with a dado blade.

[RudyT]

As a third year beek, the above advice all sounds good.
After you decide how much you need, there are questions of  where and when...
If you are assembling your own boxes there are many good sources (Mann Lake and Shastina come to mind).  Mann Lake has free shipping for orders of >$100.
If you want them assembled/painted Brushy Mountain has a good deal on complete hive with 2 boxes -- buy the number of hives you want plus 1 (so you have extra bottom/top/inner cover for emergency plus the number of boxes you need.
Brushy Mountain does free shipping in early Dec. but with a weight limit --I ordered more last year so they paid for a pallet delivered to freight depot -- I had to go get it with a pickup.
I think KelleyBees did free shipping sometime in November.

I have observed folks trying to work with only the minimum -- maybe a 10 frame deep for brood and a box for honey -- even for the first year being tight on equipment makes life harder.  Far better to have a box sitting ready for a swarm or a split.

If you live where it is convenient to get extra equipment later, you might start by getting 1 hive more than you think you need and 4 boxes per hive -- but I favor the approach of getting the extra equipment up front -- you will end up needing it- and prices are going up faster than most folks' wages.

Be careful if you mix equipment/manufacturers.  Mann Lake boxes are a bit (I think 1/4") wider than Brushy Mountain or Dadant.

[sc-bee]

Hey rudy you are hopelessly lost ....... :-D Please update your profile  :th_thumbsupup:

[RHBee]

Hello Everyone!  This is my first post.  I do not yet have bee's. 

I have read several hundred pages of this forum.  The knowledge here is simply amazing.  However, I have not seen anyone address a complete hive setup for someone just starting out with no hives.

Forget about the veil, smoker, gloves stuff.  I'm only interested in the hive components.

Clearly the beginner kits being sold are incomplete.

I have already decided on all medium equipment.  Foundation-less frames. No chemical treatment.

So how many boxes with frames do I need to buy to ensure I have enough?

I'm only one year ahead of you. I tried to go foundationless on one of my colonies. It didn't work out very well. I ended up having to use a large sharp knife just so I could remove the frames. To get the bees to draw foundationless it's best to already have drawn comb to keep them straight.
Starting out on foundation helps out.

Good luck with the treatment free be prepared for some heavy losses on the natural selection path.

As far as how much equipment. I started with enough equipment for 6 but only had 3 colonies.
I would recommend 8 mediums for each colony.

Good to have you on the forum. Lots of knowledgeable folks here who are kind enough to freely share their experiences.

[Michael Bush]

>Clearly the beginner kits being sold are incomplete.

As in not enough boxes?  Yes.  As in not enough gadgets?  Probably too many and not enough...

As far as how many boxes, try to get "too many".  In a bumper crop year there will be the need for many supers and probably some extra equipment to hive swarms...  In the middle of a bumper crop year, all the beekeeping supply places are backordered...

[LindaL]

I agree with the others get at least two hives. I got my hives 3 weeks ago and i have learned a lot just from comparing them.  Figure out your feeding system before hand to i had to order mine last week i should have goten it before the girls arived.

Welcome to the forum.

Linda

[Larry Morin]

Folks, thank you for the welcome, and your replies.

Averaging your replies, I think (2) hives with (5) boxes each is what I will order. 

This project has been on my todo list for two years now.  I like to do my research before jumping in on things.

I only want one active hive. The second one will be just so I'm prepared to house a swarm until I can find them a new home.  It may steepen the learning curve a bit, but I'm ok with that.

I have more questions, but I'll save them for another post.

Thanks again, Larry

[buzzbee]

As a beginner you may wish to at least get your bees started on a couple frames with foundation if you will be installing packages. The queen will be able to start laying quicker and you wont have to worry so much about trying to straighten misdrawn(crooked comb) . This can be a tough thing to do if you have not been around bees very much and you need to tear apart their home.
 I have nothing against foundationless as sometimes it can go well, but if things awry, I think yhhere are better things to be learning with your first hives than fixing messy comb.
I agree that the beginners kits are heavy on gadgets and light on woodware. Spend a couple extra bucks and get a better smoker than what is in a beginners kit. The cheap smokers are small, and have no guarding around the hottest aprt of the smoker.
Look for free shipping deals in December. Usually it's on orders over 100 dollars so have your wish list together! :)

[kenthold]

I started this spring with 6 packages.  I was told by a friend that I wouldn't need any more than 2 deeps per hive for this year. I now have 3 deeps on 2 of the hives and probably putting the third one on another hive.  So they can surprise you.