Business minded people are always looking for other ways to making a
living and ways to invest their money. One lucrative business
opportunity that of lot of people are getting into is beekeeping. This
is an exciting hobby that anyone can get into and does not require any
education or experience.
Becoming a beekeeper has a lot of advantages, first you are helping in
pollinating plants with your bees and your bees will be producing honey
that is high in demand. The world is in need of beekeepers to help in
producing honey so there's space for anyone to come in this industry.
To get started you just need some basics which are covered below.
The needed supplies for
beekeeping:
When getting started in beekeeping there are some supplies you will
need. The first supplies are the bees and queens. These can be ordered
from your local beekeepers store and come in different kits that are
unassembled beginner kits or assembled beginner kits. The assembled
kits are a full package that include frames, supers, hive bodies, top
hive feeders and some with durable plastic helmets. Other supplies you
should get are the hive tool, stainless steel smoker, leather groves
and the monitoring tray.
The required equipment
for beekeeping:
Just like supplies you also need some basic equipment for your new
hobby. To protect your honey bees from extreme weather you will need to
buy a telescoping outer cover which features a galvanized top that is
durable. You should also get a hive wrap insulation that has holes to
cover your hives in cold weathers.
To raise your own debris-less pollen you should get a pollen trap which
will help you harvest clean pollen from your hive. Another vital
equipment you should buy is the queen excluders which are used just
above the brood chamber to help in separating the queen from the worker
bees. When starting out you can buy a plastic queen excluder and then
when you want to add more hives you can then buy the metal queen
excluder.
To help you remove the bees from the super you will need a triangle
escape board, just place it in between the brood chamber and supers. An
escape board is useful because you will be able to empty your super
faster since the bees that are leaving can't come back in. Also get a
bee brush to help you brush off the bees from the frame.
The last equipment that you must have is the honey extractor which
helps in extracting your honey from supers. Honey extractors come in
two forms, one being a hand crank and the other which is ran by a
motor. Which ever extractor you get make sure it doesn't crush the bees
and pollen. To help in the honey flow you can get an extractor heat
tape that warms up the extractor.
Once you get all these you will be on your way to producing your own
honey and sell it for extra income. The more hives you have the more
honey you will produce, but when starting out its good to start with
two hives so you can get the hang of managing bees.