# First Time Beekeeper



## kwill (Jan 16, 2014)

I am an avid gardener (actually a Master Gardener) who lives in a rural area and will begin keeping bees this spring for the first time. I intend to start with just one hive until I become very familiar with beekeeping.


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## DPBsbees (Apr 14, 2011)

Yuo may want to check this out "http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSyg1NLCXVM". It's a talk by Larry Connor about starting with 2 1/2 hives. You may find it informative.


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## merince (Jul 19, 2011)

Welcome!

I would suggest that you start with at least 2 hives - in this way you have resources to fix whatever goes wrong in one of them.


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## KPeacock (Jan 29, 2013)

Welcome to beekeeping. It is amazing how much information you can find archived on this site. Between this, blogs, podcasts, and hardcopy books, you can be well on your way to having a good knowledge abse in the spring. The downside of all this knowledge is that not all of it is black and white. There are a lot of ideas and practices that work well in some areas and not in others. Just wade through it and pay more attention to the stuff written by folks with a similar climate to yours.

As you've seen already, it is suggested that you start with two hives. This is good practice and cane save you from a costly mistake. if you squish a queen you can be in big trouble. there will probably be eggs available, so the bees will raise a queen, but she may be eaten by a bird, or hit by a truck, or just get lost on her mating flight. If this is teh case, then your hive will slowly die and you'll have to start over. With a second hive, you can rob a frame of eggs and try again for a new queen. The extra hive can be very handy for balancing populations, moving food stores around...etc.

Another benefit of having two hives is having something to compare against. I started with 3 hives and all three of them performed differently. one did GREAT, one did alright, and the third just never really got going. if I had only one hive, i would have though "well, they're alive, so it must be okay" even though they might be struggling.

Anyways, have fun reading through the old posts


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## ruthiesbees (Aug 27, 2013)

Welcome! I started with just one hive this past summer. I liked the fact that it was a slow build up until I got comfortable handling the bees. I had lots of local beeks to rely on if I needed another frame of brood, etc. (which I did) That said, I am adding 3 more hives this year because they are so much fun. If you do decide to have more than one colony, my advice is to stagger their arrivals so you are not overwhelmed. (I'm sure that goes against all the books, etc. Just telling you my own experience)


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## hideawayranch (Mar 5, 2013)

I too had planned on starting with one hive. But ended up getting two because of good advice from other beekeepers in my area. I am so glad that I did, one hive never really thrived even after re queening it. Eventually it died, had I begun with one hive, it would have been another year before I could begin again.


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## mdadams1 (Apr 17, 2012)

I was a master Gardner and I planted many flowering plants I knew bees liked. My bees seemed to ignore them. Maybe they were too close to the hive. Maybe they thought they might attract robbers by staying close to the hive to collect pollen...


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## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

Welcome!


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