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Beekeeping
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Tools

Local associations

By Dwight Davis, Founder

Updated

On this page6
Joining the nearest beekeeping association does more for a first-year beekeeper than any piece of equipment, and it costs less than a single hive body.

The highest-value thing you can do first

Everything in beekeeping is local. When the flow starts, when the dearth bites, what blooms, what overwinters, which mite treatments work at your temperatures in your month. None of that is in a national publication and all of it is in the room at a monthly meeting.

What you actually get

  • Local timing, which is the thing no book can give you.
  • Somebody to look in your hive when you do not know what you are seeing.
  • Shared equipment, extractors especially.
  • Local nucs, from bees that have overwintered where you live, which usually beats a package shipped from another climate.
  • Swarm calls, which is free bees for anyone on the list.
  • Early warning, because foulbrood found three miles away is news you want.

The extractor

Many associations own an extractor and lend it to members. That single benefit typically exceeds a year's subscription several times over, and it postpones the most expensive purchase in beekeeping indefinitely. It is the main reason borrowing comes before buying.

Book it early. The flow ends at roughly the same time for everyone within a few miles, so demand for one machine arrives all at once.

Finding one

Your state beekeepers association will list county and regional groups. Your cooperative extension service will know. So will your state apiary inspector, who deals with them constantly.

If there are two within reach, go to both once. They differ enormously in character, and the one with the mentoring program is worth more than the one with the better speakers.

Getting value from it

Go before you have bees. Ask somebody to look at your site before you site anything. Find the person who has kept bees longest and ask them what they do in August, which is the month that decides the winter.

And join in the fall rather than the spring, because that is when nucs are ordered and loaner calendars are set.

References

eXtension Bee Health. Seasonality of Brood and Adult Populations; Beekeeping Equipment. bee-health.extension.org
University of Georgia Extension. Honey Bees and Beekeeping (B1045). extension.uga.edu
Penn State Extension. Honey Bee Management Throughout the Seasons. extension.psu.edu
Written from published extension guidance, not from a laboratory. Local climate, local forage and the state of your particular colony override anything general said here.