How Much Does It REALLY Cost To Start Beekeeping?? Beekeeping 101 #beekeeping

today is the very first day that the sun has been out in probably months not even kidding and it makes me so happy but to continue my beginner beekeeping series that I've been doing on the channel so far today I'm going to talk about what do you truly need and what does it actually cost to even start beekeeping there are so many products out there and so many options and there's so many different things that are being thrown at you and people saying you need this and this and this so in this video I'm going to tell you the be minimum Basics that you're going to need to even start beekeeping to hopefully help you save a little bit of money and get that ball rolling all right before we leave I have to get here's a PE in this video we're [Applause] not look at that BR pattern well yeah y'all hear that it's got 6 wo so many e and I'm able to get her in this cage like so happy that I got her just in time so before I get into the money side and start comparing different companies of each product let's just talk about the things you're going to need first so in order to start beekeeping especially if you're in a Northern climate the first two things that you should really kind of think about is getting two deep boxes and the reason I say that is you're going to have one deep box where all of your bees and brood are going to live and the second deep box is what they're going to build up so they can start storing honey for their winter stores in Michigan where I'm located that is honestly the easiest way to start beekeeping in my opinion um when it comes to making sure your bees are going to be able to make it through the winter time because when you have a whole extra deep of Honey on top of your hive it makes this so you can literally just close them up and forget about them until Springtime because that's all they need um makes it a lot easier on you and that's exactly how I did it when I first started beekeeping now if you want to be a little bit more comfortable then I would suggest getting one honey super just in case you have really really productive bees that is possible and also if you have an area that has a really good flow then it's possible they could build up both deep boxes and a super but I would never suggest buying the um kind of like starter packs you generally see on like Amazon and stuff like that that have like a deep and a medium you're going to want that deep those two deep boxes to come with it and in all honesty if you don't mind like searching out where to get each thing from you can save a lot of money in buying each individual part that you need versus getting a big starter pack but if you want to be easy get a starter pack that works too and with that you're going to need the frames to fill up that Hive so I generally suggest buying plastic Foundation that is waxed for beginner beekeepers um and the key there is to make sure that it is actually waxed because in my experience whenever I've used just plastic frames um that weren't waxed some hives were okay with it but other ones they'll draw what's called wonky comb so they won't draw out comb that's in the correct manner just coming straight off of that sheet instead it's going to be like all over the place and not really attached and it just creates a huge mess um so I suggest starting with that also because plastic frames make it so the bees know exactly how they need to set the hive up you're throwing bees into a hive that has no built out comb so because of that you want to give them a little bit of like a guideline of how you want them to build out your hive now if you're feeling a little risky you can try foundationless um I did have a question about that in the comments in one of my last videos and if you do want to save a little money and go that right rout then still in my opinion if I was to start beekeeping today I would only do half of the frames in that high Foundation list and do the other half of the frames being um with plastic foundation so what I would do is I'd have one frame of plastic Foundation another frame that was a foundationless frame plastic Foundation foundationless plastic frame that way that they still have those guidelines of how they need to build out the hive so depending on how big of a box you get if you get an eight frame or 10 frame if you get a 10 frame then you're going to need 20 deep frames right off the bat just so you can fill up those two deeps and if you end up getting a honey super or a medium then you're also going to need 10 medium frames to fill up that honey super as well and the other thing that you're going to make sure you have is a bottom board and a telescoping uh lid you don't really need to get an inner cover um in all honesty I kind of feel like they're pointless um they're just an extra piece of of wood and extra money that you spend on a hive that just kind of I mean yeah it helps raise the lid a little bit to help with air flow but I use all of my hives I I now run them without inner covers because just they're always in the way and that's also a place that small Hive beetles like to hide so I don't really see a point in them in all honesty um so get yourself a telescoping cover and also get yourself a bottom board there are two different kinds of bottom boards you can get you can get a solid wood bottom board or you can get a screen bottom board um it's all personal preference but if you just want to like start with the Bare Basics and the cheapest things that you can get to get yourself started a solid bottom board is truly it truly works just as great a screen bottom board does have its perks but it also has its cons when it comes to over wintering and whatnot I run all of my hives with solid bottom boards because it is a lot cheaper for me to do it that way so yeah um and then the next next thing you're going to need is definitely get yourself a hive tool um and I would suggest maybe getting yourself two Hive tools because you nine times out of 10 will probably lose that Hive tool and you'll forget where you misplaced it it's constantly a problem in Casey I be yard um so it's always good to have a backup just in case or you can use a butter knife but those really aren't the best either um and then the next thing that you're going to want to look at is a bees Su if you don't want to get stung and trust me when you first start going into a hive as a new beekeeper you're going to feel a little bit stressed you're not going to be used to all the bees buzzing around you it's going to feel a little bit like chaotic at first until you get used to it so just that you have peace of mind I usually suggest new beekeepers to make sure they do have a beit um I know you probably see a lot of YouTubers on here that aren't wearing be suits and you're probably like oh hey I don't need a be suit if they're not wearing a bit I don't need a beit I took that Approach at first and trust me it will bite you in the butt literally from doing that you want to be suit um it makes it so you can stay a lot more calm when you're going through your hive and it helps you learn how to stay calm when they're all buzzing around you like that so yeah get a beit the next thing that you're going to want is a smoker as well especially when you first start beekeeping you definitely want to smoke your bees until you get used to learning when they start getting aggravated and when they're not because also when you first start beekeeping you're going to be moving fairly slow versus when you get more experience you can get in and get out pretty quickly and what happens is when you're moving fairly slow that the phermones that the bees are releasing like hey someone's in our Hive they have time to spread all those pheromones around the whole entire Hive and after a certain amount of time the hive is like hey you've had US Open there's a huge draft coming in you're shining light into our Hive with the sun um can you close us up please so we can get back to work so they will get a little bit bit fussy sometimes so it's always good to have a smoker on hand for that as well and you don't need anything fancy um just a classic smoker that you can throw some like wood chips or um white cotton t-shirts in or wood or um pine needles newspaper newspaper anything like that just to keep it burning and the very last thing and the most important thing that you're going to need of course our bees um I did do a video talking about having a buying a package of bees versus a nuke Abes versus a 10 frame deep Abes so definitely go check that out if you want to know more information about that but okay let's start looking and pricing out what this is actually going to cost to get started all right so let's go ahead and get started with I'm going to do a 10 frame deep for honeybees and the reason I'm going to start with 10 frames and not go the route of doing an eight frame is because I feel like you have a lot more room for doing different things with your hive when you have a 10 frame because you can get a feeder frame that you put sugar water in to put into your hive that will then replace a frame or two and end up shrinking your hive down anyways I like to use a 2 gallon frame feeder that I put in my hives and it shrinks it down to an eight frame Hive whereas when you already automatically get an eight frame Hive you can never really shrink it down or you can't really make it I mean you can't really make it any bigger than what it is so personally I just like going with a 10 frame um because you have more options that way with it so let's just start with that so right off the bat I see we have a um starter Hive that you can get for 167 that's really expensive in my opinion um to get started that comes with everything you possibly need if you don't want to really have to think about it um and I doesn't I don't see it saying that it comes with any frames that go in it um and it's unassembled but anyways we're trying to do find the cheapest way to start be keeping as possible so let's just keep looking so we have um from Amazon $54.99 this is a box with 10 Deep frames with foundations um I've learned the hard way let's just go ahead and click on this I've learned the hard way that buying things off Amazon you have to really be diligent in how you look to see what if their frames are actually waxed yeah see 10 frames with unwaxed foundations yeah so I got one of these when I first started and it truly went and bit me in the butt because I tried the unwaxed foundations and I tried to wax them myself with um just some beeswax that I bought off at Amazon they were like beeswax pellets that I melted down and yeah I had the worst wonky comb I've ever seen it did not work at all so for new beekeeper I would suggest getting wax frames um let's see a 10 a 10f frame deep super unassembled pre- jured from Honey Run for $18 that's actually a steal that's really good let's come back to that um so first let's look at the ones that you usually hear a lot about um I don't want to put companies on blast but I'm going to give you guys my unbiased opinion um by the way I'm not sponsored by anybody so I'm just going to tell you just straight how it is um with my experience so here's Dadant um 2285 for a 10f frame deep super that is unassembled um this is a little pricey in my opinion um and in all honesty I have not had the best of luck with dant whenever I ordered uh boxes from them they've came in and they've been like falling apart uh that is not something I want when I spent all this money to start a beehive in all honesty so let's keep looking um better be is not too bad of a a company I've gotten really good things from them but $25.95 is a little pricey um we're trying to save as much money as we possibly can so let's see what else do we have here 2668 wow that is woo that is up there that's not even counting shipping um let's see lap spe Supply 22.95 so it looks like we're looking at around $20 to 22 ooh tractor supply company that is the cheapest I've seen so far except for one other company that I'm about to show you guys so $117.99 that's not too bad it's actually pretty good I haven't gotten any stuff from them so I have no idea what the quality is but all right so I'm going to go to a company that I just found that absolutely blew my mind at their prices and they are just now starting up um they are based out of Missouri they're a familyowned company and we all like that we all like supporting small people so let's take a look at their hive bodies let's see if it'll load for me okay um so I've already looked at these I'm going to scroll right to them so ,750 for an unassembled 10f frame deive now that is a steal and $18 if you want to get it already assembled honestly for an extra 50 cents that's not too bad but again we're trying to save as much money as possible so let's just go ahead and go with this so this is for a 10 frame deive $17.50 looks pretty good um now I'm curious how much the shipping would be cuz a lot of times the shipping can be a little bit more expensive with different places so I pulled up a couple different companies that I generally like to go with just to compare so for two 10f frame deep hives that are unassembled it is $35 for the both of them plus a $15 delivery fee to me in Michigan so that' be $50 total that is not bad at all now the other company that I've used in the past that had great quality stuff was hilco um so I decided to pop over here and see what their prices are looking like and with my shipping address it was 4718 for two um their prices have gone up a little bit it's around like $22 per deep box with a $15 shipping fee um so that's going to be $65 that's an extra $15 in compar comparison to this other company so let's just go with that and we're going to start off with our two deep boxes are going to be $50 now what if we want to go ahead and get a medium that we can put on our Hive so let's scroll down here and see how much they charge for those so they do have painted options um but again we're trying to go with the cheapest as possible if you want something that's a little bit easier then you can spend a little bit of extra money so that you don't have to do all of that um and it's not looking like let's see deep box deep box deep box assemble medium frames doesn't look like they have any mediums on this website so we're going to have to look elsewhere for that but while we're here let's go ahead and Skip forward to the the actual like foundation and Frames because this company I again I have not used them but they the prices they are like killer I've never seen prices for this and they look to be of good quality and just knowing right off the bat these are generally pretty cheap for plastic foundation and whatnot only 1885 per sheet that is really good especially considering some other places will charge like $2 a sheet so 20 sheets at $185 a piece so to save you guys the time of me actually looking and realizing that they didn't have any any um any medium supers on this website and they also didn't have any wooden frames on this website I'm just going to walk you through what I did so I ended up deciding to just go ahead and add on um the assembled frames for the mediums and the assembled frames for the deeps these are a really really cheap price for these kind of frames generally it's usually $4 a piece with the plastic frame plus the wooden frame itself so this is a huge deal and I also went back and T talked a little bit about the different colors that you can get so you will generally always see that you can either get a black plastic Foundation or you can get a yellow plastic foundation and if you're going to be getting foundation for your deep boxes I would suggest getting black so that way you can actually see the eggs in the cells that the queen lays whereas if you get yellow for your deep boxes where the brw nest is going to be you're not going to be able to see those eggs now the bees do tend to draw out yellow frames a little bit quicker that's why we like using them for honey but when it comes to brood it's kind of a pain in the butt cuz you can't really see anything all right so we also have our medium frames so let's go ahead and look at medium supers so in a quick Google search um I'm also seeing Honey Run pop up again so I got all 50 of our nuke boxes that we bought last year from Honey Run and they are amazing quality I was so impressed they were so easy to put together um so yeah let's go ahead and look at that because that is definitely something wait why is that oh and they also have a downgrade box that's not as good of quality for $ 850 wow they're actually really affordable that's really impressive so okay we're looking at a medium super um we're going to go ahead and put yes for pre-drilled and we only need one so let's take a look at what the shipping would cost all right now I will say I have noticed that their shipping is a little bit more expensive um we play we paid a lot in shipping when we got our nuke boxes but after shipping and everything else they ended up being the cheapest still so 1011 is how much it's going to cost so we're looking at 2261 for our honey super so we have our deep 2D boxes all of our frames our medium box with all of its frames now we need to look for a bottom board and a telescoping cover um a telescoping lid so I do not believe that gold gold and B had any at all like I said they're still a startup so oh they do but they're out of stock at the moment so that's all right let's hop back over to hilco and see what they have so 10 frame Hive and components is what you're going to want to click on make sure you double check that um 2159 for a solid bottom board it's a little pricey o $31.99 for telescope cover let's do a Google Search and see let's see 10 frame telescoping cover for bees all right so we're looking at Honey Run $20 see if we can look at Honey Run and then we have LeMans or Layman LeMans 22 so all right and how much was h [Music] those 31 yes let's go back to Honey Run if that's really what the price is going to be then might as well save on shipping and just do everything from that so telescoping cover 10 frame all right $20 for telescoping cover for a 10 frame so let's go ahead and add that to the cart we only need one it looks like this one's not painted so you will need to paint this um otherwise it will start to rot just a heads up on that and you don't have to go with the telescoping cover I just found as a new beekeeper that is just what seems to be to seems to be the best um it also helps keep moisture from dripping into your Colony uh during the winter time that's a huge problem with migratory LGE that I've noticed cuz they're not made to be overwintered outdoors so let's look for a bottom board let's see 10 frame bottom board $15 yeah that's not bad at all that is a lot better A lot a lot better so my question is is if this even comes with a entrance reducer you don't need it right away but you will need it during the winter time and if you ever have any robbing problems so let's go ahead and put that on there entrance reducer these are cheap only one f 50 so just add it on there just in case that you have it and now we're looking at $49 that's not too bad so now we're looking at 176 as our total so far now the only things left that we really want to find is a bit a smoker and some Hive tools so let's see what a hive tool costs from honey runs since we're already going to be ordering from them that's not bad at all um so when you're looking at high tools honestly spend a little bit of extra just to have this J hook on the end it makes your life so much easier um especially when you're pulling out frames you just need to be careful when it gets too cold cuz it will make you pull the the nails out of the frame which is not good you want to only use it when it's warm out um but I also really love this one this one um I wasn't even introduced to until I met Casey cuz Casey has one of those and now I literally steal that from him always because it is the bomb but I originally started with this red one so you don't have to go crazy with this getting the other one so we're just going to go ahead and click on this one for our Hive tool add that on so now we're at 184 as our total um do they have any smokers so you don't need to go crazy with this in all honesty you can get a smoker um from Amazon that's what actually I have Casey got a really expensive smoker that's like really nice but like it never stays lit and it's kind of funky now the only bad thing about mine yeah see I got a cheap one off of Amazon um I think that's actually the exact one I have the only thing about mine is sometimes that lid can get kind of stuck on because of the Heat and everything else that collects all the Builder that collects around it um oh hey or you can even get let's see a smoker and a high tool combo with the hook yeah let's go with that especially if you can get free shipping that actually would not be bad so let's go back to 176 is what we were at and we're going to add on the $18 for the smoker and hyp Tool combined so now we're at $194 for our total so the only thing left that we need is a bit now this is going to be the most expensive thing you get because in all honesty the ones you buy off of Amazon this is what I originally started with and it was terrible to the fact that the bees were actually able to sting through it so don't skimp out and get like a $29 bees suit you will regret it so I actually do have this humblebee 420 Arrow I absolutely love it I actually prefer oh there's a new one that's actually a little bit cheaper for uh it's a 430 ventilate that must be their brand new one cuz this one was a little bit thick so this one would be one to be cool to check out um but anyways what I was saying is I actually really like the round Veil that you can get with your bees suits I don't like it when they have a hood like this cuz I feel very confined and it's really hard to see so I would suggest um getting a round bill so you can actually see everything around you yeah this one looks nice and it has some pads for when you like are on your knees which happens a lot looks like it has some Pockets right there looks ventilated yeah that's not bad at all um so where I have my current beit that I'm using is from Napoleon be Supply um it's a two-piece beit it has a million Pockets let's see this is the the full beit they have more that are in stock if you were able to get to in person but I know you can't always this is in Napoleon Michigan so not everybody can actually get to this but it has a bunch of pockets that are absolutely great cuz I need all those Pockets um and it has like pads on the knees too so that if you have to like bend down and get in your knees which happens a lot when you're beekeeping but let's also do a normal Google search for a beit and see what we're looking at so yeah like I said they're a little pricey um it's really personal preference on on what you want to get um if you want to get one that's a two-piece if you want to get one that's a one piece I started with a one piece just because I wanted to get used to the bees before I started getting stung a lot because in a two-piece it gives you way more room to actually get stung they can sneak up um in between where your pants and your your top meet and sting you there cuz a lot of times there your pants will start to fall down a little bit um or like your your jacket will start to ride up a little bit too whereas the full be suit makes this so the only places they can get in are your wrists or your ankles um or with the humblebee arrow let's go back to that you see that right there in the middle you you see like this right here that I have my mouse on um yeah this right here um if you do not zip them up all the way correctly and put this flap down a bee can sneak in there and it will sting you in the neck just like it did to me um so don't be lazy with that but so yeah we're looking at 194 to get started without bees now bees are going to be around $200 for a nucleus Colony that's what they're running at right now um and if you wanted to start off with like a package of these those are around like 135 to like 145 but then with a package of these you're going to have to feed them a lot and I actually did a video right over here if you want to watch it comparing the differences between the two so you can kind of make your own judgment on which route you want to take so right now we're looking at $394 if you get a nucleus Colony or it would be around 334 if you were to get a package of bees now this is going to go up a little bit more depending upon what suit you get so go ahead and Tack on an extra let's just say ballpark $200 um depending on what suit you get now you can go ahead and try to go with a cheaper suit um but I would suggest wearing a a um a like a hoodie or something like that underneath it just to help a little bit if they do start to sting you but it will get hot in the summer time so yeah just keep that in mind oh this is nice that it has like a you can like pull it off so you can like drink water and whatnot that would be very very beneficial I will say so kind of scout out what suits you think would would look the best and is in your best price range but honestly $ 3.94 if you get a nuke that is not bad to get started with beekeeping and that is the bare basic minimums that minimum that you need now one other expense that you will probably have later in the year is you will have to think about might treatments you don't have to think about that until August and you could get something like foric Pro that's something that will be kind of like easy for you and quick and affordable that's usually what I suggest for new beekeepers to get just because like I said they're really easy to apply um I have some videos on those and I'll do more videos about that in the future but yeah so I hope that video was insanely helpful and I hope this helps in your beekeeping journey and if you're kind of on the fence on if if you want to start beekeeping my recommendation is to really just dive in honestly you're going to absolutely fall in love with it it is very addicting so I will warn you of that but it has a way of just like making your mind at peace and in all honesty it's kind of like therapy for me when you have a stressful day at work or just things aren't going right go into your beard and just work your hives and see how they all are working on the comb and being able to listen to the buzzing of them just buzzing around you is just so peaceful so if you're thinking about it just try it you never know you can love it but all right that's it for me today and I'll see you guys soon and don't quit and be [Music] fit

Channel: BeeFit Beekeeping

Views: 3,508

Keywords: beekeeping, how to start beekeeping, beginner beekeeping, what do I need to start beekeeping, how much does beekeeping cost

Id: S9P3gEteHn0

Length: 28min 53sec (1733 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024