There are basics that bee keepers need to know when venturing into bee keeping.
Before beginning bee keeping, select a dry level location that you can access all year around for locating your hive. When placing your hive, make sure that the entrance is not facing directly into a side walk, the neighbourhood or your own family or pets play area. You can set your hive to face your fence and the bees will learn quickly to fly over and above the area.
Installing bee hive
You can set your hive either directly on the ground or on a flat raised surface like a pallet. A raised surface is preferred because it helps keep the bottom of the hive secure and prevents it from rot. Depending on the weather and the availability of pollen, you can install a feeder near the hive so that the new colony can easily establish. The feeders can be filled with a sugar syrup which is made by mixing organic sugar with water in a ratio of 1:1.
On the surface, place 2 brood chambers. It is within the brood chambers that the queen will lay eggs which will turn into larvae, pupa or immature bees, all of which are called brood.
Inspect the chambers to ensure that they are healthy and after the bees have filled the brood chambers with brood and honey up to about 85%, then you can add the third chamber.
In order to keep the queen in the brood chambers, lay a queen excluder on top of the brood chambers. Add honey supers, lay an inner cover and at last add the cover to protect the hive from rain and snow.
