{"id":987,"date":"2023-12-20T17:42:18","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T22:42:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/?p=987"},"modified":"2023-12-20T17:42:20","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T22:42:20","slug":"beekeeping-hobby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/beekeeping-hobby\/","title":{"rendered":"Beekeeping As A Hobby
(Is Right It For You?)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Beekeeping as a hobby is a great way to connect with nature. Besides honey, beekeeping has other potential rewards, both personal and commercial. But it requires commitment, investment, and ongoing learning. If you are comfortable with the challenges, beekeeping can be a rewarding and worthwhile pursuit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the pros and cons, the opportunities and challenges of backyard beekeeping to help you decide if beekeeping as a hobby is right for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beekeeping As A Hobby<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beekeepers are generally placed into three categories: commercial, sidelined, or hobbyist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A commercial beekeeper manages over 300 hives and is operating a full-time business. A hobbyist is a beekeeper with fewer than 25 beehives. Sideliners are in the middle and generate a portion of their income from beekeeping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the National Honey Board (“NHB”),<\/a> there are as many as 125,000 beekeepers in the United States and the “vast majority of them are hobbyists” (often called backyard beekeepers). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a> goes much further, estimating that there are about 212,000 beekeepers in the U.S. and that over 94% of them are hobbyists. (The difference in the numbers may stem from the age of the NHB’s info, which is based on a 2012 survey.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I couldn\u2019t find any hard statistics to back me up, but it seems to me that interest in backyard beekeeping picked up steam over the past decade for two main reasons: publicity about colony collapse disorder and the wildly successful crowdfunding campaign for the Flow\u2122 Hive<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, during the Covid pandemic, interest in beekeeping spiked, as shown in the Google Trends chart below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Data source: Google Trends (https:\/\/www.google.com\/trends<\/a>).<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Add in a renewed interest in homesteading, natural products, and the health benefits often attributed to honey and other beehive products, and you can see why beekeeping as a hobby became a hot topic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to start beekeeping<\/strong><\/a> as a hobby, you are far from alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benefits Of Beekeeping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go over the benefits and reasons why you might become a backyard apiarist (that’s a fancy word for beekeeper).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enjoy Nature<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you want to be close to nature, it\u2019s hard to beat beekeeping<\/strong>. Watching your colony work as a superorganism to build comb, nurse, and rear new bees, forage for food, make honey, defend their turf, carry out their dead, expel the drones, and, my favorite, do the waggle dance, is an amazing experience. As a backyard beekeeper, you\u2019ll see all this action close-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A superorganism is “an organized society (as of a social insect) that functions as an organic whole.”<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/superorganism <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Bee behavior is driven by seasonal issues.<\/strong> As a beekeeper, you will become more attuned to your environment. <\/strong>You’ll notice what plants are in bloom and where the bees are foraging for nectar and pollen, how a dry spell is affecting water resources, and how the temperature and the angle of the sun are affecting your bees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At certain times of the year, we find ourselves paying much closer attention to the weather. (There’s a red wing black bird! Has spring finally arrived so we can open our hives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does it look like cold weather is setting in early? If so, we better get started prepping the hives for winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless there are a few feet of snow on the ground, I venture out to the apiary almost every day just to look around and see what’s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helping Honey Bee Populations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\u201cColony Collapse Disorder is the phenomenon that occurs when the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear and leave behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees and the queen,\u201d according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>. Widespread reporting on major bee losses inspired people to take up beekeeping to help maintain bee populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortunately, the EPA says that CCD cases have substantially declined in recent years. That\u2019s no reason to forego keeping bees as a hobby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honey bees are still beneficial insects that provide great value as pollinators. It doesn\u2019t hurt to have more healthy, well-tended honey bees in the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Honey (or Liquid Gold)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you want to be a backyard beekeeper to get your own personal honey, that\u2019s great. As a general rule, don\u2019t expect to take much, if any, honey until your second year.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first year of beekeeping will be learning about honey bees, watching out for pests, and helping the colony get established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your first-year bees need time to build out the comb where they make and store honey. You may have to leave most or all of that honey to get them through the first winter, especially in colder climates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, get your colony through the winter, and it will have a jump start building up the population and making honey the following spring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the time comes, you will harvest honey. Hobby honey is local raw honey…unprocessed, unfiltered, and delicious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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See our article What Is Raw Honey? (Besides Delicious) <\/a><\/strong>for more information<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Maybe it\u2019s my imagination or wishful thinking, but I believe the honey from our hives tastes better than any store-bought honey. That\u2019s my story, and I\u2019m sticking to it. If you become a beekeeper, you’ll feel the same way when your harvest comes.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Honey Honey Honey<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Health Benefits Of Honey<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I am sure I don\u2019t have to sell you on the taste of honey. Many health benefits have been attributed to honey. Some of these benefits are proven, others not so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some of the benefits attributed to honey are:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n