(Part 2) Top products from r/Beekeeping

Chances are he has just about everything he needs if he's been doing the bee thing for 2 years.
Here's a few things I would dig if I were getting a beekeeping gift.

-[Hive tool holster] (http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/Hive-Tool-Holster/productinfo/495H/) , Kinda dorky looking but awesome at keeping my hive tools from entering the phantom zone.
-[custom branding stamp] (http://www.brandingirons.com). Come up with a cool beesiness name for him (some kind of inside thing). Depending on the size of it he'd be able to brand anything wood with it.
-Hive tool with his initials sketched on it. He can use it in the field or keep it in his honey house/office as decoration.
-Does he do anything with his wax bits? How about a cool [book] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1592539793/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1481223008&sr=1-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=beeswax+alchemy&dpPl=1&dpID=61BSwZW9mHL&ref=plSrch)
-A membership to the local beekeeping club
-does he do anything with his honey-sell it? Give it away? Take a bath in it? If it's the two former he might dig a nice custom logo. Get silly with it, put all kinds of inside jokes on it. Something he could easily print out on a label and put on his jars. Something like [this] (https://www.google.com/search?q=honey+logo+for+jars&client=safari&hl=en-us&biw=320&bih=460&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWp9uqo-XQAhVMTrwKHQDtChkQ_AUIBygB#imgrc=1SRr0EVEDwL1sM%3A).

You could also just go through a beekeeping catalogue and pick some random thing out. Beekeepers are a bunch of dorks and pretty much dig anything beekeeping. Source-am a beekeeper.

Well, best of luck to ya.

As a noob, I've been reading and acquiring a lot of beekeeping books lately. Here are my thoughts:

"Homegrown Honey Bees" by Alethea Morrison is a nice introductory book that is loaded with photos. It's definitely a gentle intro book more than a reference book.

I really love "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping" by Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Herboldsheimer. It covers all the basics and teaches a treatment-free approach. I was put off by the Beekeeping for Dummies book, which repeatedly recommends prophylactic use of chemical treatments.

After that I'd recommend a good reference book that has hive management diagrams, such as "The Beekeeper's Handbook" by Diana Sammataro and Alphonse Avitabile.

If you're interested in top-bar hives, I would get "Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health" by Les Crowder and Heather Harrell, and "The Thinking Beekeeper: A Guide to Natural Beekeeping in Top Bar Hives" by Christy Hemenway. Backyardhive.com has a great DVD on top-bar hive management.

If you want to geek out on beekeeping history, "The Archaeology of Beekeeping" by Eva Crane is legendary. It's sadly out of print and very expensive to buy. I found it at the library.

Thanks. Since I'm working entirely with hand tools, each box takes 2-3 hours, but on the other hand, I work in my living room, so it's a bit more pleasant than working in the garage. The dovetails I do in the Frank Klausz style (I can't find the full article online, I originally saw it in the PWW book on Hand Tool Essentials which is fantastic in and of itself).

I plan on creating a how-to sometime this summer, and I'll post it here when I do.

Eau Claire area here. I also build my own. I’d recommend this book https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1612120598/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518417836&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=tony+pisano&dpPl=1&dpID=51hZnlar6KL&ref=plSrch
If you plan to build your own, this helps a lot. A friend of mine has a site for beginners that some others I have mentored have said helped. http://www.outyard.net/. There are some DIY items there, as well as great advise for beginners.

As for wintering, I have about an 80% success rate. The key is to treat for mites, and wrap on time, and put sugar boards out for extra insurance so they don’t starve.

If you’d like to discuss more, feel free to PM me!

Great work!

I'm offering my ebook FREE from the 17th until the 21st of November to help beginner keepers get started! Grab your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Beekeeping-Essential-Beginners-including-Apiculture-ebook/dp/B07718D3CM

this is absolutely great and has most everything you'll need to know. If you're ever ready to get super serious, this is the ultimate beekeeping bible.

I just finished reading The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild by Thomas Seeley https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Bees-Untold-Story-Honey/dp/0691166765

Really fascinating research on feral/wild honeybee colonies. If you are interested in finding a wild hive look up Beelining! it's like geocaching, a scavenger hunt, and insect collecting all in one

My Books

---
Here are the books I have:

Beekeeping

• The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum
  
• The Beekeeper's Bible by Richard A. Jones & Sharon Sweeney-Lynch
  
  

  History and Biology
  

  
  

• _Letters from the Hive_ by Stephen Buchmann
  
• _Biology of the Honey Bee_ by Mark L. Winston
  
  

  Gardening
  

  
  

• Attracting Native Pollinators by [The Xerces Society](
  https://xerces.org/mission/)
  
• Garden Plants for Honey Bees by Peter Lindtner
  
  
  

  The Wiki
  

  
  ---
  
  Here is the recommended list linked to in the wiki:
  
  

• Beekeeping for Dummies, by Howland Blackiston
  
• The Beekeeper's Handbook, by Diana Sammataro
  
• The Beekeeper's Bible: Bees, Honey, Recipes & Other Home Uses, by Richard Jones
  
• Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden, by Kim Flottum
  
• Better Beekeeping: The Ultimate Guide to Keeping Stronger Colonies and Healthier, More Productive Bees, by Kim Flottum
  
• The Backyard Beekeeper's Honey Handbook: A Guide to Creating, Harvesting, and Baking with Natural Honeys, by Kim Flottum
  
• Attracting Native Pollinators: The Xerces Society Guide, Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies, by the Xerces Society
  
  
  If you had to just pick one I would choose between The Backyard Beekeeper and The Beekeeper's Bible.
  
  I also highly suggest doing the following:
  
  
• look to see if beekeeping courses are offered by your state university or local community college and attend a basics beekeeping course
  
• find a local beekeeping club and regularly attend meetings (this will be important not just to learn, but also to be kept up to date about pesticide sprays, diseases to anticipate, and access to expensive machinery like honey extractors)
  
• read all your local laws about beekeeping and follow them

The drone endophallus removal is from multiple sources, including Winston and Seely, and is found in lots of papers as 'fact', such as: "we
nevertheless assume that not every drone leaves the bulb of endophallus in the sting chamber to be subsequently removed by the queen and/or the next drone." (Woyke, J. "Anatomo-physiological changes in queen-bees returning from mating flights, and the process of multiple mating." Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci 4 (1956): 81-87).

The above (admittedly old) paper states that a proportion of mated queens return with no endophallus present, but none were found with multiple present. I'd be interested to see references for drones not performing active removal, since that would imply returning queens might have multiple present.

The UV info I originally sourced from Winston, but further digging seems to show that the endophallus does not emit light in and of itself, but rather the mucus produced is highly reflective of UV light, which attracts drones. (G. Koeniger. "The role of the mating sign in honey bees, Apis mellifera L.: does it hinder or promote multiple mating?." Animal behaviour 39.3 (1990):444-449.)

The Hive and the Honeybee is one of the greatest pieces of literature concerning beekeeping.

I do not recommend moving them at night. Believe it or not at night while they are clustered they are more aggressive. Right now is a good time to reorient them to a new hive. on Amazon you can buy a Langstroth hive this is my personal recommendation. You will want a veil and probably a smoker. Use pinestraw for the smoker. Youtube before you do anything. Bees are easy to manage in the summer. Finding the queen and shaking her into the box is the only hurdle between you and an established colony (though note in general don't shake the queen into the box, but as a beginner shaking all the bees into the hive is probably the easiest way to transfer them).

I recently ordered a few of these... Been happy so far.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8L5ZJ6/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks promising!

​

Is this langstroth-size, too?

https://www.amazon.com/hdbees-Spawning-Controller-Beekeeping-Beekeeper/dp/B07Q8JJ53R/ref=sr_1_217?keywords=queen+excluder&qid=1563176984&s=gateway&sr=8-217

ABC and XYZ of beekeeping is pretty much the Bible when it comes to covering almost every topic you could ask.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/093602822X/ref=mp_s_a_1?qid=1320863732&sr=8-1

Can't believe I forgot ants. Big red and black carpenter ants down to tiny little sugar ants (good luck keeping them out). Time to read Honey Bee Pests, Predators, and Diseases again.

I couldn't recommend The Bee Book enough. It is incredibly informative and a blast to read. One of my favorite books of any genre.

I use something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004TBKI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_AH8WCbHJM5YKV

I like it better than the water bag kind since it's resuseable. Last year was my first time trying it. By the end of the season, it was almost completely full!

It's so satisfying to watch the wasps get caught. My hives survived, but I lost so many bees to wasps. They just tear them apart and eat them on the spot.

First Lessons In Beekeeping

This is the one we give out at our beginners classes here.

I found [this one] (http://www.amazon.com/Keeping-Bees-John-Vivian/dp/0913589195/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1395263148&sr=1-2&keywords=keeping+bees) to be very informative.

Working link - HERE