First time beekeeper
Whatever your approach to beekeeping, whether it is mad researcher or someone that bites off more than they can chew and then chews like crazy, the beauty of beekeeping is that you will learn, and your skills will evolve. Beekeeping is the art of learning to work with nature for the benefit of your bees.
Here is a handy list of what you need to know or do when you first start keeping bees.
Stuff you need
Hive- I personally love Flow Hives, check out this link - https://mbsy.co/3JFPbz
Smoker- A smoker is a necessary bit of equipment, smoke keeps the bees calm and trust me- when you are new to beekeeping you want to keep the bees calm, it will make your life a lot easier.
Bee suit- it can be intimidating having bees flying around you and if you handle them badly (which may happen when you are learning) the bees might respond by flying at your head. Part of the beekeeping journey is overcoming any fears you have about being stung by crazy flying insects. Wearing a bee suit is going to help you on your journey. Do not be intimidated or try to duplicate YouTube videos of bee experts wearing very little protection. Once you gain practical experience and knowledge you to can go gloveless and suit-less if that is what appeals to you.
Beekeeping gloves- these gloves are thicker than gardening gloves, which translates to not feeling as many bee stings through them.
Antihistamines. Just have some with you. Just in case you or someone else needs them.
Hive tool
Bees.
A top or front feeder.
Things you don’t need - bee brush, internal sugar feeders (get a top or front feeder instead).
In NSW, The Department of Primary Industry or DPI is the government body in-charge of research and development to grow our agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors; and regulation and administration of biosecurity, food safety, animal welfare and hunting in NSW.
In NSW, anyone who keeps European honey bees (Apis mellifera) must register with the DPI.
The registration fee ranges from $36 to $100 depending on if your a concession or a business. It is cheaper (10%) to register online than via the paper version.
There are rules that must be followed as being a registered beekeeper in NSW these include- Labelling your beehives with your registration number given to you when you registered.
Even beehives on private property need to be labeled with the hive registration number. These hives are technically illegal.
Also follow the Australian-Honey-Bee-Industry-Biosecurity-Code-of-Practice-V1-July-2016.pdf (honeybee.org.au)
Use the standards in the Code as a guide as to how to manage your beehives. These codes will help you become a good beekeeper.
The minimum standards you need to meet include 2 inspections per year- you should do more than this, but two is the minimum in the code. As a guide I do inspections every 4weeks in warmer months.
The code will explain how to manage disease and how to report it. You will need to do two sugar shakes or drones uncapping a year. Sugar Shake Season (nsw.gov.au)
The code requires you to keep records of what you do in your hives for five years. You will want to keep records for yourself anyway, because it is very useful to help you make decisions. So nothing in the code is additional to what you will want to do to manage hives well.
This code of Practice is also available in Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Greek Italian (PDF, 6201.45 KB), Turkish (PDF, 721.16 KB), Arabic (PDF, 488.7 KB) and Greek (PDF, 484.68 KB).
What I have written here about the DPI is for the purpose of giving you some starting knowledge. Check out the DPI’s website directly via this link Honey bees (nsw.gov.au). There is a wealth of information there to help you.
Join the Amateur Beekeepers Association and find your local bee group.
The importance of being part of your local group and not just online bee facebook groups, is the advice and will be tailored to your local area. There is a big difference in how bees are managed in Broken Hill compared to Katoomba or Manly, due to the climatic differences. With beekeeping you cannot learn everything you need from a book or website, you need to learn how the information from the book or website translates to your local area.
Another benefit of being in a local beekeeping group is that often there will be someone that will be willing to come over and help you if you get stuck. There will be times when even though you have done heaps of research, you do not know what you are looking at in your hive. It is in everyone’s best interest that all hives in an area are managed well.
Members of the Blue Mountains Beekeepers club inspecting a hive at one of their monthly meetings.
To find your local club Amateur Beekeepers Association NSW
Keeping bees might seem like an overwhelming pursuit especially if you get caught up in books about bee nutrition and supplementary feeding, but bees have been living and reproducing for centuries by themselves, producing honey, dealing with issues with the weather. Being a beekeeper is an important role but the bees will help you. They want to live and build up strong colonies and they will be to an extent forgiving of your mistakes. Once you start beekeeping you will learn so much in the process which you wont get from only reading books. If it does not work out for you there is always someone that you can sell or give your bees to, but at one point if you will ever become a beekeeper you will have to jump in and give it a go.