Wanna be a beekeeper?

Have you been itching to start a few bee hives of your own in your backyard? If so, spring time is when you want to begin. We will be selling five frame starter nucleus hives (nucs) through June (or until sold out) this spring for pickup at our site in Nunica, MI. If interested, you can check our online shop for pickup dates, availability, and to order / reserve your nuc(s) in advance. Don’t wait though, as the nucs usually move quite quickly once word gets out that they are available.

Still not sure if you’re ready to be a beekeeper? We’ve written several tutorials over the years, on getting started, including this article on buying bees. It is really important that you have your equipment ready before you pickup your bees, and that you are fully prepared to properly manage your bees in the weeks / months ahead. If you are in the West Michigan area and looking for beekeeping gear, we strongly recommend you visit Don Lam’s Bees in Holland, MI. Don is a great guy and sells a complete line of high quality Amish-made woodenware and other beekeeping supplies at very reasonable prices.

One particularly important part of beekeeping is monitoring and treating for varroa mites. We strongly recommend you install the Bee Informed Partnership’s MiteCheck application on your smart phone, and take advantage of the number of tutorials and other training materials in the app to properly monitor and treat for varroa mites. Failure to properly monitor and manage mites in your colonies will almost guarantee that you’ll be buying replacement bees next spring!