Beekeeping: how to start breeding bees
Do you want to become a beekeeper? Here's where to start and some useful tips
Becoming a beekeeper today is an important choice. Protecting the life of bees and their survival over time has become a priority for our planet.
In recent years, we have seen how the unfavorable environment, pollution and many other factors have had a strong negative impact on hives.
Beekeepers today are considered real modern heroes. Their work takes place in symbiosis with nature and allows them to actively act on the protection and safeguarding of bees.
Have you decided to become a beekeeper? Here are some useful tips and how to start a beekeeping business .
Start with a good beekeeping course
First, it will be useful to accumulate a wealth of information. When you decide to do this job, it is very important to know the natural mechanisms that regulate the life of bees. A good beekeeping course is already a first step to start.
If you have the opportunity, we recommend that you work alongside a professional beekeeper in the first place.
Every activity requires knowledge about it. Before starting, we therefore invite you to carry out a period of study to have adequate training.
Knowing bees well means being able to intervene in a productive and never invasive way against swarms . A good beekeeper is able to protect the welfare of his bees first of all but also to obtain good income for the work he does.
Choose the type of beekeeping you want to practice
After completing a suitable training course, you will need to decide the type of beekeeping you want to practice and evaluate how to set up your business.
If you want to place your apiary in a single and fixed place, then yours will be sedentary beekeeping.
Nomadic beekeeping, on the other hand, involves moving hives from one area to another. Practicing nomadism in beekeeping means always looking for optimal areas for the settlement of bees .
In the first case, just identify the most suitable place to place your apiary and continue the activity in that specific place, without moving the hives. When practicing nomadism instead, beekeepers decide to move based on different factors such as: the season, the optimal temperatures and the types of products they want to obtain.
It is good to specify that nomadic beekeeping requires additional costs to be incurred for the purchase of suitable means that allow you to move the hives without difficulty.
How to choose the place to place the hives?
In the case of sedentary beekeeping , the first step in starting a beekeeping business is to select the most suitable place to set up your apiary. The place to be selected must meet specific requirements.
The elements to be evaluated for identifying the ideal place are primarily the distance from busy roads and sources of pollution. Disturbance from noisy sources should also be avoided. The strong vibrations and noises could annoy the bees and prevent an optimal development of the colony.
It is also good to avoid particularly windy places or where there is a significant stagnation of humidity. In fact, these factors are not good for bees as they increase their aggressiveness and minimize honey production .
Choose instead places well exposed to sunlight , but shaded in the hottest periods. It is important that bees also have water sources nearby and above all nectar sources where they can forage without excessive effort. The presence of “bee-friendly” plant species is important.
The plants from which bees take pollen for honey production are: Facelia, Calendula, Vetch, Lupinella, Clover, Alfalfa, Coriander, Cumin, Annual Fennel, Parsnip, Dill, Borage, Rosemary, Thyme, Lavender, Sulla, Girasole, Malva, Tagete and many more.
Consider the initial investment for equipment and materials
If you want to start a beekeeping business you will have to incur initial costs to obtain all the necessary equipment. You will need to purchase the hives, frames, bees, protective suit and all the tools you will need to extract and maintain your apiary .
Find out about current legislation
The current legislation provides that any beekeeping activity must be registered with the national beekeeping registry.
The legislation also establishes the distances between the hives and roads or private properties. Usually these regulations vary from region to region.
Also try to find out about any incentives and funding offered by the regions. In this way, you will be able to recover a large part of the expenses incurred.
When to start?
You can start a beekeeping business at any time. What we recommend, however, is definitely to start during the spring period in order to have the whole production season ahead.
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