A row of tall stacked wooden hives painted navy, yellow, green and white on a stand in front of dark trees

What beekeeping actually involves

A look inside every week or two

A hive mostly runs itself. Your job is to check on it and step in early. From spring to fall that means a 20 to 40 minute inspection every 7 to 14 days: puff smoke at the entrance, pry the boxes apart, and lift frames one at a time looking for eggs, stored food and signs of trouble. Around those inspections sit the seasonal jobs. In spring you add boxes as the colony grows and try to keep it from swarming. In late summer you count mites and treat for them. In fall you make sure the bees have enough honey for winter, and in winter you leave them closed up and build equipment for next year.

Spring: Add boxes, head off swarms
Late summer: Count mites and treat
Fall: Check the winter honey
Winter: Leave closed, build gear

How to get started

Tick these off as you go

What you can get done in your first month

An assembled hive on its stand

Boxes built, frames in, set level and facing morning sun.

An installed colony

Your bees moved into the hive, the queen released and the feeder full.

A first full inspection

Every frame lifted out and put back in order, without squashing the queen.

Eggs spotted

Tiny white grains standing in the bottom of the cells, which tell you the queen is alive and laying.

A box of drawn comb

Fresh white wax built out across most of the frames, ready for the second box to go on.

Choosing a hive and setting up for an inspection

Start with a ten-frame Langstroth, the stacked rectangular boxes you see in most yards. Nearly every class, book and mentor teaches on it, and parts from any supplier fit.
Check what a kit includes before buying. You need a bottom board, ten frames with foundation per box, an inner cover and an outer cover. Pick a kit with two deep boxes and a medium one: the colony needs the second box within about two months.
Pine is the standard wood. A hive dipped or coated in beeswax sheds rain as it is, where bare pine has to be painted first.
Deep boxes hold the brood nest and weigh 80 pounds or more when full of honey. Medium boxes hold 50 to 60 pounds. If lifting is a concern, run all mediums.
Plastic foundation with a heavy wax coating is the easiest for beginners. Bees build on it faster than on bare plastic.
Before every inspection: light the smoker and get it producing cool white smoke, zip the veil fully, tuck pants into boots, and have the hive tool in hand. Pick a warm, calm day between late morning and mid afternoon, when most foragers are out.

Two gloved hands lifting a wooden frame of golden comb covered in bees out of an open hive, a hive tool in one hand — One frame, lifted straight up

Rules, registration and neighbors

Many states require you to register hives with the department of agriculture, often for free or a few dollars. The state apiary inspector is also a free source of help with disease.
Cities and counties set their own limits: the number of hives per lot, setbacks from property lines, and sometimes a required fence or hedge. Homeowner associations and leases can ban hives outright.
Put a 6-foot fence or hedge a few feet in front of the entrance. It forces the bees to climb above head height before they cross a yard.
Keep water out from the first day (a birdbath with stones works) or your bees will choose the neighbor's pool.
Tell the neighbors before the bees arrive, and ask whether anyone has a sting allergy.

Find your state apiary inspector

Apiary Inspectors of America: find an inspector Free. Your state apiary inspector, who handles registration and disease checks

Stings and safety

You will be stung, usually a few times a season. Local pain, swelling and itching for a day or two are normal.
Scrape a stinger out sideways with a fingernail or the hive tool right away. Pinching it squeezes in more venom. A puff of smoke on the spot masks the alarm scent that draws more bees.
Hives, swelling away from the sting, trouble breathing, dizziness or a tight throat are signs of a severe allergic reaction. Call 911. If you have never been stung by a honey bee, ask a doctor about allergy risk before buying bees.
Always wear the veil. Stings to the eyes and inside the nose or mouth are the ones that do real harm.
Do not open a hive in rain, in cold weather, at dusk or when a storm is coming. The whole colony is home and defensive.
A lit smoker is a fire. Set it on bare ground or a paver, and plug the spout and let it go cold before you put it away.

Two beekeepers in yellow suits and veils each holding a frame over an open hive box in a green forest — Veils zipped, hive open

Mites: the job you cannot skip

Almost every colony in North America carries varroa mites, a parasite that feeds on developing bees and spreads viruses. An untreated first-year colony often looks strong in August and is dead by December. Counting is simple: once a month, scoop half a cup of bees (about 300) from a brood frame into a test jar, wash them, and count the mites that fall off. Roughly 2 to 3 mites per 100 bees is the usual point to treat, with a product chosen for the season and the temperature, used exactly as the label says. Check that the queen is not on the frame before you scoop.

How often: Once a month
The sample: Half a cup of bees
Usual point to treat: 2 to 3 mites per 100

The free mite guide

Honey Bee Health Coalition: Tools for Varroa Management Free guide to counting mites and choosing a treatment by season

What trips beginners up

What to expect

Expect little or no honey for yourself in year one. The colony spends its first summer building comb and needs what it stores to get through winter.
Expect losses. Around a third or more of colonies die each winter, including those of experienced keepers. Many beginners start with two hives so they can compare them and share frames between them.
Expect heavy, hot work in midsummer: full boxes, a zipped suit and sticky hands.

What to avoid

Do not open the hive every other day. Each inspection sets the colony back, and once every week or two is plenty.
Do not skip mite counts because the bees look fine. Mite damage shows up after it is too late to fix.
Do not let the colony run out of room in spring. A crowded hive swarms, and half your bees leave with the old queen.
Do not stop feeding a new colony too early, or buy used boxes and comb without knowing their history. Old comb can carry disease that lasts for decades.

How much time it takes

Plan on about an hour a week per hive from April to September, including lighting the smoker and cleaning up, with a few longer days for installing bees, treating for mites and harvesting. From November to February the hive needs a glance every couple of weeks and nothing more. Bees cannot be paused: going away for two weeks in summer is fine, but skipping spring inspections usually ends in a swarm.

Hands holding a stainless steel bee smoker with bellows on top of a hive, white smoke rising from it — Smoker lit before the lid comes off

Where to learn

A local club is the single best resource, because beekeeping is regional: when plants bloom, when to add boxes and when to treat all depend on your climate. Clubs run beginner courses, pair new keepers with mentors and often lend out honey extractors. Your state university extension service publishes a seasonal calendar for your area, and the free video series below shows each basic hive job up close.

A club near you and free videos

Why the kit looks the way it does

The bees, the hive and a beginner course are most of the cost, and none of them is a place to cut corners. The hive options all include two deep boxes and at least one medium, so there is nothing to add as the colony grows. The smoker, hive tool, veil and gloves are what you hold or wear at every inspection, so they are essential too, along with a feeder and sugar to get a new colony building. The recommended lines are what the first season asks for within a couple of months: a stand to keep the hive off wet ground, and the mite test and treatment that decide whether the colony sees spring. Harvest gear is optional because most first-year hives make no spare honey, and clubs often lend extractors.

Close-up of golden honeycomb, its open six-sided cells glistening with liquid honey — Open cells full of honey

Stock the bee yard

Compare the options on each line, then set your tiers and check out from the cart. Clicking a card selects it there, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out. The first two lines, the bees and a beginner course, are not things you buy online: they come from a local supplier and a local club.

Honey bees (nucleus colony or package)

essentialThe bees

A hive is an empty box until a colony with a laying queen moves in, and where the bees come from decides how gentle and how well suited to your climate they are.

Not sold on Amazon · buy locally

Not sold on Amazon. Order in winter from a local beekeeper or bee supplier for spring pickup: your club will know who is reliable. A nucleus colony (five frames of bees, brood and a laying queen) runs about $180 to $250 and is the easier start. A 3-pound package with a caged queen runs about $150 to $200. Make sure the frames in a nucleus colony match your box depth.

Beginner beekeeping course

essentialLearning

A course walks you through a full season before your bees arrive, and usually ends with hands-on time in a real hive. Opening a colony for the first time alone is how beginners get badly stung.

Not sold on Amazon · buy locally

Not sold on Amazon. Look for a beginner or "bee school" course run by a local beekeeping club or your state extension service, usually in January or February. Expect $40 to $150, often including a year of club membership and a mentor.

Ten-frame Langstroth beehive

essentialCore equipment

This is the colony's home: the boxes, the frames the bees build comb on, the floor and the roof.

budget

Gold Standard 10 Frame Bee Hive Beeswax Coated Includes Beehive Frames and Foundations (2 Deep Boxes & 1 Medium Box)

4.6(173)

$135.99

Beekeeping

What beekeeping actually involves

How to get started

Choosing a hive and setting up for an inspection

Rules, registration and neighbors

Stings and safety

Mites: the job you cannot skip

What trips beginners up

How much time it takes

Where to learn

Why the kit looks the way it does

Stock the bee yard

Honey bees (nucleus colony or package)

Beginner beekeeping course

Ten-frame Langstroth beehive

Bee smoker

Hive tool

Beekeeping jacket with veil

Beekeeping gloves

Hive feeder

White granulated sugar

Hive stand

Varroa mite test kit

Varroa mite treatment

Bee brush

Beginner beekeeping book

Honey bottling bucket with gate

Double-sieve honey strainer