You say, "I don't have the skills or knowledge to make stuff!" I say baloney. Read on...

Every day there are more and more women becoming beekeepers. This is no longer a man's hobby. I think that's great and that there is room for everyone! A common theme I have noticed however with the female beekeepers I work with is a lack of self confidence when it comes to woodworking and making your own beehive components to save some money.

Let's face it, this hobby is not the cheapest out there. There are some rather large companies that have grown so big because you and I do not want to be bothered by having to cut, sand, and manufacture woodenware. I'm here today however to tell you that it doesn't all have to be made by someone else. You too possess the means to make some hive components on your own. And it's easier than you think.

Here's today's example: Migratory Covers.
Migratory Covers in my opinion are the cheapest hive top you can get. They are simple in design and don't have the fancy aluminum on top like a telescoping cover. I find them easier to manipulate for ventilation in the summer time and easier to strap down the hive in rough weather because they don't stick off the sides. I can make a migratory cover for $2.75 each without having to cut a single piece of wood myself. You can buy one online right now for $9.95 plus $16.78 for shipping. That's a grand total of $26.73! I've learned the expensive way that bees could care less how fancy your woodenware looks. Plywood and 2x4's made of pine work just as well as the fancy wood. So here's how you can do it...

Yesterday I went to my local Lowes and bought (1) 4x8 sheet of 23/32" utility plywood. I had a store employee wheel it over to the cutting station. I then had him cut (12) pieces each with the dimensions 14"x22"

I also had him pick up (8) 2x4's and cut them into pieces 14" long. I had him place all the wood back in my cart. I could have even had the employee wheel the cart out to my car. I was lucky and he didn't charge me for cutting any of the wood. Even if he had, it would have cost less than $5 for all the cuts. I took the wood home (without having to lift any of it) and found some old nails, screws, and glue around the house. I nailed and screwed the wood together and....voila I have 12 new migratory covers.

If I wanted, I could have bought some "oops paint" for $5 per gallon and painted the cover for extra insurance. Remember, I did this without any sawing or heavy lifting. All I needed was a screwdriver or hammer. In the end, my grand total for 12 new migratory covers was $33. That's $2.75 each!

"But Jay, what if the plywood warps or falls apart in a year?" I say, who cares. Throw the warped cover out and grab a new one. I've got covers that are 3 years old that are just as good as the day I put them together.

The moral of this story is use your resources. Just because you don't have a fancy wood shop out back doesn't mean you can't save some money and build your own components. I have minimal woodworking skills and I'm able to hack my way around all this. You can too. The help is out there. Take advantage of it!

The "Weekly Queen Rearing" System

I’ve just returned from a screening of “Queen of the Sun” here in Nashville. It was a great documentary and I encourage you to check it out if it comes to your town.

To me, the take home message was that we all need to practice sustainable beekeeping practices from now on. It’s a message that I feel us “slow-beekeepers” have been trying to promote for quite some time but haven’t had a big enough bullhorn to use. “Queen of the Sun” might be that bullhorn.

Another clear point in the film was an exposure to the sorry state of our queen bees today. The movie compared them to our cattle or pigs that are so weakened they need help just to stand up and be fed. While our queens are still able to crawl and lay eggs, I can’t agree more about how broken the industry appears. It’s also the aspect of the beekeeping industry I think you and I can make the most immediate difference. The more we learn and raise local queens of our own, the more dynamic and stable our apiaries will become.

Anyone can raise queens. You don’t need insemination kits, queen cages, or fancy grafting tools. You just need a strong, healthy colony you can be proud of. Simply take 3-5 frames of bees, brood (open and closed), and pollen from your healthy colony. Take these frames and make up a nucleus hive (making sure your original queen is not on the frames). Move this hive to a new location. Leave them alone for a week. Come back and check the frames for queen cells. If you find some, come back a week later and look for a queen. If you see a queen come back a week after that and look for eggs. If it doesn’t work, start the process over again with fresh frames of bees. If it did work, you now have a locally raised queen to help grow your apiary and put you one step closer to becoming the King of Queens…

***Special Note*** It is worth mentioning, there are many variations to raising queens. In my opinion, this is the simplest, least risky way of trying out queen rearing. One could argue that you’ll get better quality queens if you move the original queen to the nucleus hive and have the parent colony (the one with the most bees) raise a new queen. If you don’t care about honey production, this might be the way to go. Play around and see what works for you. The best part about it is you’ll know within 3 weeks if you’re a success of not.