Although you may not realize it, bee beekeeping and home beekeeping is mainly a hobby. There are of course commercial beekeepers (and you too could make a healthy income by selling honey), but the vast majority of even commercial beekeepers will only derive part of their income through the sale of honey.
I have been beekeeping for many years now and if you were to ask me about my reasons for keeping bees, there would be several. They are:
As a hobby Most beekeepers do so as a hobby. It is an activity that is interesting, relaxing, and extremely rewarding. You will never stop learning, and providing you grasp the basics you can very easily start beekeeping with the minimum of experience and not much equipment.
To pollinate the garden Many beekeepers are also keen gardeners and it is well known that bees improve the pollination and general health of the surrounding area.
To produce honey This is probably the number 1 reason that people get into bee beekeeping. Whether you are planning on producing honey for your own personal consumption, or whether you are looking to sell honey as a commercial venture, home beekeeping is an easy way to gather beautiful yummy honey.
Once you have a good supply of honey it is surprising what uses you will find for it. A jar of honey is a good thank you for a favour, it can also be bartered for other products or services, and there are plenty of medicinal uses for honey (as well as enjoying it on a slice of toast!). Did you know that honey can be used to replace sugar in many recipes, and fermented into mead which is one of the simplest drinks to make?
To produce wax Most people thing of honey as being the sole product of home beekeeping, but actually beeswax is also a very useful product that comes with bee beekeeping. For example, beeswax can be used for making candles, polish, soap, and other cosmetics. All these things can be made with equipment that is available in most households. It’s really easy and in my book “Beekeeping Made Easy”, there are instructions and recipes on all of the above and much much more.
Because I’m interested in nature Bees are beautiful and fascinating creatures in themselves. They have a strict organizational structure, they work as a team with different bees having different jobs, and they have a complex society set up in a single beekeeping hive.
Bee beekeeping leads to other fun stuff There are many things of interest that beekeeping will lead to including microscopy and photography as well as beekeeping clothing and the tools that are found in the beekeeping kit.
So now you know why I started beekeeping, you should ask yourself: is home beekeeping or bee beekeeping for me? Once you have decided on that, then you need to start thinking about what you need and how to start bee beekeeping.
Home Beekeeping and Bee Beekeeping
There are surprisingly few restrictions to home beekeeping and bee beekeeping. Both are essentially the same. Bee beekeeping is the keeping of bees and home beekeeping is the keeping of bees at your home! It’s that simple. At the end of the day, they both require a minimum set of equipment:
- Your commitment to spending a little time and dedication to your bees!
