How much do you need to know to be a beekeeper?

Do you need to know the names of the glands in worker bees? Not really, and nor do you need to know the job progression for a honey bee. But sometimes these things are useful to have an understanding of. Knowing that not all bees produce wax or are able to feed queens might help us when things don’t go as we expected they would.

Our regular beekeeping includes inspecting our bees. Most people light a smoker, but not everyone. The advice is to always have a smoker lit. Most days I barely use it beyond letting the bees know I’m about to take their home apart. However, when I do need it I am supremely grateful for its ability to move bees away from either me or the boxes I need to put back together as a hive. 

So you need to know how to inspect and what to record. Ted Hooper’s Questions are a mainstay of beekeeping for me. His simple questions are needed every inspection. The questions ask about room - although I always try to emphasise the need for bees to have elbow room even though they don’t have elbows.
Writing the answers up is as important as trying to answer them during the inspection.

Some courses get tied up in telling new beekeepers the differences between the different types of bees: workers, queen and drone. The main thing to know is that only the workers are ever going to sting you. The boys don’t have stingers and the queen has a stinger but only uses it for killing other queens. The main other difference than size is the eyes - the drones look like ‘Top Gun’ pilots with huge goggles. 

What else does a beekeeper really need to know? How to stop them swarming - and if that fails how to put them back into a box and then what actions you need to do.

Stopping your bees from swarming is very important. That swarm should be considered your honey crop flying away! And action is definitely needed to reduce the remaining queen cells in order to prevent cast swarms. If you thought the first swarm annoyed your neighbours, the third, fourth or fifth will really annoy them!

The best way to learn beekeeping is to learn some theory and then have a go at the practical side. When you take the plunge and get your own bees you need to know how to inspect them and how to write up the notes from the inspection. That way you are well equipped for asking for help when you need it as you can refer to your hive records for the details of what’s going on.

To be able to do a good inspection you need to be able to identify honey, pollen, capped worker and drone brood, queen cells, play cups, larvae, eggs and the different types of bees: worker, queen and drones.

Here’s some photos - what can you spot?  

 Why might these workers be all be lined up? 

Diane Drinkwater, April 2024