Animal Guides
Chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, quail, rabbits, goats, sheep, pigs, cattle and bees: getting started, housing, feeding, care and health.
Raising Chickens →How-To Guides
Step-by-step guides for every animal, the garden, orchard, pasture and compost: getting started, housing, feeding, daily care, breeding, health and harvest.
Garden and Land Guides
The vegetable garden, orchard, pasture and compost — with the key numbers and links to the trackers that keep your records.
Growing a Garden →Keeping Bees
A hive or two gives honey and wax and pollinates the garden and orchard. Bees need regular checks, mite control and enough honey left for winter.
- Inspect
- every 7–14 days in spring and summer
- Mite threshold
- 2–3 mites per 100 bees
- Spring syrup
- 1:1 sugar to water
- Fall syrup
- 2:1 sugar to water
1Getting started
- Start with two hives so you can compare them and share frames if one struggles.
- Order packages or nucs in winter for spring; nucs (with drawn comb and brood) start faster.
- Some states require hives to be registered — check with your state apiarist.
- Wear at least a veil; a full suit helps beginners stay calm.
2Placing the hives
- Morning sun, afternoon shade, and a windbreak; the entrance away from paths.
- A water source nearby (with landing spots like stones or floating corks) keeps bees out of neighbors’ pools.
- Raise hives off the ground on a stand to help your back and keep pests out.
3Inspections
- Look for eggs (the queen is laying), healthy capped brood, and stores of honey and pollen.
- In spring watch for swarm cells along the bottom of frames; give room early.
- Add honey supers when the brood box is about 80% full.
- Inspect on warm, calm days, and use smoke gently.
4Mites and health
- Varroa mites kill more hives than anything else — count them every month or two (alcohol wash or sugar roll).
- Treat above 2–3 mites per 100 bees, following the label exactly.
- Learn what American foulbrood looks like (sunken, greasy caps; ropey brood) and call your state inspector if you see it.
5Honey and winter
- Harvest frames that are at least 80–90% capped.
- Leave enough honey for winter — often 60–90 lb in cold climates — and feed 2:1 syrup in early fall if they are light.
- Reduce the entrance and add a mouse guard for winter.
Put it to work
These free tools keep the records for you once you’ve made an account:
These are rules of thumb from university extension guidance. Breed, climate and your state’s rules change the details — your county extension office is the best place to ask, and you can find it on the selling rules page by ZIP code.