Begin Beekeeping

As your colony grows and fills both brood chambers, you will need additional equipment for excess honey storage, removal of honey, medicating and wintering.

Queen Excluder

A metal grid that the workers can pass through but the queen and drones can not. Used to restrict the Queen to the brood chamber.

Honey Supers and Frames

These supers could be either deep, deep-shallow (three-quarter depth) or shallow.

Bee Escape

A mechanical method of getting bees out of the honey supers.

Bee Brush

A horse hair brush used to move bees off frames, etc.

Medication

These are needed at various stages of colony growth. For example: during brood rearing, spring and fall feeding, testing or treatment for parasitic mites, etc.

Hive Wrap

A hive wrap or some method to assist your bees in meeting winter’s harsh conditions.

and …

You will need some method/way of extracting the excess honey stores your bees have gathered.

In New Brunswick, you must register your colonies with the Department of Agriculture. There is no charge for this. Application forms are available at beekeeping supply stores or from your Provincial Apiarist.

We hope this guide will be of use to you, the beginning beekeeper. If there are areas that are not easily understood, let us know so we can update the information.