Im looking to get into beekeeping this summer. What sort of starting

Beekeeper here, first I'll need to ask some questions?

Where are you living anon? There may be relevant laws. There will be environmental factors that effect your beekeeping.

You will need, per hive, a floor, at least 2 brood boxes with 10 frames per box, a feeder box (optional but recommended) a queen excluder, a mat and a lid, you will need at least one "honey" box too, I recommend 2 or 3 per hive though. Also recommended is a bee escape.

Will also need, a suit and hive tool.

Look up beekeeping suppliers online in your cointry/state and price these items.

and a method of extracting your honey, even hobby extractors are expensive.

>>2339631
To add to this. I suggest buying your first hives, either full hives or "nucs" buy at least 2, if not more.

To answer your second question, you can make the floors, cover mats and lids yourself easily, unless you plan to build thousands just buy the boxes, buy them dipped too. Buy plastic frames, melt beeswax in an electric frying pan a roll a thin layer of wax with a paint roller, If you know local beekeepers and are friendly they may let you take some busted gear, if you can get some boxes with busted corners and frames with snapped lugs, you could put together some hives for free. It's okay if there's another hole in the hive if it's strong, or just block it up.

>>2339595
I too am interested in eventually getting into this.

We need to help out or bee buddies, they are cute and good for us.

>>2339631
I live in wisconsin and i'll be doing this in a very rural area. We have 120 acres that was a farm at one time. Thanks for the info!

>>2339645
Do you have lots of cropland nearby? If so what kinds? Willow trees are good, wild plants that flower early in the spring are too.

Look up what bee diseases you have, you have to treat for varroa mites, do not skip this or your bees will die.

You will also need to be wary of American foul brood, you can give antibiotics to your bees, or you can check and burn affected hives.

You may have more diseases.

>>2339645

Not who you were replying to. I'm in WI too and started a hive last year. I started with 2 boxes and bought a nuc from somebody off craigslist.

They didn't need more than the 2 boxes last year, but I just let them do their thing without feeding or anything. They're going to need more room this year though. I didn't take any honey the first year. I'm glad they made it through the winter.

I can't give much advice because I'm still learning. Have a mite treatment plan though. The bees lived through my small mistakes, but without treatments the mites would eventually kill them.

The earlier in the year you start the better. Most of your costs will come from equipment and the boxes, bees themselves are pretty cheap. Depending on what they have to forage from you may need to feed them sugar and pollen to get a colony up and running. I also recommend starting with more than one colony. Bees are finicky and can start to decline unpredictably. Everything in a beehive will be accepted by another hive except the queen including eggs, food, wax, etc, so, if one of your colonies ends up being weaker and going into decline, you can transfer frames from the other to keep them going and maybe replace the queen. Read up on the prevention of parasites and disease, very important. If you can, get queens from stock bred specifically for varroa mite resistance.

>>2339662
We actually have about 30 acres of cropland right on our property, otherwise yes there's tons of cropland all around us. Tons of farms all around us. Lots of corn and soy bean. Ours was planted as clover this year. And we have many apple trees, 2 large areas of blackberry bushes and one area thats sort of just grassland/prairie is. Otherwise there's like 80 acres of woodland that's our property and our neighbors all around are similiar.

>>2339791
Oh and I forgot to mention i'll be planting probably between 15 or 20 fruit trees, mostly apples, pears, and plums probably a few peaches too, this summer. As well as some berry bushes.

>>2339791
I'm jealous. Winter aside your area sounds so much better than here for beekeeping. I would start up an operation if I didn't have to feed them myself. Just be aware of whether your farming neighbors are spraying pesticides.

>>2339811
Oh shit I forgot about that, I dont think there's much of any pesticide spraying going on around us but if that's the case is there any way to protect them from that? Set it up further from fields? Certain parts of our property are quite secluded

>>2339817
There's not much you can do. Bees will of course prefer foraging closer to their hive but they can travel over five miles away from home to a food source if they feel like it.

>>2339806
Your trees won't blossom the first summer.