How to Set up a Beehive for Beginners

This is to show you how to set up a beehive at home in your garden, it really is a tutorial for starting to keep bees for beginners.

Let me start by saying, I have never kept bees before and this is the beginning of a new adventure. Over time, I have watched with interest when people in my neighbourhood have been setting up and messing about with beehives. I am getting a lot of help from our local bee shop Buzzstop.

Why Keep Bees?

Here are a few reasons for keeping bees, firstly maybe it will help to simplify life by making us live with nature. We need to keep our garden bee friendly and that means more flowering plants with no pesticides. Secondly, we have fruit trees and a vegetable garden and the bees will pollinate the flowers. Thirdly, I want to use natural ingredients at home. I love the idea having our own honey made from the flowers and blossom trees in our garden. I want to be able to use honey instead of cane sugar in baking for my family. Maybe watching the bees might just help persuade my family to try honey as a first option in baking, smoothies or on toast.

First Steps: How to Paint and Set Up a Beehive for Beginners

I followed these steps to set up a beehive at home.

Find out what kind of beehive you need for your climate.
Order the beehive from a bee supplier.
Paint the beehive.
Find the warmest, sheltered place in your garden, it might be on the roof.
Set up a platform for the beehive to sit on.
Place the beehive on top of the platform and make sure it is stable.
Order the queen bee for your hive from a bee supplier.
Get excited about bees arriving!

Mountain Climate

Our cottage is on the side of a mountain where it is warm and dry in summer and cold and snowy in winter. I am lucky enough to have a neighbour who runs a bee shop, and he tells me I need a beehive that is designed to be warm enough in the winter so the bees will stay and be ready for spring.

snow covered stone cottage with snow on the ground and a blossom tree — Cold weather even in spring.

How to Paint the Beehive

Now the beehive is here I am painting it. Mental note: I need to get this done before October as queen bees are ready for their own hive in mid spring. We have looked at some great pictures of beehives and we are all agreed on a design for painting.

Primer

I have painted one coat of primer on the hive to stop the topcoat just soaking into the timber on the beehive. The plan is that everyone at home can join in and painting the hive. Bees pay no real attention to the colour of the hive but it is fun for us and I can’t wait to see how it will look sitting in the garden.

Paint test pots used to weather proof and paint and set up beehive — Test pots of paint for the beehive.

Topcoat Colours

The paint test pots are great as the beehive has a small surface area that needs covering and I want to use a variety of colours. The paint is only for the outside and not inside where the bees will be. It is only to protect the timber from the elements.

Empty frame showing preparation for bees, frame sticking out of the top of set up beehive — Empty frames inside the painted beehive.

I drew the design on the beehive with pencil first to see how it would look then painted two coats of the background colour leaving the outline of the design showing through. When the background colours had dried I painted on the outline of the cells. We all took turns filling in the colours and I painted the sillouette detail of the bee last of all.

painting detail of honeycomb design on a new beehive to set up beehive outside. — Painting detail of the honeycomb onto the beehive.

There is plenty of paint left over after painting the beehive and I plan to use these colours for another project. Bright, sunny colours look amazing out there in the garden.

How to Set up the Beehive

Finding a Place to Keep the Beehive

We have a sunny patch of hillside not being used for anything because it is too steep. I have dug a flat patch for a pallet to sit on because otherwise it looks perfect. Next, the children have played around on the pallet to test its stability and it is still there. I might anchor the pallet with some untreated wooden pegs just to make sure it doesn’t slide down the hill. It looks like a great stable base for the hive to sit on and it is in a warm part of the garden sheltered from the wind. The entrance to the hive should face north so that the sun shines on it all day.

Platform to set up beehive using a wooden pallet on a flat section of a hill, spade used to dig terrace — Dig a flat patch to place pallet on for the beehive.

Bees need food and the hive is near our fruit trees, some climbing roses and strawberry plants on some terracing. We have hawthorn trees at the bottom of the hill and I just noticed some borage coming out. Now I am enjoying thinking about where can plant more flowers and herbs around the garden.

wild flowers in the unmowed grass — Wild flowers in unmowed grass.

The Queen Bee

In October a queen bee was ready to travel however, there was a spring snowstorm. Queen Bees can not be transported in cold weather or they will die so in a month a new queen will be hatched and ready to travel. I am learning so much about bees.

Cold spring day with snow on the hills and icy water. — Spring snowp in the mountains behind the cottage.

Finally November is here and the queen has arrived! We were all excited to see the beekeeper carry the hive down the hill. It was late evening and, the day had cooled down but even so, we could hear the bees buzzing in the hive. For the next few days, the bees stayed in the delivery hive to help them settle in to their new home. Their home is of course much bigger than our garden but we do want them to come back to the hive.

set up beehive with bees by the opening. — First day with the bees.

Over the first few days the bees make circular flights to orientate themselves. We have a river at the bottom of the hill below our house and the beekeeper tells us the bees will like the water and plants down towards the river. In the not too distant future, the frames from the delivery hive will be transferred into our hive. I am already enjoying watching the routine of the bees’ day.

I hope this will encourage you to find out more about bees and maybe set up a beehive at home. Read more about how our bees have settled in and our first batch of homegrown honey. I will put a link here as soon as I have news.