Beekeeping can be a fascinating hobby, a profitable sideline, or a full-time occupation. You'll need beekeeping information to keep bees for the delicious fresh honey they produce, or for the benefits of their valuable services as pollinators, or perhaps simply for the enjoyment of learning more about one of nature's most interesting insects. But how does one acquire the right beekeeping information needed to keep bees successfully?

The fundamental key to beekeeping is, understanding the bee itself. Honeybees are social insects which means that they live together in large, well-organized family groups. These social insects are highly evolved and engage in a variety of complex tasks not practiced by solitary insects. Communication, complex nest construction, environmental control, defense, and division of the labor are just some of the behaviors that honey bees have developed to exist successfully in social colonies.

A typical colony consists of, QUEEN, WORKERS AND DRONES.

All WORKER bees are female, and depending on their age, perform all the labours of the hive, they can assist in duties such as feeding the brood, cleaning the hive, handle incoming nectar and guard the entrance to the hive.
All DRONES are male and have no stinger, Their main function is to fertilize the virgin queen during her mating flight, but only a small number of drones perform this function. Drones become sexually mature about a week after emerging and die instantly upon mating. Although drones perform no useful work for the hive, their presence is believed to be important for normal colony functioning.

The QUEEN is female and her primary job is reproduction, The second major function of a queen is producing pheromones that serve as a social "glue" unifying and helping to give individual identity to a bee colony.

The initial purchase apart from the actual bees themselves, is the hive. Once the hive has been either purchased or built, the next step is to purchase a package of bees, Yes that's right you can actually buy an established bee colony. The alternative is to go out and collect a wild swarm of honeybees, but to start off with, it's probably a good idea to purchase a packaged colony of honeybees, especially while you are just beginning your new hobby.

Protective clothing is highly recommended for the beginner, also a smoker and other necessary hive tools. Although bees have a stinger that can give a painful injection, generally, bees only sting if they have to protect themselves or their hive. With this in mind, beekeepers use protective clothing such as hat, veil, gloves and a beekeeping suit. For added security for the beekeeper, a smoker is used to calm the bees down so as to easily handle the hive and colony of bees.

The way the smoker works is that it discharges smoke, the smoke tricks the bees into thinking that the colony may have to escape the hive because of a potential fire risk.
the smoke also obscures the pheromones given off from guard bees to the other bees in the colony that the hive may have a potential intruder.

Because removal of honey from a hive can be challenging at times, certain precautions are taken. The removal of the honey at the right time is also essential,
when collecting honey, if you harvest too soon, it will contain too much water, which might spoil the honey, leave it to long and the hive will have no more room for the bees to store the honey.

A good indication of whether or not the honey is ready is when the beekeeper (You) can see caps of wax over the honey cells, then you'll know it's time to harvest the honey. Choose a sunny day in the morning as the best time of day to harvest your honey, as your bees will be out of the hive and busy foraging.

Now for the legal stuff, before you get too carried away with the romantic idea of taming wild insects to gain your very own delicious honey for pleasure or profit.
Make sure of the rules and regulations of your local government for beekeeping in your state, town or area.