You don't need 40 acres and a mule to keep honey bees!

Times have indeed changed in the state of Tennessee regarding bees and beekeeping. In the late 1920's records indicate there were an estimated 250,000 hives of honey bees in the state. That is a mind boggling number, but indicative of the distributed, self-sufficient rural nature of an agricultural state and population. Some individual in just about every rural family kept bees for garden pollination and to supply themselves and their relatives with honey. Today, in sharp contrast, there are roughly 20-25,000 hives maintained by beekeepers statewide. We have been transformed into a predominantly urban society in the past 50 years, and 90% of the state's pollinating/producing beehives have disappeared along with much of the beekeeping knowledge and skill that was once widespread.

So how feasible is it to expect those of us living in and around urban centers of population today to keep the art and practice of beekeeping alive? The answer is that is very possible. Many individuals do not realize that they live in a situation that might accommodate the keeping of a hive or two of bees. Bees do just fine in urban environments. Few sites do not have enough nectar producing flowers, weeds, and trees within a hive's 2-mile foraging radius to sustain a colony and provide some surplus for the pleasure of the beekeeper. There was a news story a few years ago about a beekeeper with hives kept on the roofs of New York City residential buildings. He made enough honey to sell a considerable volume at handsome New York prices. The individual who helped me obtain my first hives kept his own bees on a half-acre lot in a Fountain City neighborhood. While it is certainly good to have more space for your bees, it is certainly possible to keep bees in what might initially appear to be unlikely locations.

So what do you really need if you are of a mind to try beekeeping? The following is a short list of what I consider the essentials.

1. A hive location that gives the bees a flight path to and from the hive entrance that does not infringe upon human traffic patterns to swing sets, garbage cans, garages, etc.. Bees can be influenced in various ways to have a flight path that goes up and over human paths. My hives sit behind a row of 6-foot blueberry bushes, for example. A good hive location will also have some eastern or southern exposure for early day warmth.

2. Good relations with your neighbors, city or country You don't necessarily have to try selling neighbors on the idea of having bees in the vicinity, but you should not ignore situations that obviously spell trouble. I recently moved several hives from a long-time location because a neighbor built a lily pond the bees found very attractive as a water source. I could have tried to provide a closer water source, but I just did not have the time to monitor the situation. Foraging honeybees are not aggressive, but that can be a tough point to make in certain instances. Gifts of honey can go a long way, however.

3. The interest and time to care for your bees. You had better want to keep bees because of an interest in the stewardship of a fascinating social creature. Any honey you make the first couple of years will probably be the best you have ever tasted, but also likely the most expensive. The time required to keep bees is not extraordinary. Time requirements can be "inconvenient" more than anything else. You will almost certainly spend more time thinking and planning for the care of your bees than you spend actually manipulating them. But especially in the springtime, weather and the bees themselves will heavily influence your schedule.

4. The funding for a good start. You should count on investing approximately $300-350 to get started from scratch with equipment, bees and medications for the first year. If you plan on beekeeping without medications, save your time and money.

5. Someone to act as your "Bee Buddy"! Don't let this one scare you off. Come to a Knox County Beekeepers' meeting, or contact us in any other fashion. One of our major purposes is to help new beekeepers assess their beekeeping potential, and shepherd them through the first part of the learning curve.

We hope to see or hear from anyone interested!

Bob Yost
Previous President, Knox County Beekeepers Association

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