A sustainable way to get honey is to keep bees in your backyard. Whether you live in a suburban or urban area, it’s possible to safely harvest honey right in your yard. Honey is such a multipurpose ingredient, because it can be used for body products (sugar scrub), meal enhancers (meat glazes) or as a substitute for sugar. Plus, by beekeeping you enable bees to pollinate, which is one of their important jobs. Before setting up a backyard hive, you need to take some safety precautions so that the bees don’t annoy the neighbors or sting anyone.
If you’re thinking of harvesting honey, it’s a good idea to become familiar with the ins and outs of beekeeping first. Two main reasons are so that they don’t harm or pester your neighbors, and the second reason is that you want the bees making honey in your yard and not somewhere else. A simple solution to prevent the bees from stinging people is to build a six foot tall fence or plant tall shrubbery. This will keep them flying high over people’s heads when they leave and return to their hive. In addition, a fence or plants will protect their hive from the elements.
Since honeybees need to collect water, you need a readily available source at least 20 feet away from their hive. This will also deter them from finding water in a nearby yard. Water gardens in barrels with floating plants can work, but if a small pond or creek already exists on your property, you don’t really need to add another water source.
Swarms of bees can also be a problem, and this usually occurs when the colony is ready to find a new hive. A young queen that is less than a year old can reduce the occurrence of swarming, but you will need to replace her with a new, younger queen every year. An alternative is to setup a bait hive and have it at least 100 feet away from their old nest. If they know a new hive is close, they will be less likely to start another hive on the neighbor’s property.
Along with the precautions above, it’s also important to keep the species of bee in mind as well as any laws outlawing beekeeping in your area. In the northern U.S., the Carniolan bee is often used as a honey bee, and the Italian bee is commonly used in the southern U.S. and Mexico. Beekeeping can be a rewarding hobby, but you need to learn the basics of beekeeping if you want to have a convenient honey supply.
