Kirk
To start a beekeeping business, the very first step is to start your own bee colony. There are three main ways to get your own bees: obtain a colony in a presently existing hive, a swarm, and a nucleus.
Obtaining a bee colony in a beehive is the easiest way to start your own colony. If buying a ready-made colony is not a costly option for you, buy it from the specialist suppliers and established beekeepers.
The cheapest way to own a bee colony is hiving a swarm. Although this is the cheapest, starting your own colony with it is really the most difficult and potentially dangerous. The first step is to find a swarm, which is usually composed of a queen and thousands of worker bees that can be seen usually clinging together in a vast ball hanging from a tree branch. These bees remain on that habit and place until scout bees have found a suitable home. To collect a swarm, the collector must cut off the branch, and let the clinging bees fall down into a box. Then, take them to your empty hive.
A nucleus is composed of a queen and a few numbers of workers from a different colony. The queen and the workers can be brought into your own hive. If they are not sufficiently established to stand on their own, they can be fed with sugar water. “Super” can only be added to the nucleus brood chamber if the frames in the chamber are all filled with honey.
