# New to bees!



## abagee_123 (Oct 14, 2013)

I am getting ready to order my first 2 hives. I need all the advice I can get! I am also planning my garden with the bees in mind. I grow tons of sunflowers for my rabbits, but what else do bees like? I live near fairplay colorado, so high altitude. Any advice for me starting out?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Read the stick post above on advice to new bees.
Also do a web search for honey bees and read all the information there you can find that is about plants and things they like. 

 Al


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Good luck with your bees.


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## txsteele (Nov 19, 2014)

IMO don't worry about planting plants for the bees. My wife is a gardener and has tons of flowering plants in our yard. I almost never see bees on our plants. They come out of the hive and take off like a rocket into the air. The same for the returning workers. We live in a subdivision and I can watch them coming back to the hive from between our house and the neighbors house. It's like a highway but they never seem to be on the plants in our own yard.


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## tom j (Apr 3, 2009)

what txsteele said ,,,, I have fruit trees less then 40 and 60 feet from the hives ,, very few bees ( maybe 50 ) at any time . next door trees full , full , full of bees .....


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## illinoisguy (Sep 4, 2011)

Do you have to buy new bees every year?


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

Not if you over winter them properly.

 Al


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## spicymustard (Jul 15, 2014)

We got a hive about a year ago. Did great through the summer and numbers really multiplied. Once it started getting cold they took off. We live in southern California so I thought they still had plenty of food left over but turns out we should have been feeding them sugar water.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

I wanted to get started this year but I've been threw some curve balls, so the plan will have to wait another year.


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