Honeybees

Anaphylaxis is the real risk. If anyone in the household has a systemic bee-sting history, this is not your first livestock. Know where the nearest epinephrine is.

Products: Honey · Wax (candles, salve, wrapping cheese) · Pollination

Start with

One package or nuc in April from a local keeper who winters bees in zone 6a — southern packages often die here. A Langstroth 10-frame hive is the standard; a Warre or top-bar is fine if that’s what you can build.

Housing

Morning sun, afternoon shade if you can, out of the north wind, 18 in off the ground. A water source nearby so they leave the livestock troughs. Bear are uncommon; skunks and raccoons are not — a strap on the lid.

Feed

They feed themselves if you leave them 60–80 lb of honey for winter. That is the whole secret of wintering in Indiana. A sugar-syrup emergency feed in March if the hive is light is second-best.

Water

A pan with pebbles 50 ft from the hive.

Breeding

They requeen themselves. Learn to spot eggs, open brood, and queen cells. A June swarm is your increase — or your neighbor’s bees. Have a spare box ready.

Health

Varroa mite is why colonies die. If you have no treatments, brood breaks (a split) and small-cell / resistant local mutts are your only tools. Don’t keep 20 hives you can’t inspect.

Predators

Skunks at night, wasps on weak hives, mice in winter (use an entrance reducer in October).

Harvest

Pull surplus supers in late June and again in August if the goldenrod/aster flow is on. Never take the winter cluster’s honey. Crush-and-strain if you have no extractor.