BeekeepHub publishes practical beekeeping guides for people keeping bees in their own backyard, mostly in their first few seasons. The aim is narrow and specific: give a beginner enough grounding to make a decision, then point them to the people who know their region.
How these guides are put together
Every guide starts from published sources rather than from memory. That means university extension programs such as Michigan State and Penn State, research from the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the Honey Bee Health Coalition’s Tools for Varroa Management, which is the standard reference in the US and Canada. On the pages where being wrong actually costs you a colony, mite management, disease, and overwintering, we list those sources at the bottom so you can go and read them directly.
Where beekeepers genuinely disagree, we say so instead of picking a side and presenting it as settled. Where a figure varies by climate or by state, we give the range and tell you to check locally.
What we do not do
We do not invent field tests. You will not find claims here about gear we have personally run for three seasons, because that would be a story rather than a fact, and this is not a site built on one person’s hive experience. What we can honestly offer is careful research, clearly sourced, written so a beginner can act on it.
We do not take payment for placement. A commission never decides what appears in a guide or in what order.
Why we sometimes tell you not to buy
Several of our guides actively steer readers away from spending. We suggest borrowing an extractor from a local club rather than buying one, buying used equipment where it is safe to do so, and waiting until a second season for harvest gear. Those recommendations earn us nothing, and they are still the right advice for most beginners.
Your local club knows things we cannot
No national guide can tell you when your nectar flow starts, what overwinters in your county, or which ordinance applies to your street. A local beekeeping association can, usually for a small membership fee, and it remains the single best resource a new beekeeper has. Wherever a question is genuinely regional, we say so and send you there.
Corrections
If something here is wrong, we would rather know. Accuracy matters more on a beekeeping site than on most, because a mistake in a mite guide can cost somebody a colony. Corrections are welcome and get made.