I read a couple of days ago about a beekeeper who killed the old queen in one of his hives before checking to make sure his new queen was up and going. She was not. His “rookie mistake,” as he called it, had him kicking himself.
Learning the craft of beekeeping isn’t easy, and you are going to make mistakes. Trust me on this. Even my teacher, master beekeeper, Serge Labesque, said he made every mistake he could make with the bees. I’ve heard lots of other beekeepers say the same thing–that they have made many, many mistakes. Understandably, it’s hard to make a mistake, especially if you cause the death of a hive or someone gets hurt. On the up side, making mistakes is essential to learning. It is through our mistakes with our bees that we come to understand them and serve them better.
I think of the bees enduring, despite me. Last winter, we made the mistake of leaving too many boxes on the hive as we closed them up for the winter. I read recently that leaving so many boxes, can, in a way, stimulate a hive to keep making brood. That was not my intention. We had thought to leave a good amount of honey for the girls, just in case.
Here’s another tale of some classic rookie mistakes. We had captured a swarm and hived them, and let them be for about a week, only to discover that the girls had built comb attached to the hive top feeder (it’s best to make sure to fill out a hive box with, at least, frames, even empty frames, lest the swarm you’ve housed builds out comb hanging from the ceiling). Anyway, we had to cut the comb out, and we thought to attach it with rubber bands into empty frames so the girls could still use it. Without thinking, we placed the comb UPSIDE DOWN into the frames. We realized later that we had set the hive back quite a bit by doing that. They couldn’t use the comb at all because the cells slanted downward and any nectar they tried to store would slide out. Needless to say, that hive did not survive the winter. We think our mistake did not help.
So rookies and new-bees, go easy on yourself when you make a mistake. That’s just the way it is with life anyway, yes? Just like windsurfing (I was a goof and kept falling), gardening (who plants papayas in a temperate climate?), and even cooking (when I think about the crummy dishes I first made…), you’ll get better as you go through it. I promise!
What mistakes have you made? Share them with me and the other readers by leaving a comment below. It would be a learning experience.

























