How Does One Acquire A Colony of Bees?

Most beginning backyard beekeepers will order their bees from a local or regional package bee supplier. As crazy as it sounds, bees are ordered by the pound, haha. 3 pounds of bees (roughly 10,00 bees) will usually run you about $75-90. After doing a lot of research, I settled on ordering my bees from Knight Family Honey (click here to visit their site). I found Knight Family Honey at the Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park. I was able to get 4 pounds of bees (roughly 13,000 bees) for $85 -- by far the best deal around. If you are living in the greater Salt Lake Area, the only other place to order bees -- that I could find -- was Jones Bees (click here to visit their site). Here are some other sites you might visit to order your bees:

Dadant and Sons Inc.: www.dadant.com

Brushy Mtn. Bee Farm: www.brushymountainbeefarm.com

Draper's Super Bee Apiaries Inc. www.draperbee.com

Beesource Beekeeping: www.beesource.com

If you order your package bees online, they will usually arrive at your local post office and you will have to go pick them up. In my case, I will be traveling to Knight Family Honey in Lehi to pick them up. They come in a wooden box with screening on both sides. I will post an entry with a video showing my package bees and how I install them in the future...stay tuned.