Americana Hiving System

The Joy of Beekeeping

Dr Jurica introduced me to his bees in the first hours that we met. A chance meeting at a Laundromat in 2018. Within the 2 hours I was with Carl I realized that I wanted to keep bees. 2 days later I owned a hive of bees from Better Bee and the journey began. I spent time at Carl’s apiary learning about bees. As we would eat dinner or lunch he explained all the aspects of bees and beekeeping. The realization that everything a bee does or makes is marketable. Until I met Carl I thought all bees were good for was honey, as I learned from Carl and watching other great resources such as the “628 Dirt Rooster”, “Fat Bee Man”, the “Skinny Bee Man” and the excellent “Barnyard Bees” on YouTube. I was truly amazed. Honey, Propolis, Royal Jelly, Pollen and Wax all can be brought to market and sold. All produced for you by the bees, almost free, the only expense past the equipment costs is the time you spend caring for the bees. The most important thing I learned about bees from these wonderful sources what the real money maker is, the bees themselves. Making bees, rearing queens and building hives.  Looking at bees as you would any other livestock be it cattle, sheep, pigs or horses, bees can also be bred by selecting genetics and raised to sell as Live hives or NUCs as we call in beekeeping a Nucleus Hive.

Where to Start

How to keep bees in the American Market?

The present American Market is geared to the established Langstroff Hiving Systems SOBs (Stack of Boxes) Hive parts, frames & Support Equipment, gadgets and gizmos, they are all the same, and have been since the 1850’s with the exception of insulation and size.  Box sizes have been paired down from the original Deep Brood box dimensions used back in the day to make them lighter. Then paired again to an 8 frame box to lighten the load and now there is the 6 frame.  But any way you look at keeping Bees with this type of system where you have to be able to pick up in bulk the weight of the bees your are working/moving/rearing/harvesting/inspecting just to be able to function! To me that is crazy!! With the Americana Hiving System you can keep a 30 frame stack of bees sitting down and never lift anything heavier than a frame filled with brood, bees or honey.

The AHS also has many other benefits that add to the comfort of the beekeeper.