Resources and more…

If you are considering becoming a beekeeper, it’s well worth your while to check out your local beekeeping club. The Nevada County Beekeepers Association offers beekeeping classes, monthly meetings with informative programs, newsletters, a well-stocked lending library, and more; meetings are on the first Monday of the month at the Grass Valley Veterans Hall. For beekeepers in the Sacramento region, don’t miss the Sacramento Area Beekeepers Association. (You can browse for your local organization here.) Joining a club is a great way to meet other bee-folk, get advice, find local beekeepers selling bees and equipment, and even meet someone to mentor with. An indispensable resource!

Visit our B H Ranch bee yard!

Take a look inside a beehive, watch a swarm in action, and see how we extract our honey.

ScientificBeekeeping.com

Randy Oliver’s Web site

Country Rubes’ Farm

Janet and Mike Brisson’s Web site

Top Bar Bee Hive: Perfect for Backyard Beehives

Most beekeepers use Langstroth hives with stacking boxes and removable frames of comb, but some people swear by top bar hives. This page offers an explanation of top-bar hives, as well as instructions for building your own.

DIY Backyard Beekeeping: A Guide for Beginners

This slideshow, from The Daily Green, gives a good overview of beekeeping on a small scale: “If you can garden, you can be a beekeeper. It takes about the same amount of time and effort to keep your veggies producing as it does to keep bees. One big bonus of beekeeping: They help your vegetables, flower and other garden plants thrive! Oh, and then — of course — there’s the honey (not to mention the joy of a new hobby, and the knowledge that you’re doing something to help bees at a time when this critical pollinator is in crisis).”

National Honey Bee Awareness Day: Getting Started In Beekeeping

A handy checklist of things to consider if you’d like to get your own hive. (“Bee Day” is on August 21!)

Bees-Online: Free E-Book On Honey Bees

This free publication covers stings, swarms, top-bar hives, wheelchair beekeeping, bee removal from walls and ceilings, and much more.

Web Links

• Our Virtual Coop Tour

Come visit our chicken coop! Ours came from a friend’s backyard, and there are so many clever little details that we wouldn’t have thought of if we were building from scratch. See them up close on our photo coop tour, and meet our birds while you’re at it!

• MyPetChicken.com

A great resource for raising chickens. Don’t miss their free Guide for Chicken Care, which will walk you through caring for your chicks, building a coop, and raising your chickens. The Breed Selector Tool lets you search for breeds by hardiness, egg color, and temperament, and includes photos and detailed descriptions of many breeds. The site also offers a variety of coops, plans, supplies, and even chicks (though we think your best bet is to go chick-shopping at your local farm supply or feed store.)

• UC Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Catalog & Free Publications

Lots of useful material here on a wide array of farming-related topics, many of which will be of interest to the backyard farmer. Click on “Animal Science” to browse pubications such as Selecting Chickens for Home Use, Common Lice and Mites of Poultry, Community Farming of Poultry, and Egg Incubation.

• BackYardChickens.com

A forum for all manner of chicken-related discussion: coop design, breeding, illnesses, raising chicks, diet, eggs…

• Boorinakis Harper Ranch

Our farm Web site! Don’t miss our blog, where we post news, photos, how-to’s and more.

Check your local library for these books:

Living With Chickens, by Jay Rossier

An ideal introduction to chicken-keeping, Living With Chickens covers all stages of the chicken’s life cycle, from hatching and raising chicks to slaughtering for meat (if that’s your eventual intention.) Detailed guidance on building a coop and raising healthy, happy chickens, with beautiful photos throughout that will inspire you to start your own backyard flock. Read it here for free on Google Books.

Storey’s Guide to Raising Chickens, by Gail Damerow

In-depth instruction on just about everything chicken-related. This one might be a bit overwhelming for a first-time chicken-keeper, but if you’re going to buy a chicken guidebook, it’s better to have too much information than too little.
Read it here for free on Google Books.

Chicken coops: 45 building plans for housing your flock
By Judy Pangman
A nice variety of coop ideas and inspiration for flocks of all sizes, including chicken tractors and other mobile units. Here on Google Books.

Building Chicken Coops: Storey Country Wisdom Bulletin, by Gail Damerow

A good, concise overview of coop construction and considerations.