Idaho Honey Bee

Hi, my name is Frank Grover, I have been beekeeping for over 30  years now. My father was also a beekeeper as a young man. I have lived in the Treasure Valley of Idaho for most of my life, currently in Boise, which has workable city laws about keeping bees, and rural areas not too far away.

While there was more room for bees when I lived in rural areas, the crop dusters were tough on bees, so I currently feel I strike a good balance in locating bee yards these days by putting hives in areas that have a little agriculture going on nearby for good habitat, but close enough to town to know they would not tolerate aerial spraying.

When I started beekeeping there were not any clubs nearby or internet to consult, just books in the library; old books with long dead authors. I bought a table saw and built crude equipment. The bees did not care. Their numbers increased, they made some honey, swarmed, and I loved it. That fall, I made every door knob in the house sticky for a week and my ever supportive wife, has made mention of that first honey extraction (and what a mess it was) for the next 40 some years when prompted. The next year, I bought hybrid queens through the mail, an event that still gets me excited, although these days I mostly produce my own. In the years that followed, I increased and decreased in numbers of hives depending on what time allowed, and who survived.

Currently, I keep about 25 hives, sell raw honey, teach a beginner beekeeping class each fall, and catch swarms whenever I have time.

If you are new to beekeeping, or thinking about it, I recommend you stick around, and I will give you a tour of my beekeeping world. I have noticed a real need for personal instruction and mentoring of beekeepers just entering the hobby. Special emphasis was needed not only on how to start a hive, but how to keep the hive healthy as well. I decided to start giving classes to help newcomers increase their chances of success. If you are interested in signing up for a class, just click on the tab.

Cheers,

Frank