9847_MENBeginner'sGuidetoSelf-Sufficiency

Table of Contents Learn how to spot a diamond-in-therough homestead.

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62 78 Small-Scale Rotational Grazing

CHAPTER THREE: SELF-RELIANT FOOD STRATEGIES

Got a modest homestead? You can still practice rotational grazing—just keep those animals moving.

42 Go Wild for Food

Save money and prepare delicious meals by harvesting what you thought of as weeds from your yard.

CHAPTER FIVE: DO-IT-YOURSELF SKILLS

45 Learn to Fish

82 Elementary Carpentry

Fishing can deliver valuable protein to your table and memorable tales about the ones that didn’t get away.

Building skills for a true beginner.

90 Small Engine Troubleshooting

48 Simple Cheese Recipes

Learn how to diagnose and fix common small engine problems to keep things running.

Making cheese in your kitchen isn’t as hard as you might have thought.

26 Tap into Greywater

CHAPTER ONE: GET STARTED WITH SELF-SUFFICIENCY 6 Self-Sufficient Living

Advice from nine modern homesteaders.

12 Build a More Resilient Homestead

37 Practical Tips for Efficient Wood Heating

for Your Homestead

Save time, energy, and money with these practical tips for getting the most out of a woodstove.

Mystified by water pumps and the prospect of digging a well to provide drinking water and more? Wade through your options for finding clean water and making it flow.

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Shampoo, Deodorant, and Toothpaste Whip up these three recipes to save money.

62 Taking on Livestock

104 Earn Extra Money With Your Farm

Make sure that the critters you choose fit your situation.

Opening your land up to others can diversify and supplement your income.

70 Backyard Chicken Basics COVER: RICK WETHERBEE

22 Water Sources and Options

102 Back to Basics: Make Your Own

CHAPTER FOUR: LIVESTOCK ON A SMALL SCALE

The cost of photovoltaic systems has never been lower—now is the right time to consider solar power for your home.

CHAPTER TWO: SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD UTILITIES

CHAPTER SIX: MAKING ENDS MEET

Apples, tomatoes, and corn are easy to preserve, even for a beginner.

32 More Affordable Solar Power

Look for less-than-perfect properties when searching for your new farmhouse and acreage.

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54 Savor Summer’s Harvest

From using ceiling fans to adding power strips to finding creative new uses for bubble wrap, there are a variety of easy and proven ways to lower energy bills.

18 Find Your New Farm Home

Add value and security to your land by installing a well-built fence.

A home orchard can provide a bounty of fresh fruit.

30 Ten Easy Ways to Save Energy at Home

A longtime energy and resilience expert offers advice on how to make your home and land disaster-resistant.

96 Fencing for the Homestead

51 All About Growing Fruit Trees

Recycling your household water is smart and often surprisingly simple. Find out how you can embrace this “new” source of water.

106 Working From Home in the Digital Age

They’re less work than house pets and more fun than a tire swing. Plus, they provide delicious, nutritious eggs.

Thanks to the internet, homesteaders now have a new world of opportunity.

74 How to Start Beekeeping

108 Breaking Into a Farmers Market

Before buying bees, consider this rundown of the equipment you’ll need to get started and the schedule you can expect to follow.

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Tips and tricks to make finding your niche easy.

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SELFSUFFICIENT LIVING

Advice From Nine Modern Homesteaders

Homesteading experts share their wisdom about seeking self-reliance in rural, suburban, and even urban settings.

By Vicki Mattern

For some, the quest for self-reliance begins simply: The search for a decent-tasting tomato leads you to a seed growing number of us are shifting our focus homecatalog, which opens the door to gardening, canning, and ward, making our homesteads the heart of our life’s composting. After a few years (or sometimes decades), this work. A desire for job security, concern for the enjourney toward more sustainable living leads you to an abanvironment, demand for quality food, escalating food and doned farmstead—say, 3 acres with some overgrown fruit gas prices, hands-on work, and cool things we can learn to trees, a house and a barn that “needs work.” (No matter: It’s do—many or all of these factors are driving the search for your homestead, and it’s your work.) more sustainable, self-sufficient living.

Others recall a pivotal moment. One day while sitting in a traffic jam, you realize you crave a different kind of life—one that’s closer to the natural world, less dependent on goods and services from corporations, and ultimately more rewarding.

According to a survey of Mother Earth News readers, more than 4 out of 10 of you now raise chickens. More than a third of you generate your own solar electricity or plan to within the next two years. And nearly all of you raise a healthy portion of your own food. We are part of a growing trend toward greater self-reliance: North Americans as a whole are choosing more self-sufficient lifestyles.

“In previous homesteading movements, people had to make it on their own,” says Harvey Ussery, author and The joys of a homesteading lifestyle are often found in simple yet meaningful labor. longtime homesteader. “Today we

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6 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

FROM LEFT: TERRY WILD STOCK; LYNN STONE

You don’t need a farming background to become a more self-sufficient, goat-hugging, chicken-raising homesteader.

choose to grow our own food because we prefer quality, and we recognize the tie between good food and good health. It’s hard to buy that kind of quality.”

Modern homesteading and homemaking are built upon many choices, not solely on managing money. There is no single right way to “make it,” experienced homesteaders say. Whether you live in a country farmhouse, suburban townhouse, or center-city apartment, you can get closer to simpler, self-sufficient living. For insight and inspiration, we talked with nine homesteaders who’ve written books about their journeys back to the land.

Mother: What motivated you to choose a self-sufficient, homesteading lifestyle? How did you get started?

Harvey Ussery: It was a natural progression. My grandparents had a small farm where I spent a lot of time as a kid.

They raised livestock, grew and canned food, made soap— they practiced self-sufficiency out of necessity. Later, as an adult living in the city, I always had that yearning to get my hands in the dirt. When my wife, Ellen, and I were ready to buy a place, having space for a garden was a must.

Shannon Hayes: I had just completed my doctorate in sustainable agriculture but couldn’t fathom leaving our family farm in upstate New York or the life I had there for the sake of a conventional career. After doing a cost-benefit analysis, my husband, Bob, and I chose to work full time on the farm. At the time, about 20 years ago, the choice had a lot of stigma surrounding it. But we were having so much fun, it helped us weather the travails.

Cam Mather: I was burnt out on suburban life and earning my income on a computer. My wife, Michelle, and I put together a plan, paid off our debt, and began looking for a GET STARTED WITH SELF-SUFFICIENCY • www.MotherEarthNews.com 7

Well Cap

Driven wells are made by fitting a sharp, rigid, screened attachment called a “sand point” onto the end of rigid steel pipe. The sand point allows a pipe to be pounded into the ground for extracting groundwater from abundant, shallow sources in coarse and sandy soils. Sand points are usually the simplest and cheapest option for creating a well, but they work only if hydrogeological conditions are ideal, in which case a driven well can extend to depths of 30 feet (if hand-driven) or 50 feet or more (if driven by weighted hammers).

Get Clean Drinking Water

Long and narrow, drilled wells are the only option for getting water out of bedrock. Learn more about well construction and regulations in your area from your local health department.

Lock

Soil

As the manager of your own private water system, you’re responsible for safety testing to ensure you have clean drinking water.

Experts recommend lab analysis of water Steel Casing samples twice a year—in spring and fall— with additional tests whenever you notice changes in appearance or smell. Regardless of the tests available where you live, collecting water samples properly is key.

Start with an approved bottle containing a stabilizing agent in pellet or powder form.

Borehole Remove any screen, hose, or filter from the collection tap, and then let the water run for two minutes before filling the bottle.

Hold the cap facedown while the bottle is filling to keep contaminants from touching the inside of the bottle cap. Refrigerate your sample right away, and have it analyzed within two days.

You must also ensure your well doesn’t introduce contamination into underground aquifers. In its natural state, groundwater is usually pure. The continued purity of groundwater depends on the time surface water spends percolating down through the earth. That’s why any situation that lets surface water drain immediately into the aquifer, either around or through existing wells, leads to trouble.

This danger has made responsible governments police allowable methods of well construction.

Created properly, wells are the only source of nonmunicipal water with the potential to be safe without the need for ongoing sterilization via chlorination or UV treatment.

As good as wells are, they’re not always the best option. Wells can be expensive to create, and sometimes, in penetrating down to usable amounts of water, wells encounter naturally occurring minerals that cause unpleasant water taste, odor, or appearance. Those are a few of the reasons why some people choose to develop surface water sources, such as lakes, rivers, and springs.

Surface water sources are often abundant, but they’re also vulnerable to contamination, which is why water authorities everywhere consider it essential to treat water from surface sources even if it tests safe.

You’ll also typically have to invest in filters to remove coarse sediments that aren’t present in well water. In cold climates, tapping into surface water sources yearround can also pose a challenge when it comes to keeping water intake lines from freezing. Even if your property includes a productive well, developing any surface water resources you have for less exacting uses—such as irrigation, livestock, or washing vehicles—makes sense.

Power From House

Water Line to House Water Line to Pump

Submersible Pump Screen

Making Water Flow Submersible pumps, jet pumps, and piston pumps are the three most common options for making water flow, and each has unique strengths and weaknesses. To understand these,

Sanitizing and Maintaining a Clean Well Safe well management includes sanitization by adding household chlorine bleach directly to the well as a short-term disinfectant. Although harmful microorganisms can’t live for long in underground aquifers, they can enter a well from outside sources.

That’s why disinfection should occur imme-

diately after a new well is drilled, and after every time your pump or intake piping is disturbed. The amount of bleach you need to safely sanitize your well is based on your well’s diameter and the depth of water inside the well. Go to http://goo.gl/aJM5 to access a handy chart to help you figure out

24 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

how much bleach your well needs. Pour the bleach down the well at night, let it work until morning, and then run a small amount of chlorinated water through all indoor fixtures. Turn on an outdoor hose until the bleach smell in the water disappears before you use any water, anywhere.

you first need to understand two crucial facts about the physics of water.

The first is that the maximum practical depth for drawing water up by suction ranges from about 18 to 22 feet, depending on your elevation.

The second is that water pumps can’t move air, which is why certain types of pumps require a process known as priming.

Priming involves filling intake pipes and pump casings with water before operation, and it can be one of the most challenging parts of getting a water system to work. As you’ll see later, the need for priming can also influence the pump you choose.

The depth of water below the surface is crucial, because it determines the kind of pump you can use to bring running water to your home and the way that pump is configured. The farther the level of water is below the surface of the ground, the more suction is required inside the pipe to pull that water upward against gravity.

When a water-draw situation requires an overall vertical lift of about 22 feet or more, the vacuum inside the pipe becomes so great that the water will boil. You won’t notice this boiling, but it’s happening within the intake pipe just the same. All you’ll see is that your pump isn’t able to pull water up from these depths, because pumps can’t move the vaporized water.

Types of Water Pumps Piston pumps make a pleasant “thumpa thumpa” sound as they operate, and most include a couple of visible rubber drive belts connected to an electric motor by exposed pulleys.

Shallow well piston pumps are great if you have situations in which you are raising the water no more than about 20 vertical feet, with no more than 300 feet of horizontal draw.

Jet pumps are a popular choice beEnlist the power of the wind to pump your well water—you’ll save on your electric bills and add a nostalgic feature to your homestead.

Modern dug wells are lined with large, tubular concrete tiles to keep surface water and soil from contaminating the well water.

Pipe to House and Pump

cause they’re inexpensive and can work in both shallow and deep wells. A jet pump makes a kind of whooshing, turbine type of sound—most models are rather loud. Jet pumps need to be primed before they’ll work, and even a small amount of air in the lines will stop them from working.

Submersible pumps aren’t cheap, but they are my favorite. They move more water than other pumps of a given horsepower, and they never need priming because the pump itself sits below water level. With a submersible pump, there’s no pump to be seen anywhere— water simply flows from an incoming pipe, noiselessly.

Hand pumps are an option for any homestead, although most families need more water than what hand pumps can practically supply. Shallow water models are inexpensive, widely available, and easy to install. Deep water hand pumps are more complicated because they have a pumping cylinder that sits below the water surface in the well.

To protect deep well hand pumps from freezing, drill a quarter-inch-diameter hole in the intake pipe 4 or 5 feet below ground level before installing the system. This will allow water to drain back below the frost level after a pumping session.

Traditional water-pumping windmills transmit the rotation of spinning blades to rods and shafts that operate the same kind of pumping mechanism used in hand pumps—it’s just that the wind does the work and not your arm.

Developing the understanding and skills to install and maintain your own homestead water sources offers more than the usual benefits. When it comes to water, these self-reliance skills can often get your water flowing long before a professional would ever arrive—and you’ll be in control of something absolutely essential.

SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD UTILITIES • www.MotherEarthNews.com 25

routine care. Most table-quality pears should be harvested before they are fully ripe.

In the Kitchen

Managing the hefty harvests from mature fruit trees will require a range of food preservation skills. Manual fruit-processing equipment, such as a cherry pitter (right) or an apple peeler/corer, can be excellent investments. At each picking, a number of bruised fruits will need attention right away, while you can refrigerate and forget about sound fruits until your next preservation project. In addition to making jams, jellies, and chutneys, try freezing or canning homemade fruit juices. Packets of frozen fruit are handy for baking or in smoothies, and dried fruit can be quickly rehydrated in warm water or munched as a snack.

sweet varieties, such as ‘Stella’ and sour or pie cherries, such as ‘Montmorency’ and ‘North Star.’ Best adapted to Zones 4 to 7, cherry trees need fertile, near-neutral soil and excellent air circulation. Growing 12-foot-tall dwarf cherry trees of either subtype will sim-

plify protecting your crop from diseases and birds, because the small trees can be covered with protective netting or easily sprayed with sulfur or kaolin clay.

Citrus fruits (Citrus hybrids), including kumquat, Mandarin orange, satsuma, and ‘Meyer’ lemon, are among the easiest fruit trees to grow organically in Zones 8b to 10. Fragrant oils in citrus leaves and rinds provide protection from pests, but cold tolerance is limited. ‘Nagami’ kumquat, ‘Owari’ satsuma, and ‘Meyer’ lemon trees may occasionally need to be covered with blankets when temperatures drop below freezing, but winter harvests of homegrown citrus fruits will be worth the trouble.

Peaches and nectarines (Prunus persica) are on everyone’s want list, but growing these fruit trees organically requires an excellent site, preventive pest management, and some luck.

More than other fruit trees, peach and nectarine trees need deep healthy soil with no compacted subsoil or hardpan.

Peaches and nectarines are best adapted to Zones 5 to 8, but specialized variet-

How to Plant The best time to plant fruit trees in Zones 3 through 7 is early spring, after the soil has thawed. Fruit trees that are set out just as they emerge from winter dormancy will rapidly grow new roots.

In Zones 8 to 10, plant new trees in February. Choose a sunny site with fertile, well-drained soil that’s not in a low frost pocket. Dig a planting hole that’s twice the size of the root ball of the tree. Carefully spread the roots in the hole, and backfill with soil. Set trees at the same depth at which they grew at the nursery, taking care not to bury any graft union (swollen area) that’s on the main trunk. Water well, and install a trunk guard made of hardware cloth or spiral plastic over the lowest section of the trunk to protect it from insects, rodents, sunscald, and physical injuries.

Stake the tree loosely to hold it steady.

Mulch over the root zone of the planted trees with wood chips, sawdust, or another slow-rotting mulch. Water particularly well during any dry spells for the first two years.

One year after planting, fertilize fruit trees in spring by raking back the mulch and scratching a balanced organic fertilizer into the soil surface (follow application rates on the product’s label). Then add a wood-based mulch to bring the mulch depth up to 4 inches in a 4-foot circle around the tree. After two years, stop using trunk guards and instead switch to coating the trunks with white latex paint to defend against winter injuries. Add sand to the paint to deter rabbits and voles.

ies can be grown in colder or warmer climates. Peach and nectarine trees are often short-lived because of wood-boring insects, so plan to plant new trees every 10 years.

Plums (Prunus species and hybrids) tend to produce fruit erratically because the trees often lose their crop to late freezes or disease. In good years, plum trees will yield heavy crops with juicy fruits that vary in color from light green to dark purple. Best adapted to Zones 4 to 8, plum trees need at least one compatible variety nearby to ensure good pollination. In some areas, selected native species, such as beach plums in the Northeast or sand plums in the Midwest, may make the best homestead plums.

Pears (Pyrus species and hybrids) are slightly less cold-hardy than apples but are easier to grow organically in a wide range of climates. In Zones 4 to 7, choose pear varieties that have good resistance to fire blight, such as ‘Honeysweet’ or ‘Moonglow.’ In Zones 5 to 8, Asian pear trees often produce beautiful, crisp-fleshed fruits if given

Know Your Cold-Hardiness Zone

52 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Pruning Fruit Trees GETTY IMAGES/SCHLEGELPICTURES

The “Zones” referred to in this article come from maps published by the United States Department of Agriculture that show the average minimum winter temperature for each region. Some types of fruit can tolerate more winter cold than others, so your area’s coldhardiness is important to know before you choose which fruit trees to grow. If you don’t know your Zone, you can find it at planthardiness.ars.usda.gov. If a mail-order nursery doesn’t tell you which Zone a crop is suited for, you should probably buy from another supplier. To locate sources for fruit trees, check out our Seed and Plant Finder, which lets you quickly search the online catalogs of more than 500 mail-order nurseries and seed companies, at www.motherearthnews.com/custom-seed-search.

The goal of pruning fruit trees is to provide the leaves and fruit access to light and fresh air. The ideal branching pattern varies with species, and some apple and pear trees can be pruned and trained into fence- or wall-hugging espaliers to save space. Begin pruning fruit trees to shape them in their first year, and then prune annually in late

A hole twice the size of the root ball (or bigger) is ideal, but make sure it’s not too deep.

winter, before the buds swell. Pruning a little too much questionable growth is better than removing too little.

Many fruit trees set too much fruit, and the excess should be thinned. Asian pear trees should have 70 percent of their green fruits snipped off when the pears are the size of a dime, and apples should be thinned to 6 inches apart before the fruits are the size of a quarter. When any type of fruit tree is holding a heavy crop, thinning some of the green fruits will increase fruit size, reduce limb breakage, and help prevent alternate bearing (a tree setting a crop only every other year).

Harvesting and Storage With the exception of pears, tree fruits should be harvested just as they approach full ripeness and then kept chilled to slow spoilage. The flavor of most apples improves after a few weeks in cold storage, so a second refrigerator or a root cellar may be useful.

Apples and pears can be kept for sev-

eral months in a refrigerator, but softer stone fruits (cherries, nectarines, peaches, and plums) must be canned, dried, frozen, or juiced within a few days of harvest for long-term storage.

Pest and Disease Tips Some types of fruit crops attract a large number of insect pests and can succumb to several widespread diseases for which no resistant varieties are available. For example, all of the stone fruits are frequently affected by brown rot, a fungal disease that overwinters in mummified fruit. Apply early-season sulfur sprays to suppress brown rot and other common diseases. Some apples have good genetic resistance to scab and rust, but you will still need to manage a number of different insect pests, such as codling moths.

Allow chickens to forage under fruit trees to help suppress insects. Many organic growers also keep their fruit trees coated with kaolin clay during the growing season to repel pests.

SELF-RELIANT FOOD STRATEGIES • www.MotherEarthNews.com 53

up with. Preserving the surplus allows you to enjoy the benefits of your summer’s labor throughout the year.

Even if you don’t have garden surplus, buying and preserving produce from a farmers market or a neighbor will save money. Besides, food preservation is fun.

The work lends itself well to collective efforts, and nothing about the process is difficult, just a series of little jobs. You can set up an assembly line with a few helpers and enjoy a day of conversation and company while the larder gets stocked for winter.

Getting Started

All Year Long

Apples, tomatoes, and corn are so easy to preserve, even a beginner can freeze, can, or dehydrate them.

54 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

want three things from my food: I want to know what’s in it. I want rich, homegrown flavor. And I want to feel some measure of self-reliance. The global food market can’t give me any of these things. Home food preservation can.

No factory worker can seal up the tender, sweet taste of fresh-from-the-garden corn better than you can. Commercially grown apples can never offer anything like applesauce made from Grandma’s June apples. Store-bought pasta sauces will never give you the peace of mind and sense of satisfaction you get from making your own sauce with pesticide- and herbicidefree tomatoes.

Home food preservation is about flavor, quality, and purity. It can also help economics by getting the most out of your garden. Most gardens easily produce more than a family can eat fresh—even one cherry tomato plant can be hard to keep

DAVID CAVAGNARO (2)

SAVOR I SUMMER’S HARVEST

By Louise Langsner

The first thing you need is fresh produce. If your own garden isn’t big enough to grow extra, check out nearby pickyour-own farms or explore buying in bulk from a local grower. Bulk prices at produce stands and farmers markets are usually reasonable as well. Growers may have tomatoes too ripe for shipping that they’ll sell for little, and orchards often do the same with windfall apples.

Next, you’ll need to decide on what preservation method will work best for you. Canned foods are convenient and won’t be ruined by prolonged power outages. Stored carefully in a cool, dry, dark place, they can last for up to five years.

Equipment needs are minimal for water bath canning, the method suitable for acidic foods, such as tomatoes, apples, and products made with vinegar. You need canning jars, which come with two-piece lids—a metal screw band and a flat metal lid. The screw bands are reusable, but the flat lid can be used only once. Recycled jars are often not as heat-resistant as canning jars and may crack during processing.

Their lids also can’t be counted on to seal.

You’ll also need a big canning kettle with a rack to hold the jars off the bottom. Any kettle can be used, but it must be deep enough to allow the jars to be covered by 2 inches of water, plus space for the water to boil. Other useful items are a nonreactive (not aluminum), 2- or 3-gallon stockpot for cooking down sauces, a widemouth funnel for filling jars, a ladle, a timer, and a jar lifter.

Freezing food is much faster than canning and will preserve more nutrients and fresh flavor. However, you must have

Put up your own garden produce, or buy in bulk from a local grower. a freezer that maintains a temperature of zero degrees Fahrenheit, and even then, the storage life of fruits and vegetables is limited to about a year.

Freezer packaging needs to be moistureand vapor-proof and have a good seal. Reusable plastic containers with lids that snap on or resealable freezer bags work well.

Label and date your food if you prepare it for the freezer, so you’ll know what is what and when to use it.

Dehydrating is often thought of as a novelty rather than a serious method of food preservation, but dried fruits and vegetables are far more versatile and delicious than might be expected. Dried foods will keep for years theoretically, but in my house they go quickly because they taste so great. They’re easy to use, and their concentrated flavor is especially welcome in winter when fresh produce is limited.

Although the drying process takes time, preparing food for the dryer is quick, and not much attention is needed after the initial prep work. If your harvest corresponds with clear, hot days with low humidity, you can dry food outdoors in the sun. You

will need drying trays (these can be simple wooden frames with cheesecloth or plastic window screening stapled across them) and a means of elevating the trays so air can circulate above and below the food. A well-ventilated location in full sun is essential; I get good results placing trays on a south-facing tin roof. The drying process takes about two days. Or, you can build a solar food dehydrator.

If the weather is less than ideal, an electric dehydrator that has both a thermostat and a fan will give you better results.

Without the fan, foods with a high moisture content, such as tomatoes, can easily mold before they dry. You can also use an oven for small-scale drying, although it’s less efficient. The oven should be set at 120 to 140 degrees (use an oven thermometer to keep tabs), and the door should be open 1 inch for an electric oven and 6 inches for a gas one (to account for different temperature-management systems). Check the drying food every hour or two for about 8 hours.

Tomatoes The flavor of homegrown tomatoes is essential to great-tasting sauces and soups.

For best results, always choose firm, fully ripe (but not overripe) tomatoes.

Paste (or plum) tomatoes, such as ‘Early

A Year’s Supply

Putting up a year’s supply of tomatoes, corn, and apples is a good start on basic food storage —and a great start on some good eating. These three crops are inexpensive at harvest time and versatile in the kitchen all year long.

How Much to Preserve?

Here’s an idea of how much a bushel of each crop will provide: Tomatoes: A bushel of tomatoes weighs about 53 pounds, which yields 15 to 20 quarts of whole or stewed tomatoes or juice, and half that amount cooked down into salsa. Those 53 pounds yield about 13 pounds of dried tomatoes.

Apples: A 48-pound bushel of apples yields 16 to 20 quarts of sauce or about 32 quarts of slices for pie. A bushel of apples yields a little less than 12 pounds dried.

Corn: The ears of corn in a 35-pound bushel transform into 14 to 18 pints of frozen or canned kernels, or 11 pounds of dried corn.

SELF-RELIANT FOOD STRATEGIES • www.MotherEarthNews.com 55

HOW TO START BEEKEEPING

What’s All the Buzz About?

If you’re interested in raising honey bees but aren’t sure you can commit, here’s a rundown of the equipment you’ll need to get started and the schedule you can expect to follow.

By Hannah Kincaid Illustrations by Liz Pepperell

N

o wonder more and more folks are making a beeline for beekeeping—a single hive of these tiny, social pollinators can provide 40 to 60 pounds of golden honey per year, as well as a few pounds of ever-useful beeswax. Plus, many crops need honeybees (Apis mellifera) to achieve good fruit set and high yields. This pollination benefit is becoming increasingly important due to the use of toxic pesticides, which affect bees’ food supplies and result in lower pollinator populations. For the willing homesteader or backyard gardening enthusiast, dedicating even just a small amount of time every couple of weeks to maintain a beehive will render sweet returns indeed.

Like any livestock, bees need care and attention, though the time commitment can be far less than for dairy goats or even chickens.

To help you decide if beekeeping would be a good fit, we asked Kim Flottum, longtime editor of Bee Culture magazine, to help us outline the beekeeping essentials, including what to expect in terms of initial start-up needs and costs, along with a basic apiary to-do calendar.

boxes that contain removable wooden frames with preformed foundations upon which the bees will build their wax comb (see illustration at the bottom of Page 76). The removable frames in the Langstroth system make monitoring the health of the hive easy, and its popularity means tracking down replacement parts is convenient.

Expect to pay about $250 for an unassembled cedar Langstroth hive that includes one hive body and two additional boxes called “supers” for honey storage, as well as 30 frames (10 frames per box) and a lid, cover, bottom board, and screws.

The simpler top-bar hive design consists of a trough-shaped, lidded box with wooden bars laid across the top of the interior (see illustration at the top of Page 76).

buy either a package or a nucleus colony (called a “nuc”) of gentle bees with a queen (see “Which Bee Is for Me?” on Page 76).

You’ll choose one of two hive designs. The more common Langstroth hive, named after its inventor, consists of stacked, rectangular These Langstroth hives are tended by a beekeeper in a full, hooded suit. She used the smoker to suppress the bees’ defensive behavior.

Tools of the Trade Start with a new hive body and frames. Looking for a bargain on used beekeeping gear may be tempting, but bees are susceptible to several diseases that can persist in old equipment. Also, you may come across suggestions to foster a wild swarm that someone has captured.

The concern here is that a wild swarm (particularly one found in the western or southern United States) may have crossbred with aggressive Africanized honeybees. You should 74 MOTHER EARTH NEWS • BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SELF-SUFFICIENCY

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