Find answers to frequently asked questions 🐝

Membership in the NHBA allows you to attend talks by both nationally and internationally renowned speakers on all areas of beekeeping and apiculture. NHBA helps connect you to beekeepers from all over New Hampshire. We also have several citizen science projects you can participate in. We hold 3 meetings a year (spring, summer and fall).

Annual membership is from January 1 to December 31. You can save in the long run if you purchase a lifetime membership!

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All beekeeping is local. Joining your local area clubs allows you to meet other beekeepers in your area, compare what is happening in each other's hives, learn from more experienced beekeepers, and have the opportunity to share and talk bees with people who are just as excited about beekeeping as you are. Many clubs have club apiaries and hands on learning. The local clubs also offer bee school for beginning and newer beekeepers.

We have many bee suppliers here in NH. See our list of bee suppliers here.

Most suppliers, especially local queen and bee producers, run out of available pre-ordered bee stock around the beginning of the year. Make sure to contact your supplier early. We highly recommend you source your bees from one of our NH Queen producers. Local stock is northern raised. You can also obtain nucleus colonies during the beekeeping season from various suppliers but supplies are limited.

A bee package usually consists of a three pound box of bees and a caged queen. This is not an established hive but given time and care will rapidly build up and become a coherent colony. It contains no brood, comb, or food stores.

A quality nuc is a small, established colony with a loose, laying queen, brood in all stages of development, worker bees of all ages, drawn comb and food stores. All frames are ready to be placed in your hive and will build up quickly with proper care.

First thing to do is take a closeup picture of the bees. Most often, people think they have a bee problem but they really have a yellow jacket or hornet/wasp infestation. Contact and send a picture to your local beekeeper or club. We will determine whether we can help you or not. If we determine they are not honey bees, we will try to direct you to another resource.

Thank you for caring about our pollinators enough to reach out.

The first thing you should know is honey bees are at their most gentle while swarming.

They are only interested in finding a new home and do not pose a threat to you. Do not spray them or swat at them. You can contact your local beekeeper or call or text our Swarm Hotline at 603-661-1345. A beekeeper will be happy to take those bees away and set them up in a new hive. You will learn so much from the experience and maybe find a new honey source!

Every region in the State of NH has a local club. You can find a club near you on our local clubs page.

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We very strongly recommend you attend a bee school at one of the local clubs. This is the most difficult time in the history of human kind to keep bees. Beekeeping is expensive, has a very steep learning curve, and is a science based hobby. Most people do not realize that honeybees are not native to the US and are considered livestock. Just like livestock, you are responsible for the nutrition and health of your hives. It takes years to learn to keep bees well and how you keep your bees affects all the bees and beekeepers around you.

The NHBA allows its members in good standing to purchase advertising space on our website that appears in a continuous rotation on the bottom of all the pages. These spots will link to the advertisers' website. The cost is $100 annually and the money will go to the maintenance of the website and other operating costs. Please visit our Join Us page to purchase online or contact us and we'll be happy to help you advertise on this website.

• Advertisements must be related to bees, beekeeping, or products using bee produced ingredients.
• All advertisements must be approved by the NHBA executive board prior to publishing.
• The landscape format works best to feature your ad. 750 x 500 px works well.
• Multiple ad space may be purchased at the cost of $100 each if the advertiser wants to feature individual products or features.
• It is the responsibility of the advertiser to provide the web link to their ad.

If you live in NH you have bears. You may not have seen them but they are there. There is nothing more devastating than losing your colony and your equipment to a bear strike. And once the bear has had success, she or he will be back for more. This is why we tell you to install the fence before you even place your hives on the site.

The most effective way to prevent a bear strike is to stop it before it happens. Your local supplier can instruct you on what you need and how to set up your fence properly. Be sure to bait it as well!

While the State of NH does not currently require that you register your hives, registration allows the state and local municipalities to contact you if pesticide spraying is taking place near your hives so you can take action to protect your bees. Registration also allows the state bee inspector to assist the beekeeper with developing appropriate controls to prevent the infection of other hives if a parasite or disease is detected in your area.

Registration is free. You can register your hives with NH Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, Apiaries and Beekeeping Division here.