Beginner beekeeper looking for advice

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Hello and happy Easter to all, i currently have been doing much research on beekeeping but there is only so much you can learn from outside sources like videos from Cedar and the Flow hive companies. So my questions at this time would “bee” haha.

  1. In Arkansas we all know the temperatures very wildly, it was 90 degrees last Wednesday and then 2 days later it was 50 degrees, i know that certain bees can handle temperatures better than others and I’m curious as to what type of bees would be good to use here in Arkansas
  2. It is springtime here and flowers will be in bloom soon, if i am surrounded by forest do i need to create my own Flower bed for pollination and food foraging or do i just let the bees do the natural thing and go into the forest to look for food? there aren’t exactly many “flowers” around but plenty of greenery.
  3. final question for now, about feeding, other than plants and flowers do the bees need some source of food like syrup or anything?
    I will also be using a cedar 7 flow hive and i am curious if anyone has any experience or pointers on those hives, again i have no beekeeping experience and need all the help i can get, thanks to anyone who responds, i will appreciate your help and getting to discuss things with you. God Bless.
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Hello and welcome to the Flow forum!

Just about any type would be fine. You could ask your local bee club, but even then, just about any strain would do well. I have a slight preference for Italian bees, because they are generally a bit gentler than most.

They will need a lot more than one garden of flowers, so unless you are planting a farm’s worth of flowers, don’t worry about providing forage. If there are natural shrubs and weeds, chances are they will find enough for their needs. Again, a local bee club could tell you more.

It will depend on what is flowering year round, but you may need to feed occasionally with syrup or pollen substitute. I feed syrup in the fall if the hive is light on honey stores. I run double deep boxes for brood, and you might need to do that too if your local bee club recommends it. We have a long winter nectar dearth, even though it isn’t cold. If there isn’t at least 40lb of honey in the hive, I know I will need to feed.

I feed pollen substitute patties to newly installed packages in the spring, to give them a boost. Other than that, I don’t feed anything else to my hives.

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