Pictures to Prove it!

Do you remember that kid that wanted NO part of having bees on his 100 acre playground?

Well that is him in the bee suit just below….Imagine that!  He cried and fussed and carried on.  I was initially suppose to pick the bees up on his birthday.  I delayed that until the following week to keep peace in the family.  In effort to get me to change my mind about raising bee’s he even said “Did you know that bees kill more people then any other animal?”  Smarty pants….he was reaching for my weak spot….safety. LOL.  I guess he has outgrown his fear in the last couple weeks because yesterday when I went out to do my weekly check he wanted to participate.

He has always watched from a distance and he’s real good at getting my smoker fired up.  It was fun to watch his expressions, first time around the bees is a little scary.

I still have not been able to locate the queen but I’ll continue looking for her until I find her.  The bees have drawn out most the comb on the frames so within the next day or two I will be adding another super (box). 

The cells filled with the white are the larvae….cool to see their cycle of life.

If I could have bet money on it Flower Girl would have been in this suit long before Country Boy!

Pure Insanity!

Well...at least that is what I was thinking when I showed up at my last Bee Keeping class.

In the doom and gloom of winter I thought it would be interesting to learn more about these brilliant little creatures so I signed up for a class through adult education. GLAD I did because I had absolutely NO idea how COMPLEX honey bees were. There was 4 classroom lectures and 2 days you could attend work in the field.

When I got out of my car I had not yet dressed in the proper bee keeping attire so I had to walk by this madness. I contemplated loading back up and heading home but I came to my senses.

See that big BEE she is the Queen....without her your in BIG trouble. I was amazed at how easily our instructor could find her in the hive.

He had just received a shipment from Georgia hence all the madness pictured above.

If my hive is built by June (my farmer friend is building it for me...spoiled I know) I will pick up my first Nuke (mini hive w/ a queen) next month. I have everything else I need except a smoker and the hive tool I think.

Pictured above is "Jen the local" who follows and sometimes comments here on my blog. She spoke up at the last class when she saw me grabbing my camera. SO glad she did! It was SO nice to meet someone that reads about our wacky life!

In my simplistic terminology this picture shows a baby bee being born. In bee keepers terms
which is a language of its own, this is a brood or worker bee emerging from cell in the brood chamber. Having ABSOLUTELY NO experience with bees the glossary of my book became my best friend in this class. The other bees help them hatch....isn't that COOL?


I was fully suited, some were not. Just a hood, yikes! One guy had a rope from the front of his hood down between his legs attached to his belt hoop on the back. I SO wanted to take a picture but I did not want to be a menace...LOL! I felt great comfort wearing FULL a suit with out entrances. At this point I was wondering if there were bees on my back like his? Better not knowing I think.

Great Class!

Now we will see if I can put some of what I learned into practice.

Big decisions....what color to paint the hive?

I think Pink! ;)

What's all the Buzz About?

10 years ago if you told me I'd be taking a Bee Keeping class I would have laughed and probably made a few sarcastic remarks.

Amazing how much one changes in a decade!

These pictures were taken at Montshire Museum of Science when we visited Vermont.

I am taking a bee keeping class locally through Adult Ed. We have 1 more class to go and two days in the field come May. Should be interesting! I will definitely take my camera along on one of those field trips. I am not sure if I will start a hive this summer or next. We have had our share of financial setbacks this year and it is not cheap to get up and going. The only supplies I have so far are gloves, my farmer friend plans to build me a hive soon. I'd be willing to do this project with a friend and share the expenses & honey come fall but I've yet to find someone crazy enough to join me in this venture...lol. I never imagined how much is involved in the bee keeping process. They are AMAZING little creatures! I am hoping to incorporate them into Flower Girl's homeschooling adventure next year. This surely will be one heck of a Science lesson!