Bee Yard Pictures!

Here are some updated pictures of the beeyard!

There are several levels to each beehive. These have a bottom board, then the hive body (where the bees have been working since the beginning.

It contains honey and pollen, but mostly brood and larvae), a honey super (we added this a few weeks ago, the bees will fill it with honey for themselves for the winter), their hive-top feeder (which holds sugar syrup for feeding bees before their nectar flow is strong), and then on top my dad has another honey super stacked for storage (the bees don't have access to it yet.

Once they fill up the first honey super, we'll allow access to the second one, which they'll fill with honey for us!) On top, are the inner and outer covers.

The bees swarm around the hive every single day (if it's not raining) at 4pm. That must be when all of the forager bees return.

My Dad took these pictures today, while I was at work. Thanks for the pictures, Dad!

Allow Me to Catch You Up...

We have two hives. Hive 1 and Hive 2.

Hive 1 was started back on April 6th with a package of bees. It was frigid and freezing for the next couple of days after they arrived so my dad decided we should go ahead and install them - indoors! It was quite nerveracking, to say the least. Not only was I not used to dealing with bees, but I now had to deal with them for the first time while inclosed inside a garage. Things went rather well, other than the fact that I dropped the queen's cage promptly upon taking it out. For the next few days, bees swarmed around the garage, especially banging against the windows, longing to fly out into the sun. I was very nervous. This wasn't really how it was supposed to work.

So, after a few days, my dad moved the hive outside to it's designated spot, filled the hive up with sugar syrup and left them alone.

It's been six weeks now, and Hive 1 is doing GREAT! They've drawn out all the wax on their brood box and are moving on to the first honey super, the queen is GIGANTIC and active and we have tons of capped off brood, eggs, and larvae. We have some honey, pollen, nectar, wax, everything! Those bees are working like crazy! It's WILDLY fascinating to watch bees. You can get right up next to the hive, and as long as you aren't messing with the hive, they won't even try to sting you. Hive 1's bees seem very docile, as well.

We had some trouble with ants getting into the sugar syrup and we nipped that in the bud by sprinkling borax around the hives and setting them on stands, in water. It seems to have worked.

So far, my dad has been stung 10 times. I haven't been stung once. I'll tell you why.

1. I never go near the bees without copious amounts of smoke.
2. I never go near the bees without a veil, and gloves. I can go without long sleeves, etc. But I must have the veil and gloves.
3. I send the bees love. (Ever seen 'The Secret Life of Bees'?) I love my bees. If you love your bees, your bees will love you back. My dad, on the other hand, calls the bees "beetards." See, it makes a difference.

Hive 2 is a bit different. More on Hive 2 later.

They're heeeeeeeeeere.

Two Days. O_O

Really and technically, more like 33 hours. O_O

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates, but it has become apparent to me that I'm quite unbelievably busy all of a sudden. :-O But, I do come bearing pictures! Or one picture actually.

My beautiful beehives!



These are, of course, just the hives. All stacked up. I will only have the lower deep hive body on the hive at first. Package bees are coming in two days, and I'll be getting a nuc in about 30 days. I'm SO EXCITED!! And I'm not readyyy!

I'll keep y'all posted. Maybe.

As Promised!

What on earth is this thing?

The way they're snapping pictures, I must be pretty cute in it!

Here we are! I labeled the picture to help y'all out. The lovely little dear modeling the veil is my sister. She was happy to oblige.

My dad is going to build the beehives, and we now have all of the wood needed for the frames, and the wax foundation! Hive-top feeders do just that - feed the bees before the nectar flow is strong.

Queen excluders go between the hive bodies to keep the queen from laying eggs in the harvestable honey. And of course, the smoker and veil will keep the bees from stinging me to death!

"Don't you know beekeeping within city limits is illegal?" .... "Yes, and I'm almost sure I don't care."

This is a desktop wallpaper using a quote and pictures from my favorite (cancelled) show, Pushing Daisies.

Click for the Large Version

I had completely forgotten about this! Isn't it relevant though?

I found this when I started digging through my sister's picture files (looking for my bee supply pictures, which I found by the way and I'm about to post). Apparently she made it back when Pushing Daisies was still on, and in it's heyday. Isn't it great?!

The pictures are from Season 2, Episode 1 - "Bzzzz" and the quote is from an episode in season 1, I forget which. Click the link for the large version to use as a desktop background.

The Bee Stuff Has Arrived!!

Oh yeah! The bee stuff got here last Tuesday!! I've got lots of great pictures, but they're all stuck on my sister's camera, haha!

(*hint* Sis? My pictures, please?)

;-)