Hello! Welcome to my new beekeeping blog. I am glad that you
have taken a chance to read about the adventures ahead. I am a new beekeeper
with a first-year hive. My family, a host of friends, and I are excited to
nurture these bees through the season.
So, the purpose of this blog: I want you feel as if you are
at the hive learning with me. I plan to give regular updates on all things "bee" related. There will bee lots of pictures, my personal commentary, and a swarm
of bee jokes. All right, lets get to it. This is gonna be sweet!
We ordered our 5 frame Nucleus Hive, which is just a
miniature beehive, back in February. After that, my brother and I…
You:
What? Your brother! What are you, like 16 or something?
Me:
Umm well yes
You:
Doesn’t that make you a noob, I mean, you’re just a kid
Me:
That’s true, but I have read many books in the recent months, and I have
a mentor, so I
think that I should bee able to handle these bees pretty well
You:
Oh, Ok
…spent the next couple of months building our hive, and
anxiously awaiting the bees' arrival in May. Finally May 5th arrived and we
buzzed down to Denver to pick up our bees at "To Bee or Not Too Bee," which is a
lovely little store. After that, the fun started.
 |
| Picking up Nucleus Hive |
The Installation! Below is a picture montage with short
descriptions for every photo (hopefully it is an accurate and entertaining representation
of how we transferred the bees).
First we opened the box and smoked the hive. The smoke has
no chemicals, but it does drive the bees down, where they will begin to eat
honey. This makes them less inclined to sting. It’s like eating a Thanksgiving
dinner and then having a wrestling match, you just don’t want to fight, maybe puke
though...
This is me cutting out burr comb, which is basically
unneeded wax. Just simple housekeeping that is done at every hive inspection.
My brother and I are inspecting the frame. We are looking
for the queen. We want to know if she is strong, laying lots of eggs.
And we found her! See her at the bottom left corner of the frame.
She has a red dot on her back, which signifies that she was born in 2013.
After not so much deliberation, we named her Queen Amidala. Not the best, but I
guess its more original than “Buzz” or “Elizabeth.”
The work is done, and now its closing time. So I need to
evenly space the frames before putting the lid back on.
