A BEE thread....for those interested in beekeeping.

[sgtmom52]

I think I'll join the conversation. We got bees for the first time this May before we even had chickens. I told my husband that we probably shouldn't get both in the same year, but here we are, learning a day at a time!

The bees were doing so well! We added a second brood box and then a honey super when the 2nd box was 3/4 full, but then they swarmed! Apparently they were doing TOO well! A fellow beekeeper told us to just leave them alone for a couple weeks and see what happens. They are still very active at the entrance and they are all over our wildflowers collecting nectar. We are thinking we may not get any honey for this first adventure, but we'll see.

Welcome! Sounds like your bees are doing well. We always advise new beekeepers not to expect to harvest any honey the first year. The bees need that time and honey to build up and get ready for winter.

Actually bees do not need nearly as much attention as chickens do.

 

[Steadfast]

I just added and inside feeder...
I had to add two empty small supers to fit it in there, but it works!
The wood colored part is the inside cover...


weird...

for some reason this posts up-side down....
I guess it is right-side up to them...

 

[Steadfast]

Just guarding things here... whats up?
Got anymore of that Sugar water?

 

[3goodeggs]

It took me a Moment to figure out the antennae shadows.
great picture!

 

[sunflower4you]

Welcome! Sounds like your bees are doing well. We always advise new beekeepers not to expect to harvest any honey the first year. The bees need that time and honey to build up and get ready for winter.

Actually bees do not need nearly as much attention as chickens do.

Thanks for the encouragement. Agreed that bees do not need as much attention as chickens, but it is still a lot of work when you are rebuilding an old hive and building a coop from scratch at the same time!

Anyway, the bees are his and the chickens are mine but I help with hive inspections and he builds me stuff for the chickens. I think we got into a bit of newbie (new-bee!) enthusiasm checking the hive once a week and feeding them sugar water for too long. Guess we will learn from our mistakes!

 

[3goodeggs]

We registered our hive yesterday. He said he'd look at it in a month or so.... he wants to make sure they make it before the drive up I guess. Not overly thrilled with his confidence in our abilities... or the bees.

There are 150 bees heading in the hive every minute, I hope that is good.
We fed them the first four days so they could make wax, We will put the second brood chamber on this weekend.
I hope we are doing it right.

I love having bees around again. It feels better, like life is in balance.
It is strange how I took all of the bees and wasps and bumbles for granted, They were just always there. I accepted them as part of my existence. When they disappeared everything felt off.

 

[Steadfast]

I earned my 1st new hive sting!
I was inspecting my hive frame by frame yesterday. One of the bees managed to find a less than zipped zipper in my bee keeping jacket. She crawled up to my shoulder blade Inside my jacket. I must have semi squished her when leaning over and BAM she hit me.

It hurt, but about half as much as I thought it would/should. Iches like crazy today.

The bee only freaked me out when she wiggled past my collar and flew around inside my veil. I didn't know if I had more than 1 inside my jacket by then. My chickens must have thought I was doing an impression of them at this point.
Ha ha ha

A bee inside the veil!
Yikes!

 

[joannefiddler]

What a great mental image you painted for me! Glad it wasn't any worse.

 

[1muttsfan]

sounds like when one got caught in my hair - head-slapping fest

 

[mpape067]

Sneaky little devils aren't they. They do like to see how far under you clothes they can go before they strike.