My latest homestead adventure is beekeeping. We borrowed the hives and all gear from a friend for the summer to see how we do, maybe next year we will invest in our own gear. I really knew nothing about keeping bees so my friend Holly came over to help me hive the bees.
The bees come through the mail from California packed in these screen boxes, 3 lbs of bees!
The Queen bee is in her own little cage, so the other bees can't get to her right away. They need time to get used to each other before they will except her as their Queen. A marshmallow is stuck in hole in the cage, the worker bees eventually chew away the marshmallow and release her into the hive. She won't leave the hive, her primary duty is to lay eggs. The other bees feed her, clean her and even carry away her poo.. ah to be Queen!!
The bees just get shaken out of the box and dumped into the hive. I was nervous that there would be mad bees flying all over everywhere stinging us and causing havoc but they were quite mellow and just settled in without much of a fuss.
Success! We had quite a few bees crawling on us but not even one sting :) I have checked the hive a couple of times now and everything appears to be going well. The bees have built up some nice comb and there is pollen and eggs in the cells. We still have to fed them sugar water becuase there are not enough flowers blooming yet but it shouldn't be long now.
Success! We had quite a few bees crawling on us but not even one sting :) I have checked the hive a couple of times now and everything appears to be going well. The bees have built up some nice comb and there is pollen and eggs in the cells. We still have to fed them sugar water becuase there are not enough flowers blooming yet but it shouldn't be long now.
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