I think I’m in love with these tiny fascinating insects. The sound, the smell, the warmth, the feel of their little tiny feet on my hands. Wow. If only I’d known I would have done this years ago.
Tonight Jessi and I made about 14,000 new friends. The Italians have arrived and moved into their new home with it’s fabulous view. We had some fun, we had some laughs and we both survived our first stings in fine style (1 each, our own faults).
Here’s our evening in photos, with minimal narrative.
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After we both got here we spent a bit getting ready. We made sugar syrup (1:1 ratio), we reviewed our notes, we spritzed the bees. We headed out to the hive and got it ready – marking the frames for which direction they should face and making final adjustments.
Then we rescued the queen and replaced her cork with a marshmallow, grabbed the feeder, the syrup and the pollen cake and headed out to try our hand at bee keeping.
The package rested on the ground with a few of the escapees from our queen rescuing maneuver taunting the others from the outside.
Then I shook the box and dumped 14,000 bees (we got a 4# package) into the bottom of the brood box. After that we gently reinserted the frames and put the queen in her cage in the hive.
We put on the inner cover, being careful not to squish anyone. Then we installed the feeder and the empty box to protect it and put on the outer cover.
We placed the box with the straggler bees in front of the hive so that they could make their way inside at their leisure.
Then we sat back and watched them, fascinated. The relative warmth of the evening (and my failure to completely empty the cage) meant that there were probably 1,000 bees in the air and the box making their way inside (they had all made it when I went back out to check at dusk).
Without bee suits we both found ourselves carriers of friendly bees and covered in bee poop (not as aromatic as the bees).
Wow, what a night. I can hardly wait to get to go out and do the first hive check!
*****
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that is SO exciting. and the photos are fabulous
Hooray for your new bees. Wonderful photos!
That is so cool! Great photos!
Great great pics, I am forever in awe of your skill there, especially the first one. Hope they are all setting in well into the new home….
How exciting! This whole process of bee keeping I find
fascinating. Good luck!
Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m one of those girls who is still like ‘Eeeeeek!’ when a bee comes near me, but I’m trying, summer by summer, to get over my fear. Beekeeping is so fascinating! I’m glad that I’ll be reading about it here.
Thanks for sharing, Laura. This whole beekeeping thing is so mysterious and magical. Good luck with them!
That is awesome. I have a bee lady here in Houston that has been trying to talk me in to taking one of her hives as an experiment and I think your bee journey has me fully convinced to do so! Looks like a lot of fun!
That is totally cool!
Congratulations
Thanks for the great photos! Lots of us seem to be learning right along with you.
Great pictures! No need for an epi-pen?
Gorgeous, I must say you did a much better job photo-documenting than I! We too were surprised at how covered in bee poop we were after installing our package. But it made sense since they had essentially been holding it for several days. Who knew you could fall in love with critters smaller than your fingernail? I am glad it all went smoothly for you.
Those are amazing photos. But I will admit they scare me a bit. Perhaps I’m needlessly frightened by bees.
I love watching your progress with this Laura, It’s so fascinating.
I recently met a man through my Master Gardener program that keeps bees on his 1/4 acre lot not far from me. I’ve been invited to drop in and help him and learn some time when he’s doing hive checks. I look forward to it, we’ve thought a lot about starting a hive here.
Great post and, as usual, awesome photos!
Best wishes to you friend!
P~
I am very excited for you. This is hopefully in my future. can you tell me if you are in an area where there are fireants? if so what keeps them out?
A great way to welcome spring: hello bees! Are you going to name at least the Queen? I don’t think I have seen a queen bee before–that would make an AWESOME picture!
1/4 acre is less than we have!! We might be able to have bees too! Oh I can’t wait!
So fascinating. Is this a totally dumb question … they didn’t sting you?
Lucky! I’ve always wanted to do that!
This is so exciting. I’m going to enjoy following your progress. Great photos.
Anita, KJ, Kimberly :: Thanks! I’m so excited.
Mangochild :: They seem to be settling in just fine – a few were even making exploratory flights yesterday.
Tara, Jessica Marie :: It is seriously fascinating. I could sit out there and watch them for hours and hours. Really.
Speeder :: Hi Speeder! It is pretty magical when you think about it. And they’re almost all female, that’s pretty much the coolest part.
Morgan :: Go for it! You’ll have so much fun with them.
Michelle, Angie :: thanks!
Mia :: nope – that sting and my body’s reaction was nothing compared to the ground bees up by your cabin. Must be a different type of poison in the sting.
Maya :: Nah, I just realized it could be a once in a lifetime opportunity to document it. Although I’m already plotting getting a second hive next year. Or maybe getting on the swarm list for this summer. Can’t wait to hear about your first hive check!
Amber :: No need to be frightened by honey bees. Now wasps and yellow jackets? Those freak me out…
Thanks Paul :: With everything you’re growing and doing with you place you should definitely add bees to the collection. So far it’s turning out to be so much less key than I’d made it in my imagination.
Tracy :: No fire ants around here so we didn’t cover it in class. I would imagine that it has to do with how you site and build your hive – but I’m just guessing.
Monica :: you could definitely have bees. A coworker of mine has them on a city lot – they’re up on her flat roof. She’s got 2 hives. Maybe we should name the hive – I’ll have to check with Jessi to see if she’s got any good ideas.
Ellen :: We each got stung once, but for the most part they won’t sting you unless you move quickly or without looking where you’re putting your hands. I got stung because I didn’t close off my pant legs and one crawled up my leg. My own fault, not the bees.
Rebekah, Melanie :: I think I’m going to enjoy sharing the stories with you!
Wow, Laura…totally fascinating AND exciting! Your efforts are starting to make me think about bees on our place…maybe someday we’ll attempt what you’re starting now! Congratulations on your new project!
This is so exciting and inspiring. I’ve been thinking about my own beehive for some time now. I’ll be following you along this journey and hopefully I’ll be brave enough to do it myself
‘Tis the season. I just installed my first 2 colonies on Monday. I used the dump and shake method for one and just put the package box in the hive (after taking out the queen cage, etc.) with the other. I had lots of stragglers with the first hive – they all haven’t made it in yet even – but it makes that hive much more interesting to watch.
enjoy!
Very informative! I think I might give bees a try next year. Our small orchard could certainly use the pollinators.