Hands-on with Bees

Jim helped entertain the kids along with the other wild turkey.

With the weather being so cool this morning, I doubted that the bee instructors would actually be able to open up the hives for hands-on training but it worked out anyway. Craig and I traveled over to the NC State Apiary sight off of Lake Wheeler Road with grandchildren in tow for the lab which began at 9:00 am. By the way, the temperature was a cool 39 when we left home. The plan was to trade off watching the kids and each learn as much as possible. As it worked out, Jessica finished the Raleigh Rocks Half-Marathon in good time and met us at the bee lab to rescue the kids before they overdosed from too much of the great outdoors. Before she came we had a great time walking around the farm to check out the wild (tame) turkey, a kitty, a puppy and lots of bee hives. Sorry Jessica but he liked your mini-van so much he got close up and personal with it. The kids were delighted to hear a real turkey gobble.

The real fun began after the weather warmed up and we were actually able to put on our bee gear and begin the final stage of the hands-on part of the certification. Linda S. volunteered to go first in our group. What a brave woman she was and didn't flinch a single time. She was my hero because I was doubting my ability to handle live bees without doing something stupid in front of all those people. Our instructor actually made me nervous by saying "whatever you do, don't drop that frame" as Linda, with steady hands and calm nerves slid the bee packed frame out of the busy hive without gloves. Notice the smoker? That's the way to move the bees back into the hive so that you can check the frames for any of the many things that beekeepers have to watch out for - my favorite being honey!

While I was still gathering my courage to work on the hive, I slipped over to Dexter's group because they seemed to be having way too much fun. The hive that they worked on was twice as full of bees as the first hive I experienced. The instructor made me feel a lot more confident so I gathered the courage to go for it. Meanwhile back at the first hive with Danny's group, Craig started his test and passed with flying colors. Here he is at the beginning, after smoking the bees, taking off the inner cover. He acted like he had been doing this bee thing for many years.

I started my smoker (first part of the test) and got ready, also without gloves, to buzz into the hive. It went well and I asked Craig to take a picture because I was so proud that I wasn't nervous. The instructor made me take off my veil for the picture. Now we are ready to get our bees which are a little late this year because of the cold weather. Overall we have a productive day and lots of fun with the kids.

The Real Bee-ginning

We've begun our journey of raising bees! It actually officially began on Christmas morning when I opened my huge wrapped present from Craig and found a bee hive. I had been reading about raising bees for over a year and he found my Brushy Mountain Bee Keeper's catalog and decided it was time. Surprise, ready or not, here they come.

Yesterday, we finished our last class in the series, "Getting Started with Beekeeping" and will participate in the hands on lab next week with live bees and real hives. We have to be ready because our order for two nucs of bees should arrive around the middle of April. I know I only received one hive for Christmas but we quickly learned that if you are starting out, you must get two hives. Craig won a bee hive in the Wake County Beekeeper's raffle yesterday. Congratulations Craig but now we have three hives to deal with. We'll figure it out. Our friends Jim and Linda took the classes with us and they are also getting two hives of bees. It will be good to have a team to work with for weekends when we need to travel and the bees need feeding or something else.

Craig and I have been working out in the garden all afternoon preparing the area for the hives. We do know that we have to add a water source near the hives because we don't want them to fly down to the house to get water. We're thinking of a small pond which will need a pump to recirculate the water. Watch out Penny and Ben. You're getting ready to have company out back.

Well back to work, getting the bee balm transplanted. We're excited. I created this blog to document the steps along the way.