I've decided to keep bees. The reaction to this project has ranged from "I will pray for you" to the simple question "why?" coupled with a look of horror. Well, it's great for the environment, and I can, theoretically, get all the honey I want, so there is no downside, except when they sting you on your foot. Which they did, and plus they crawled up my pants leg, which wasn't really a good feeling, all things considered. But my bee-buddy Paul just said that that made me a real beekeeper, so it was alright. In truth, there was some yelling and bad words on my part, but that was just the fear and pain talking, and now I feel much better. I visited the girls( honeybees are females, mostly) yesterday and after only three weeks in their hives( two hives) they have made me the proud grandma of two and one half frames of capped brood per hive. Paul says this is very, very good, and soon I can put an addition on the hive, because in two weeks the babies will hatch and the number of bees will double. That means I will have 32,000 bees and maybe more.
The top picture is me putting bees in a hive for the first time. They come in wooden cages, you open them up and shake them out into their new home, just like they were pennies in a penny jar. Then you put in the queen bee, give them something to eat and let nature take its course. The second picture is the girls doing the bee thing and being busy. So far, they seem to like their new home.
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