Sting counter reset! I managed to get 118 days into beekeeping before my first sting yesterday. While inspecting the hive, I had just tilted up the top deep box a bit to check underneath it. Full of bees and honey and pollen, it's about 45 pounds; that's hard to handle... Continue reading

With this new hobby, I find that we're paying a lot more attention to all the creepy crawlies around us. We saw a few of these pollen-legged critters on our daisies...they are vaguely bee-ish, but I'm not sure what exactly they are: We have an outbuilding in our backyard that... Continue reading

Dear readers, I left you last time with a thrilling cliffhanger...are LaFawnduh and the girls plagued with varroa mites? The answer? I dunno. After three days under the hive, there was a LOT of detritus on the sticky board: I messaged my mentor for some pointers. He asked if anything... Continue reading

Today was my oldest daughter's turn to help with the weekly inspection! She is 9 and just finishing fourth grade. She has always been a bit of a naturalist, curious about all critters. She got to see worker and drone brood cells, nectar, honey, and the queen! Today's inspection was... Continue reading

Yesterday my seven-year-old asked how long I've had the bees, and I told her seven weeks. "Oh! So you've had them longer than a bee lives!" She's right! The typical worker bee lives about six weeks, so at this point, the majority of the bees in the hive have been... Continue reading

This week, my youngest daughter joined me for my hive inspection. She is 7 and very cautious by nature, so this was a big step for her. She has been reading a lot about bees at school, and she was excited to see real life examples as she recited bee... Continue reading

This week, I have lots of before and after photos! Last week, this frame was full of open empty cells, from which new bees had recently emerged. This week, these cells are capped again, with larval bees percolating inside! Last week, the bees' condo was one story (the top box... Continue reading

I was greeted with a bunch of empty brood cells this week. This frame was completely capped last week, but now the cells are open, and the new bees have emerged! Empty brood cells! The honey cells on a couple of frames were stuck together, and when I pried them... Continue reading

Small hive beetle, smashed This weekend, I discovered that my big box o' bugs has a few unwelcome visitors. Small Hive Beetles (I don't even want to know if there is a Large variety) are on the scene. These critters are the ultimate omnivores...they eat bee food (pollen and honey),... Continue reading

After this week's inspection, I'm teetering on the fence about a couple of big decisions. Six of the ten frames in my initial hive box have comb drawn on both sides, with brood, pollen, or nectar in most cells. Another has comb drawn on one side, and three remain bare.... Continue reading

Yesterday I conducted my second hive inspection. There were so many new things to see! My hive has 10 frames. The bees start their work in the middle, so the two frames on either end were still bare wax foundation; the bees haven't "drawn comb" on them yet: As I... Continue reading

Today, I started seeing my ladies bringing in pollen in earnest. Over the weekend, I saw just a couple with wee yellow saddlebags, but today, they seem to have found the Sam's Club of pollen, and they are buying in bulk! The pollen appears mustard-colored in this picture, but it's... Continue reading

Lafawnduh is out! She arrived in this little queen cage, along with a couple of attendants: Each end was corked, but one end was also plugged with white candy to serve as a time-release mechanism. In a package of bees, the queen is a stranger. By the time the rest... Continue reading

Last week I rejoiced to learn my youngest daughter had strep throat. I was overjoyed! Instead of another winter virus we just had to wait out, here was an illness where we could DO something. I tell you this to illustrate that I'm not great at letting nature take its... Continue reading

One (encouraging? maddening?) thing I'm finding about beekeeping is that whatever problem arises, there are scads of ways to approach solving it. The last time I did this much reading on a single subject (and found so many differing opinions) was in my early parenting years! My beekeeping starter kit... Continue reading

The bees appear to be acclimating to their environment. I checked on the queen today; she's not out of her little cage yet, but it looks like the workers are making progress on breaking her free. After dumping the bees into the hive Saturday night, there were still several in... Continue reading

Checked my e-mail and Facebook obsessively to track my bees' travels. Mixed up what amounts to Kool Aid for bees (a 1:1 sugar to water mixture that will help them get established before the nectar flow begins in earnest...I need to stock up on sugar!) I had help from my... Continue reading

Some years ago, I read a memoir by a lady (I don't remember the name...I think it had a red cover?) detailing her first few years of beekeeping. I was fascinated, and daydreamed about the day we'd sustain our family of four solely on the products of our suburban half... Continue reading