Eden Hollow...The Land of Milk AND Honey

In an attempt to expand my homesteading skills,

I'm now keeping bees! 



 (April) I have my hives all assembled, painted and almost ready for the bees

 It all began with a very sweet hubby who apparently really does listen to everything I have to say!  (Who knew!) One day, I was just kind of talking out loud and I said something like, "Wouldn't it be neat to keep bees so we could have our own honey and beeswax?".  Well, that's all it took and under the Christmas tree I found a beautiful new bee hive, veil, gloves and smoker. Most girls want spa days, jewelry and such.  Not me.  I want bees. Call me crazy.

So, at this point I realized my out loud thinking had just become a reality and in reality I knew absolutely NOTHING about keeping bees.  I found a free beginners bee keeping class through the local bee keeping club and co-op extension and learned that bees, like goats, do better in multiples.  Apparently, much like socialism (don't even get me started on THAT topic), a bee keeper must sometimes steal from the rich (hive) and give to the poor (hive), and everyone is the better for it.  Hmmm.   Well, long story short, that's how I ended up with two hives...

In mid May the two Nucs I ordered arrived and with the help of my mentor, they were installed in their new homes.  I will admit, I was very nervous working around the bees for the first time.  I had to keep reminding myself, "Don't freak out, just BREATHE!" 

The other day I went out to fill their feeders and I saw them literally dripping from the hives.  I did a quick search for the cause of this interesting bee-havior (sorry, couldn't help myself) and this is called "bearding".  Can you see how they were forming a "beard" at the hive entrance?  Apparently, this means they were hot and needed a little more ventilation. 

I did a hive inspection yesterday and all seems well.  They were filling up their first hive body nicely and were ready for a second hive body.  Later this summer, if all goes well, I'll add a honey super or two and hopefully harvest a little bit o'honey!  Fingers crossed!