March Preparation

Are we really going through with this? Are we crazy to think we can raise two hives of bees in our backyard? With two dogs whose jaws playfully snap at anything buzzing by? Have we lost our minds?! BREATHE. (Repeat many, many times throughout March)

We've dug ourselves a beehive/flower plot. Linda split her ornamental grasses and generously gave us 3 big clumps to transplant. We acquired cement blocks to use as bases for the hives, re-organized the garage and put up shelving for efficient supply space, built 5 supers as well as primed and painted them a light butter/yellow....The man at the hardware store who helped Erin pick out a good brand of exterior primer and paint was once a beekeeper himself.

Throughout this whole process, it seems we are being offered help at every turn. Building the frames with honeycomb is probably the trickiest task we've done so far (see photo at left). Thank goodness for Erin's handiness--she's been able to figure out where each of the wood pieces fit, where we glue, where we nail, and what size nail to use! Once we got the hang of it, a sort of calm rhythm set in....

On March 13th we attended our first beekeepers club meeting/potluck. We felt immediately comfortable in the crowd of flannel shirts, overalls, welcoming smiles, and farm-fresh eggs for sale. We brought a bag of oranges and a bowl of tabouli to share, and set them down on a long table filled with fried chicken, various casseroles, rolls, scalloped potatoes, and rich desserts. By eating time, no oranges were taken and only a bit of the tabouli was tried--some poor soul probably mistook it for a more traditonal southern dish. We're definitely going to have to work on our menu items if we plan on fitting into this group. We talked with some friendly beekeepers about events, classes, and listened to issues unique to this region. The club president announced that all was in order for the bee packages to arrive on April 8th, and we watched the Keith Delaplane video--the segment on installing bees, which we highly recommend as a visual resource (though its still only in VHS tape). Before sharing food, the prayer was this: "....May all beekeepers prosper this year and take pleasure in keeping their bees....and may we help in feeding all the hungry of the world...." Amen.

(The unpainted hive body!)

Getting Started

We met our beekeeping mentor (Ron, our new friend whose hives and brunch we enjoyed last year--isn't that ironic?) for lunch on February 22. This kind and patient man helped us search the Walter T. Kelley catalogue and make a list of all the needed supplies. Inadverdently, the list brought us into talking about beekeeping styles and practicalities. And we can already see from class, a couple books, and talking with people, that beekeeping is much like, say, gardening. There is a basic structure to the practice and rules of thumb you can generally count on, but beyond this, everyone develops their own reasoning and style. With factors such as weather, current information and research, blind luck, experience, supply companies, regional climates, cultural practices and available resources....beekeeping can be beautifully complex. There is a quote by John Muir which aptly describes the way we are learning to view life and the interrelationship of all things: "When we tug at a single thing in nature, we find it attached to the rest of the world."

So, we've already made some decisions. Nothing too radical: we'll use screened bottom boards to help with mites and ventilation; we'll use only shallow supers so that all the hive parts are interchangeable, and no super becomes overly heavy (such as filled deep supers); we'll use wood for all parts except for the durable plastic inner and outer covers; we'll use beeswax instead of plastic comb. The bees will already be medicated, so we won't need to worry about medicines until hopefully fall. The rest seems fairly run-of-the-mill: hive tool, veils and hats, gloves, smoker, queen excluders, entrance reducers, burlap, entrance feeders....

On February 28th we placed our order, including two 3 lb. packages of Italian bees with two Italian queens. The woman taking my order on the phone was so patient and helpful, which is a comfort since I feel I don't know the meaning of half of what I say, it's like a different language! We'll meet her March 28th in a nearby town to pick up the equipment, and two members of our beekeepers club will bring the packages up the afternoon of April 8th. This will save us a lot of trouble and driving time! It's almost 60 degrees today, and sunny. I see perennials pushing through the ground, robins and birds everywhere singing, and the long strands of web from ballooning spiders....spring is coming and so will our bees.