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!)