First Lessons In Beekeeping

This weekend I had my first lessons in beekeeping. The first thing
I learned is that it's really hot inside this bee suit!  But I want everything
covered up when I'm working with those bees.   When we purchased
our bees this year, we bought a nucleus (nuc for short) from a beekeeper.
A nuc is a young colony that will quickly grow to full size.  The beekeeper
divides his colonies and takes 5 or 6 combs and puts them in the hives
with the rest of the space taken up with frames of foundation.  Each of
the nucs has a queen and brood and is ready to grow into it's own hive.
Brood means all immature phases of the bee - egg, larvae and pupae.  
We bought three nucs so we will have three colonies in our hives.  
Now they have outgrown their starter home and we need  to add on
the next level, called a super. When bees get crowded they will swarm
and we don't want that to happen.  When we work with bees, it's best
to do it in the middle of the day, because theoretically they are out
doing their business of collecting pollen. I'm not sure how many
were out working, but there were a lot of bees in the hive.
This is an essential tool when you are working with bees - a smoker.

The smoker is filled with pine shavings and lit.  We needed to make

sure that it was burning well, because we didn't want it to go out 

when we really needed it.  It was my job to work the smoker when

we opened the hive so I practiced a little to make sure it worked.

The smoker is supposed to help calm the bees down.

We had to prepare the new frames that we would be adding. 

The sheets of bees wax are called foundation and smell so good. 

This is what they will build their comb on and fill with honey. 

It was exciting and a little scary when we took off the top and could see

the bees.  I was told to move slowly and be gentle with them.

Mark begins to move the frames from the nuc into the new hive. 

The bottom compartment is called a brood nest.  This is the section

that houses the queen and producing brood.  It is the heart of the

colony.  The queen produces  the eggs that will hatch new bees.  

The other bees all take their cues from the queen, and exist to serve 

her and the hive.  Along with the queen, there are drones (which are 

the male bees) and workers ( the females).  The drones are the least

populous members  of the hive.  Smaller than the queen, but larger

than the worker bees, the drones serve one function only- to mate 

with the queen.  Once that job is complete, the drone dies. (probably

with a smile on his face. :)   The worker bees are female, but they 

cannot reproduce.  They perform many tasks to grow and protect

the hive.  Theydo all the foraging and bring back pollen and nectar.

Can you see how well I am doing my job with the smoker?

These bees have been busy, busy.  Look at the honey in this rack.

When it is time to put on the new super, Mark gives me the honors.  

I take off the top cover

and add the super.   Now they will be able to spread out and start producing

more honey.

I'm placing the inner cover on top, trying not to squish any of the bees.  

And then the outer cover goes on top.  Isn't it pretty?  This hive is

from BrushyMountain Bee Farm ( a NC company!)  and the top is 

coated with copper. They seem to like their new home.  Now we 

have to do the same thing  with two more hives.  We will wait for

another day.  We were both about to have a heat stroke.

We aren't expecting to harvest a lot of honey this first year.  The bees

will need most of it to survive the winter.  But we did take two frames

back to the house,  so we could have our first taste of honey from our

own bees.   That is a big head of romaine  lettuce beside me on the seat 

and do I look tired or what?  After a day of working in the garden and

beekeeping I was exhausted.  It felt great returning home from the barn 

area with fresh eggs from the hens, lettuce from the garden and now

honey from our bees. 

We are getting closer and closer to our dream of being self reliant. 

We have a honey extractor , but it's large and not worth pulling out

for two frames.  We set them up on cake racks, scraped the tops off the

wax and let them drain onto  cookie sheets.  It didn't seem like we had 

very much honey, until we started collecting it into jars.

From those two frames, we had a quart and a pint of delicious honey.  

What kind?  We aren't sure, but Mark thinks it is wildflower.

Whatever it is - it's really good!

Thank you, bees.

*Goal #34 - Start beekeeping

* Goal # 18 - Work on storage and preparedness goals