Bee Keeping

Bee hives near our old home in Pfeffelbach, Germany

Bees are fascinating animals and I have always been interested in them. Last year during the Midlands Farm Tour we met some folks who kept bees on their farm and that planted to seed in my mind that I would like to try my hand at bee keeping. So, this year - despite my minor allergies to bee stings - we are adding a bee hive to our menagerie. There are a number of reasons for my desire to keep bees.

1. I like honey and it is expensive!

2. Bees are excellent pollinators. 

3. Bee's are facing some survival challenges and I would like to do my part to keep them going.

For most of the winter I planned to build a top bar bee hive. I found a good plan for the hives and bought the wood. Unfortunately, time conspired against me and I found myself in the midst of spring, with no bee hive built and most of the following weekends filled with other activities. I decided to buy my hive and get started.

Our son in his new bee-keeping suit. He's excited
to be a new bee keeper.

After several Internet searches and some discussions with other bee keepers I know, I found a pretty good bargain at Walter T Kelley's Bee Keeping Site. I purchased the Deluxe Beginner Outfit which comes with the hive, a bee keepers shirt, veil and pith helmet, a feeder, a smoker and smoking material, and honeycomb foundation. I still had to assemble the hive and frames but it is pretty easy to do. All the parts fit together perfectly and the frames go together with no problems.

The next challenge was finding the bees to put in the hive. My goal was to have the hive built and bees installed when the orchard started flowering but quickly learned that we should have planned a little better. Most companies that sell bee packages are sold out until late spring. I finally settled on a bee company that could provide a package of bees on 10 May. I'll miss the orchard blooms this year.  Coosawhatchie Honey Farms sold me a deep 5 frame nuc (short for nucleus) that contains 5-6 pounds of bees, three frames of bee brood and two frames of honey. I'll have to drive a couple of hours to pick them up, but that's no problem.

That's where we stand right now. The majority of the hive is now built and ready to move to its permanent location. I'll keep you updates on this experiment as it progresses.