The honey bee! Apis Mellifera! A most delightful little animal! In the company of like-minded friends, we immersed ourselves into the interesting world of bees. From 8 until 4, we learned basic things two new bee-keepers should know. Just like that, we have a new set of friends with skill sets that will help us through our first year as we tend to our apiary.
In 1983, I was a young mom with little ones aged 2 and 3. For some crazy reason, bee-keeping became a hobby of mine for a time. Each week, I’d visit our 40 hives and collect the pollen we’d robbed from the bees. At that time, three local health food stores were eager to buy the local pollen.
Pollen is an amazing food that holds many health benefits. I remember cleaning the pollen while my babies took their afternoon naps. I’d carefully sift, weigh, and package my product and then take the babies on outings. For a time, it was a wonderful hobby. But, as babies do, mine turned into little boys. In 1983, my marriage ended, along with my bee-keeping hobby.
Gardening has always been a favorite hobby. When I purchased Winterpast in 2020, one of the main enticements was her gardens. At the time, I couldn’t visualize possibilities. Then, HHH, came along and now, future projects are endless.
For Christmas, HHH received one un-assembled bee-hive. Since then, bees have become our focus. Just a simple hive of 30,000 bees with a queen to run the place. Of course, they all have jobs, which even include undertaker bees that drag the unfortunates out of the hive. There are nursemaids and guards. Drones. The Queen. It’s all so exciting, we can’t wait to begin.
As we listened to seasoned bee-keepers, we learned about all the things we still need to purchase. More importantly, we learned about the time line for a year of bee-keeping. I have a feeling HHH and I are going to enjoy many mornings sitting to the side of the hive while watching their activities.
Bees keep the internal hive temp at 94 degrees to care for the developing embryos. They do this by fanning their wings to either cool or heat their hive. They like things the way they like them. If conditions get too crowded, they split the hive and half of them swarm. They know how to feed the Queen her life-long diet of Royal Jelly, and they also know when to get rid of her.
One thing one must never do is stand directly in front of the entrance to the hive. Nope. It seems the bees are not very happy about people who do. Otherwise with a little smoke and slow and deliberate movements, they can be handled quiet easily. I still remember how much I enjoyed this hobby, even after so many years have passed.
Yesterday, we attended the family baby shower. While lost in a sea of littles aged one month old and up, we learned about a close family friend that’s also a bee-keeper. How great to have an emergency phone number if our hive starts to struggle. Again, small-town nice comes to the rescue!
Our bees will be delivered to us from California in April. As a functioning group known as a NUC, we’ll be purchasing a queen and all her helper-bees. They’ll arrive in a cardboard box, already a complete community living on five frames. And so it will begin.
This year, if everything goes as planned, we hope to harvest 60 pounds of honey off our hive. We’re ready to put up the good fight against mites, which can weaken a hive. We know when to look for the dreaded moths, and when to install mouse guards. Even with everything we learned, there are a thousand more things we’ll learn by trial and error.
And so, our garden plans grow. This week, we’ll going to start seeds in the greenhouse as we choose plants that produce a wide variety of nectar and pollen.
With two very rambunctious dogs that insist on barking at and digging at the fence next to our neighbor, we’ve found the perfect place for our hive. Our friends, the bees, will take care of that problem. The hive will sit right in that very corner. Win. Win.
This week will be a busy one with two trips to the biggest little city to the west. The roses are pruned and we’ll move on to the trees. A fence is planned for the garden area. Some work on the greenhouse. Spring will be here before we know it and it will be glorious!
Whatever you do today, remember one of your hobbies of the past. Maybe, just maybe, it’s still something that holds interest for you. As for me, it’s off to learn more about the bees.
More tomorrow.