And we’re off!!

Well, we bought some bulk honey to get our name and label  “out there” and just sold our first jars!

The rest of the supplies for our initial hives also came in. So, we will be having another “nail and paint day” very soon.

This time of year is pretty slow for the bee business. The main objective is to make sure your hives are ready for winter. It is starting to get pretty cold here at night. We woke up to our first good frost this morning.

We will be taking our certification classes over the next few weeks, at least Eileen will. I might be, but I’m sure I’ll get it done before Spring.

Will keep you posted.

They’re coming together

These are some of the hive bodies we’ve been building.

Yes, they are yellow – in keeping with our name “Southern Gold.” This will also make it easier to distinguish our hives from others if we wind up sharing farmland.

We are going to use the “double deep” bodies, just as shown in the photos. Then when the bees get ready to start storing honey, we will go with a medium super on top of the bodies.

There is still plenty of work to be done between now and spring when the bees arrive.

Daddy, Where do baby bees come from?

Well, there’s a lot Eileen and I don’t know (obviously) about bees yet, but we are learning where they come from.

There are relatively few wild hives left today. There seem to be several reasons for this, urban growth and the use of pesticides seem to be two of the most obvious. 

So, where do beekeepers get bees?

Some come in packages. There are bee breeders (I guess that’s what you call them) and they sell a package, usually 2-4 pounds, of bees. We have already placed our order for several packages to be delivered next spring. Beekeeping will force you to plan ahead, if nothing else!

Packages have a queen and they are placed in an empty hive to begin building their colony.

You can also buy “nucs.” ”Nuc” is short for nucleus and, just as the name implies, these bees, queen and all, have been at work building comb, raising brood and everything else they do in several frames. So, these bees are somewhat ahead of the game over a package of bees. We’ve ordered a couple of these as well.

You can also “split” hives. If a hive is strong, and they are beginning to run out of room, you can take some of the bees, give them a new queen and start a new hive that way. We have one split planned at a farm which already has one very strong hive.

If bees do run out of room, they tend to swarm. This is when the queen and many of the other bees pack up and leave the existing hive. They find a new place to live which is sometimes in the wall of a house, a tree 0r some other place.

We are keeping one hive body open to deal with this should the opportunity  arise.

Gearing up

This past weekend, we bought our first hives, frames and start up equipment. This weekend we plan to start assembling the hive bodies.

We debated long and hard about whether to go with 8 frame or 10 frame hives. We decided to go with the 10 for a couple of reasons.

One is the whole reason behind getting started in the “bee business” is for the honey. So, we figured more frames, more honey. Simple math.

Another reason is we want to make sure the bees have plenty of room. We are going to be keeping some here in the backyard and the last thing we want is a swarm going over to the neighbor’s. I know they can still swarm, but they have more room starting out and when we add bodies or supers, there is at least 20% more room.

There are advantages to the 8 frame system, but we determined 10 frames were the way to go for us.  

Stay tuned for photos of the assembly process.

In the Beginning . . .

Well, today our venture into producing honey begins. We’ve been studying this for a while. We are both intrigued by the whole design and function of the honey bee and we love honey!

We’re not looking to get rich, just getting involved a little closer with one of God’s most interesting critters – and maybe financially support the effort. 

Eileen and I went and worked some hives with a friend and then we picked up the materials to assemble our own hives.

We’ll add pictures as we go along. Please join us for the journey.