Baxter Bees

We're getting bees.
Right in our own backyard.
And they'll be delivered very, very soon!


Here's how it happened.  We are friends and neighbors with the state beekeeper.  Yeah, that's right- the state beekeeper.  They home school and so we see them all summer at the pool, and all the rest of the year at the park.  They are part of our beloved Tuesday playgroup.

So Jon gives classes on beekeeping. And this season, he's giving a Youth Beekeeping Class that we enrolled in.  It's a 16 week class that includes lectures on honeybee biology, beekeeping, honey, bee pests and diseases, how to inspect hives and keep a beeyard, etc... It also includes workshops in building the beehive and frames, and, once our bees are delivered, it will include several weeks of hands-on help in working with our bees.  We'll install them in a collective bee yard, but we'll bring them home to our house once the class is over.

We have learned so much!  Jon's a great teacher- I take pages and pages of notes each lecture, but he's still teaching to a youth level, so X is understanding just about everything.

As of this week, we've got our hive ready to go, we've got all of our safety equipment, we've got our tools (smoker, hive tool, bee brush, etc...) ready to go! We're just waiting for the delivery of our bees!

Common questions answered:
-Yes, in our yard, in the city.  It's legal! We do have to register our hives, but it is free to do so, and it entitles us to free apiary inspections.  So if anything is going wrong, we can call and they'll send out an expert to help us diagnose the problem.
-No, I'm not worried about stings.  Honeybees are not aggressive, unless defending their home. I'm sure we will get stung, but I'm not super concerned.  I'll probably keep a bottle of Benadryl on hand, though.
-No, I'm not worried about the neighbors.  Honeybees fly up and away from their hive when they go foraging, and we've got a big backyard, so the bees aren't up in anyone's business.
-We won't get honey this year, but if our bees survive the winter, we'll be getting honey next fall! It takes time and energy to draw out the combs (they have to eat a pound of honey to make 2oz of wax!) and build up the brood, so we'll just let our bees go about their business for the first year.
-We're getting bees because they are good for our environment, because bees are struggling for survival.  We're learning to work with the bees, and help them as they follow their natural instincts. Also honey and beeswax!

I'll be updating and probably blogging about bees and honey and stuff.  Future topics: Ethics of Beekeeping, The Awesomeness of Bees, The Amazingness of Honey, What the Heck Have We Gotten Ourselves Into?!, Involving the Kids in Work, The First Time I Get Stung.


Some pictures...

Putting together the deep super that we'll be using to house the bees and the brood.

Priming.

Putting frames together.

Painting. Bright orange.  Not the color to put the neighbors at ease, but it makes us happy.

Putting the foundation into the frames.  It's a wire-reinforced peice of wax, it helps the bees make their combs straight and gives them a little bit of a head start in making comb to fill with brood, pollen and honey. The comb that the bees make is used for several years. The wire-reinforcement helps the comb stay strong when it's filled with honey.

Saftey equipment.  His gloves. My veil.

Mara trying out the saftey gear. X showing off the hive- you can see the frames in the box, and he's lifting off the inner lid.  There is another, aluminum topped lid that goes on top of the whole thing.  The inner lid is used to help regulate humidity and temperature.