Bees are Buzzin’

I got into the bee hive last week. I’ve only been in there once before. I’m truly an accidental beekeeper. The story about my bees is pretty interesting.

In spring of 2019, some friends were moving out of their house which included some empty beehives. They offered them to me. Yes! Just the entry into beekeeping I was looking for. Free stuff. So I brought them home and was not exactly sure where I wanted to put them yet so I set them just inside our gate to the back yard. Before I could decide the final location, a swarm moved in. I let them be that year. They were docile enough and seemed like I had a few thousand new friends. They didn't last through winter though. But, I had another chance to move the hives.

Then another swarm moved in! I watched it happen.

So, I lived with another few thousand new friends through most of 2020. I bought a bee suit, some tools, and quite possible the most comfortable and best fitting gloves I’ve ever had. I knew I’d need to dress up in order to deal with my new friends at some point. I finally summoned up the courage in September. I wanted to put in a new bottom board I had made and level up the hive since it was threatening to topple over. We could smell the honey and thought there would probably be a chance to harvest a little.

When we got all the boxes off, checked things out (we really didn’t know what we were looking at exactly), and leveled and got the bottom board in place, we decided the bees had more than enough honey for winter. So we took some. Two frames made for about 10 pounds of honey! What a treasure! Bees are so cool.

Anyway, the bees lived through this past winter and have been so busy I have been nervous about them swarming and moving out, leaving my boxes empty and lifeless. I’ve still got so much to learn about these awesome creatures. 

So, my most recent hive dive last week led to more questions than answers. There is still a lot of honey, can I take some now? Some of the frames have been built together with wax, should I separate them for the sake of locating the queen? I think there is a lot hidden in those frames. I also think I killed about a thousand of my friends with my giant monster hands fiddling around not exactly knowing what I’m doing.

I could really use a mentor but hate to ask. So I asked anyway. My friend John has been keeping bees longer than I have. But, he’s also not confident in his skills. He invited me over for a look into his hives. After our initial clothing preparations and lighting of the smoker, we checked out the hive he was most curious about. He thought maybe they were going to swarm too after some had already a few days before.

I couldn’t take pictures since my beautiful gloves were on but inside, his hives look noticeably different than mine. John’s lack of confidence didn’t keep me from gaining a few tips about hive handling (maybe I’ll kill fewer next time) and the promise of meeting other beekeepers. As John says, for every question, every beekeeper has their own answer. So, I’ll keep searching for my own answers. I'll get into the bees again next week since it seems I left some things incomplete - I didn’t see the queen!