Classes

Well, through this adventure I have met Mark of Marks Bee Haven. Through talking he discovered I was taking the Certified Natural class in Winston on the 9th of Jan. I am also going to the "Bee-giner" class offered by the Forsyth Beekeepers Assn. this spring. We will meet several times this spring for almost all day classes.

I will have my hands full just about every weekend! I cannot wait for class to start! If you want to know, there is no reason for me to re-type everything. Mark at the above link has been quite generous on the keyboard on one of his most recent posts...

Pictures update

Since there is still 6" of snow on the back deck, I figured I would take some pictures of everything I have and have done. The only thing left out is the 2 medium nucs I built. They are in the office upstairs.

For some reason Dozer, our pit, wanted to sit on top of the presents. We were rearranging them and he hopped on this one.

Below is Jasper... He is a bit wierd. If he is happy he sticks his tongue out like that.

I have no other place for storage right now, so this is everything stacked up nicely in the garage.

To the right is what my hives look like. I cannot put them out yet, as I do not have any bees!!! I cannot wait until spring!

On my hives, I used a pecan/almond stain with 2 coats of a Min-Wax urethane varnish to seal them. I still need to stain and coat 3 supers that I just got as an early Christmas present from my better half and I need to work on the rims of all of them with the varnish. The copper on the top will eventually turn green but for now, I think I might spray paint it hunter green...

To the left you can see the powdered sugar blower I am going to try and report about in my blog.

The sign below is what I am going to have posted just in case of idiots roaming the neighborhood....

I will be using all 8 frame mediums and the English Garden Hives.

As I get my bees I will be trying various things to get them fat and happy. I have patties and builder and megabee for them this year... I am going to offer all in patty form and liquid form as an experiment to see what is preferred. I plan on experimenting a lot (the biologist and chemist coming out in me). I have found some products for human use that has everything the bees require and some, and it doesn’t have any damaging chemicals like lactose that the bees can die from. It isn't a bee food sold on the market, but I am going to see if it works for them... It is kind of pricey, but if the hive I use it on get huge, I will know why, and it will be well worth it....

On a side not I like to cook....

I got bored today and made a sopapilla dessert (in all honesty my spouse was more interested in me doing it that I was).   YUM!!!!!! Nothing like made from scratch desserts!

I have been told by all of my friends and family that I should publish a recipe book.... I love cooking, but I don't have the time to compile all of my recipes....

Quick Sunday update

I have signed up for two classes. One is a certified organic class, and the other it a beginer beekeeping class. Both being offered in Forsyth County.

The link for the Certified Organic class is: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/86792

It talks about IPM and several other options for "natural" beekeeping. At $11.50 with tax for a fun day you cannot beat it! You also get the ability to use the license for certified organic labels on your honey.

There is not real tension about the bees on the homefront, other than the fact that they are going to be on the back porch for about 2 years before the garden grows up enough. We do entertain on the deck at times so it will have to be late in the evening before anyone goes out…. One of the neighbors does not care and one set is curious about it, the rest are college kids or never around for me to talk with….

Let it snow!

Well, it is snowing in the Piedmont Triad.... It has only been snowing for 2 hours and it is sticking pretty well. It is supposed to snow for the next 18 or so hours.... Estimates are 8" or more.... Fun times. I was running around getting some things for a party, which was cancelled, and realized people around here freek out and RUSH to the grocery and forget how to drive in the process... I needed some meats and potatos and waited in the checkout line for 30 minutes!!!!!! There were 2 wrecks I passed on the way home and people were slamming on their brakes for no reason in curves!!!!!   DOH!!!!!!!!

I wish I had my hives up and running so I could get some pictures of the snow on them....

I will post some pics of the storage area with everything so far, sometime soon.

For now, I am off to play in the snow!!!!!

a little update to this, it is 5:30 now and it has snowed 4" on everything!!!!

Pictures

Okay guys and girls, here are some pictures of my hive stand and initial location. My neighbors dont mind and are actually curious. Anyway, I live on a private road with about 15 houses. About 10 of the houses on my road and around me are rentals rented by college kids. I am worried about vandalism from some drunk frat party the first 2 years until the flowering plants I have planted grow up enough to partially hide the hives and create a barrier from the road to the apiary. It will only have one enterance from the back unless you crawl through the bushes.

This is the stand on my porch where it will be kept for the first two years. The enterances will be faced out of the slats in the railing with about 18" of clearance from the fence.

    This is a picture of the "official" location where the hives will be the second year. The stand on the porch will be put on the cynderblocks. the garden box should be full of flowers, and plants all around the area.

I will provide some more pictures of everything built and the processes. I will also get you guys some pics of everythign in starage soon!

In the BEEgining...

Okay, this is my first post. Please bear with me. Here is an update on where I stand (since I have started buying everything before I started this blog).

I have purchased the following items:

2, 8-Frame Assembled Cypress English Garden Hive

-- My better half liked these most. We all know that if you are going to be doing this in your backyard and your spouse is around it has to be pretty…. :) (I liked them too)

12, 8-Frame Cypress Garden Hive Supers

6-1/4 Frame Wedge Top/Grooved Bottom frames

White 5 1/2'' Plastic Foundation
-- For my Supers

TEN Shts 5-5/8 Crimp Wire Foundation
-- for brood chambers

5 Frame 6-5/8'' Complete Nuc (minus the frames) and a Waxed Cardboard Nuc

--I got these for if I ever needed a nuc for swarm capture in the future, or if I needed one for any reason.

8-Frame Hive Top Feeder w/Floats
--I figured that it would not disturb the bees as much and it also keeps the winter feeding to a simple ease as well.

8 Frame Metal Excluder
-- to keep that pesky queen from going into the supers

8-Frame Ventilated Inner Cover & Moving
-- I got 2 of these in the even I needed them. Better to have and not use, than need and not have.

8-Frame Imirie Shims
--Just incase I get some crazy honeyflow going….

Powdered Sugar Blower
--I have not read ANY studies on these bellows. I figured I would give them a try and report on it here.

Beetle Blaster
-- I have also not read anything about these but it seems quite easy to use and I will report on it as well.

Frame Lifter Hive Tool

Brushy Mountain Pro Smoker

Bee Brush

Inspector's Jacket

Clear-Vue Hat/Veil w/double zip

Plastic Coated Gloves

Cypress Solar Wax Melter

Frame Perch

MegaBee substitute, Honey B Healthy Mega Bee Pollen Patties, 1 lb. Ener-G-Plus Bee Diet
--To feed my bees when I get them this spring.

12 oz Creamed Honey.
--I never had it before, I figured I would give it a try.

Creamed Honey Info.
--In the event that I decided to try to make it at some point.


total: $1031.32

Sure, I could have saved some money and gotten the cheaper version of things or non-prebuilt items. I just didnt want to deal with assembly or things I didn't truly want.