Hives in Hand

During a business trip to Jacksonville, today, I picked up the bodies of the two hives. Jacksonville of all places! There in the middle of the city, was a mom and pop operation I found online. I was able to place my order over the phone and they had it all ready to pick up today!

I was so excited when I got home that I put one of the hives together (dry assembled...no glue or nails) just to see what it looked like. Lots of work to get done in the next week, so I can go pick up the bees.

Orders have been placed! There's no turning back now!

Well, the bee keeping supplies have been ordered and have been shipped! I went to my first beekeeper's meeting and after the drama of the members was over we learned about harvesting. Better yet, we had time to spend with beekeepers who are neck deep in honey production for this season. Got some good information and feel totally overwhelmed! Im still very excited and can't wait for them to arrive, just thinking about 50-60,000 bees flying around the house.

Well, fantastic news! We learned today that we will in fact be starting our hives this spring instead of next. I've been frantically searching the net and reviewing for the best way to get this started. Luckily we are connect to our really good friends who have already started the process and have been able to give us a steer in the right direction.
We have decided to start with two hives to make it easier to judge the health of one hive compared to another. That means in the not to distant future we will be delivering about 15000 bees to our property! On purpose!

It is hard to believe all the preparation that goes into establishing a hive, but we expect the reward to be more than worth it. Our calculations tell us that we should be able to replace the 5 gallons of honey we buy per year with our homegrown local honey!

Talk to you soon!