apiary

The Hive Is Dead

Anna Blankenheim Beekeeping, Critters , , , ,

Well folks, today I bring the sad, sad news that the beehive is indeed dead. I had put it all back together after the bear attack and there were a few bees hanging around. I was holding out hope that maybe they had escaped and flown away for safety. Alas, it appears Queen Latifah was slain along with many of her protectors.

I did some research this morning and it seems like once a bear finds a hive it’s pretty hard to keep them away. Electric fences help some, but often they begin to head closer to the house in search of yummys (ie. garbage cans). As fun as that sounds, I really don’t want to have a face to face meeting with a bear, so I’ve decided to give up beekeeping.

Fortunately my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are also beekeepers, so at least the hives can be put to good use.

It was an adventure little honeybees…

To Bee Or Not To Bee

Anna Blankenheim Beekeeping, Critters , , ,

Well, I have a new hobby and I’ll give you one guess as to what it is:

Beekeeper Gear!
Beekeeper Gear!

Yup, I’ve decided to become a beekeeper in my spare time. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law are currently raising bees and love it. I thought it’d be good for a variety of reasons including fresh local honey (hopefully it helps with my allergies!) and pollination of my orchard (that’s where the hive is going to go). The hive was delivered today… I’m totally geeking out over it.

The hive came mostly assembled (thank goodness, because for as simple as they look, I don’t know that I would have gotten it all together). Here’s what the final product looks like:

Assembled Hive
Assembled Hive

The inside is a little more complicated – this hive contains ten frames, an inner lid, and an outer lid.

Inside The Hive
Inside The Hive

The frames have an artificial honeycomb built-in to encourage the bees to build theirs around it (and to keep them from building between the frames, making it hard to pull them out and access the honey).

Empty Frame
Empty Frame

Finally, there’s a very important piece of gear – the smoker. This basically makes the bees sleepy/lazy/less prone to sting when you want to either check the hive or harvest the honey.

Smoker
Smoker

Even Shadow got all excited about it:

Shadow Loves New Stuff
Shadow Loves New Stuff

 

I am seriously geeked out right now. I asked Mike if he thought it was as cool as I did… his reply was “It’s interesting…” At least he’s humoring me! The bees are scheduled to arrive tomorrow – between now and then I need to get the hive down to the orchard and up on cinder blocks (so it doesn’t get rot and isn’t as accessible to critters). Stay tuned for the next chapter of the Bee Chronicles!