Update on the Bee Hive

My bees no likey me today lol..I did a complete inspection. Hotter than blazes! 91° and humid with a light breeze. But we are looking at a chance of rain tomorrow and then turning hotter! I needed to see what my bees were doing.

Ben sat out there and wrote the notes as I hollered them at him. He is such a good sport! 

So I have a frame by frame note of what is going on inside my hive.

I have 1.6 medium supers of honey and several frames of brood and honey. They still have a few frames to build comb on. So I don't think I will feed this fall. Still about 4/5 weeks to go.

I had a few frames that just looked like they were empty, but I could not look close cause my glasses were fogged with sweat lol.. So I took a picture of one of them.

Surprise!

This...

 

Shows up as eggs...

 

And larvae...

And lots of frames that look like this....




Changed out my top super for one with a hole for a top entrance. With the weather we have and the chance of getting a couple of feet of snow like usual, I decided to go with top entrance in the winter.

And frames of honey are HEAVY! Makes for heavy supers lol..
I also changed the large concrete blocks on the top of the ant tray with smaller ones. The hive would be way to tall for a 5'2" shorty to lift off full supers!

All painted

They are painted a waiting! Connie was over visiting while Danny was napping. So she had fun helping.

Bee hives

I got them around and set up to air out.

The tray is to put water in case I get ants. May not be what I want. I will see..

Hives ordered

Oh my! I ordered my main hive set up this week! Hives (x2) veil/jacket, smoker, tool, velcro leg straps, bee brush. Oh my! $380 bucks! Expensive hobby! But the honey will be sooo good!
I still have to get my gloves, and I am going to make covers to slip on over my jeans!
Now to figure out exactly where I am going to set them up! Every time I make up my mind; I change it! I think on the concrete pad by our old back door. It is on the south side of the house and isn't used anymore. The kids don't play over there very often. Plus they need to learn to leave them alone anyway!
Now to decide if we are going to make a stand or use concrete blocks or what!
I am leaning towards the blocks because the hives could weigh 3-4 hundred pounds when full setup!
I am going nutz lol..

Bee Keeping

Well, I did it. I started working towards becoming a beekeeper. I have always dreamed of having a bee hive. Cost was $35 for the course but that includes year membership in the state group. Apiary.. have to get used to that lol...
First, a diagram of hives I will have,

I started a beekeeping course at the county extension office in January. It is 7 weeks long.
Craig Green is the instructor.
This is a very involved hobby! And NOT cheap lol..
Monday I stopped in Knoxville at the Farm and Home where another beekeeper has supers for sale. I want the mediums, 6 5/8" deep. These will still weight about 40lbs when they have honey!

I am going to have three of them for my hive body. It was $13 dollars for painted super x 3 and $2.75/frame x 40. Total cost, $162. I will add more for honey supers as needed.
I need to get my basic hives next payday. They will only have one super with them.
Will be about $105 each. I have done some research into what I want.
I found a pattern for a veil today. I will try to make my own. And get a wide brim hat to wear it over. I am also going to get a white jacket.
Some blogs talk about using non latex gloves so you still can feel when working with the bees. Others don't wear gloves at all. I will get a pair of leather ones to have first lol...
I also need to get a smoker and a 5-1 painter tool. That is the start.
I have bought several books I am reading. I want to get "Beekeeping for Dummies" also. Can't have too many books!
Need to get benedryl and make sure my epipen is still good lol.
Bees come in about the 20th of April. Give or take a week. That will be 2# cages at $73  apiece, $146.
And I have to study how to introduce them. I want to practice that before they get here!

This is going to be fun and scary! Um and expensive to start!