Marie

Welcome to the wonderful wourld of beekeeping!!

Find a local club and join clubs generaly have people that will help (mentor) you, there is nothing like experianced teachers.
Ed

Hello Marie,

Hubby and I are new at beekeeping too. We have one year into it and love it. You do become attatched to those little guys. Someone asked Adam a few days ago how many pets he has, he repiled about 80,002. (We have a dog and a cat also.)
Good Luck,
Keep hummin'
Jackie

Hi!
Congratulation!

I agree with honeyman

There is nothing to be afraid about, just bee relaxed!
Konrad

Marie, Welcome from a fellow Massachusetts beekeeper. I live all the way at the other end of the state(the part Mitt never visited) I'm here in North Adams, Berkshire County. If you are ever passing through, I'd love to have you visit.Just let me know. MA is a good place to keep bees. If you're anything like me, you're going to be totally hooked.

Lots of solid information, good people, and knowledgeable beekeepers on Beesource....

Here is a link that might be useful: Beesource forums

thank you folks. I'll let you know how it goes.
marie

Marie

How are you doing with the bees

Thanks for checking in diane. My beementor stopped by a week and a half ago to check the hive. I suited up in my hat, net and gloves. The queen and bees had been busy: queen laying eggs, cells full of honey and pollen. Also they had built a large burr comb, which she removed and returned so they could use the honey again. But I got a bite, and it was so unlike anything any commercial honey that I nearly swooned!

During our week of very chilly rainy weather, I kept a close eye on the external syrup supply, but it was not going down. The beekeeper had loaned me an extra super when she delivered the bees because very chilly weather was predicted. I had not looked inside the super myself, but when I did, I saw the 'internal' syrup bottle...which was completely empty and the bees were all clustered around it.

I immediately filled it with food, and felt bad that they had run out of syrup during this lousy weather.

I am getting a sense of how things work. YOu should have seen how excited I was when I saw that burr comb; to think the bees made that in a week or so!

Today is the first sunny day in ages, and they are frantically buzzing in and out of the hive.

I imagine we'll take a peek at the hive in another week or so, and see how production is going.

I love this!

Marie

Marie, That's great news. Every time I have a spoonful of honey I say Wow this sure is good honey! You're right it's nothing like store bought. I'm glad things are going well. I find working the hives like taking an elixer it's amazing every time you watch them work. I like to have morning coffee sitting beside the hive. It sounds like you are off to a great start. Be sure to keep good notes on every thing you do such as feeding, adding a super etc. It will be a valuable tool for next year. happy beekeeping! Tony

Latest report:
Third lesson in beekeeping was greatly enhanced by the presence of our two daughters (23,19) who are visiting from out of town. My bee-mentor brought over extra veils and gloves, everyone tucked everything into something, and we opened the hive after nearly 4 weeks of "not peeking" except to add sugar water to the jars.

I learned how t0 separate the frames with the hive tool, got reminded how to pick up frame without squishing bees, we all got a chance to smoke the bees, scraped some burr comb off frames, watched expert even out some way-bumpy comb (stole some comb while we were at it) tried to eat honey through the veil, oohed and ahhed at the dense and varied comb filled with honey, larvae, capped, found the queen.

In all the best two hours I and my daughters have spent together in a long, long time. And although my husband was taking a long nap, yesterday he put the new super and frames together by himself in 1 1/2 hours, with no complaints whatsoever.

What a wonderful hobby. Actually, what a wonderful life.
Marie

Marie, I'm really glad to hear that things are going so well on your side of the state. Sounds like you are doing all the right things. What more could you ask for besides living in a great state and having honey in the backyard. Last week I got a call to get honeybees out of a soffit. They went about their business while we sawed, pounded, and pried things apart.Yesterday I saved a hive from a dead willow that had fallen on a horse pasture fence and broke apart. Luckily the owners knew I kept bees or they would have been killed so the tree could get removed. I scooped some bees up and onto a drawn frame and the other bees started marching right up. After getting most of them onto frames I left the medium box over the last cluster. I went back tonight just before dark and the bees had accepted their new digs and were out foraging. After the last of them returned I closed it up and brought them home. Yes, it is a great life. Tony