I have always been curious and attracted to the occasional stack of boxes seen from the roadside. They looked lonely, artfully not perfect or straight, a deserted stack by the hedgerow in a farmer’s field, mismatched paint and sizes. Do Bees still live there? I think we have the perfect lonely mismatched place and I would love to look at them in our field…..
On a winter day while running an errand to the local computer store for my husband I noticed in the back of the store they also sold bee keeping supplies. It made me laugh- computers and bees? I lingered a bit too long while waiting for the part and studied the unknown things on the shelves. Is it hard to have bees? How much does it cost I asked the salesclerk. He dutifully said no but I will get Kim for you. After asking too many questions I left the store thinking I can do that, it seems easy and not that expensive.
A colleague said oh you can’t just get bees … you have to take a course. It is complicated…..Hmm Okay – I signed up for a beginning beekeeping course at the local cooperative extension starting in January last winter Why not …I encouraged my friend to join me. It is a cold forsaken winter, it will be interesting. We signed up along with about 50 others!!! Who knew so many bee keepers- bee boxes must be hiding all over.
I spent the winter learning about the honey bee. Listening to the local beekeepers present basic info about the life of a bee , colonies, hives, boxes , smokers, epipens, and the dangers bees now endure that threatens their very existence. There is so much to know and I have a growing sense of responsibility and fear. Can I do this? Do I want to? As the snow fell and the brutal, coldest winter in a long time raged outside I started to prepare for my bees. My dining room table became my workshop. Bee boxes traditionally come not assembled, but cut and ready to be built. There are “deeps” which are boxes in which the queen established her brood. The standard is 2 deeps for a beginning colony. Then there are the “supers”. These are smaller boxes medium or shallow which go on top to collect honey and pollen. Each of the boxes is filled with 10 frames in which the bees build their comb. All boxes are painted only on the outside not in or on surfaces where the bees live with 2-3 coats of paint … I begin to understand the mismatched paint as beekeepers use what they already have. In our case I had some lovely oil house paint so much nicer to paint with than the latex but takes forever to dry!
Browsing the bee catalogs is educational in itself. I ordered a bee suit for myself and one wee bee suit for Hudson, later I ordered one for Joe which was huge 4x to accommodate his sleeve length . I ordered hats, gloves, books and more. I bought a beginner tool kit with the local bee shop that had tools including a hive tool, smoker, frame grip, bee brush. The cost of raising bees is rising and I do not yet have a single bee! … But I think I am ready. What is a nuc? ……..stay tuned….. To bee continued with the rest of the story