The Bees story
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
The Ontario-Finger Lakes Beekeepers Association meets in our town the second Monday of the month. I think I will go . I asked my friend to go with me. I don’t often like to go back into town but I am in need of information after being scared at the last beekeeping class that talked about all the diseases and pests bees are exposed too as well as colony collapse disorder all of which I do not completely understand. A woman from New York Bee Wellness spoke about varroa mites and how to identify the level of your infestation with confectioners sugar. What ?.. you put 300 hundred bees in a jar?? and cover with sugar and shake ?! — it makes the bees slippery and the mites fall off and you count them which you the plug into a formula to get the percentage of infestation so you can monitor and treat them as needed …. Now how do I get and count out 300 bees? It turns out 300 bees is about 1/2 cup of bees and you shake them into a box and scoop them up and “pour” them into a jar . Wow!!! Can I do that?
Orders your “nucs” we only have reserved 125 . Reserve them early or you could be left out !!!- No Bees ? What is a nuc ? how do I get bees? I am feeling lost and too stupid to ask the question? Well a nuc is a small nucleus hive with Queen and her worker girls as well as some honey and brood( baby bees) . Mine came in a small hive box with 3 frames filled to the brim with comb, bees and the most important The Queen . She is an Italian Bee and she was trucked from North Carolina with all the other nucs ordered for the club. Wow!! Our Pick up date was postponed for several weeks due to cold , rainy weather but the day had come , so exciting !! Joe and I took the truck to get her at Hungry Bear Farms on the other side of the lake about a half hour ride. Our plan to put the nuc on the seat between us so the wind and ride would be better for our new Bees. A large parking lot filled with small hive boxes, local beekeepers suited up to assist – and we check in and check out. Of course we we could not fit the nuc inside so the Bees had to ride in the back. Oh I hope they will be OK . We brought them Home . Our hive box had been set up for weeks waiting for our new arrivals but I did not know exactly what to do. I have done a lot of reading, went to the classes, signed up for a mentor and spent time on line looking and watching and reading but exactly what do I do now? My Mentor is away I wrote email to back up mentor . We took the tape off the entrance put the nuc on top of the prepared boxes ….. and waited till the next day Natalie wrote back telling us what to do and we put on our bee suits, opened the nuc ,WOW WOW, pried out the frames and put them in their new home . Our Journey has begun. It is May 19 2014.
Beekeepers have mentors. Life needs mentors .
Jenny Duba 