I feel like my weekend was only half a weekend due to feeling not-so-great on Friday and Saturday. I slept, way too much. However, Sunday came through with a little sunshine finally and I was able to get a few things done around the farm.
Bees! The new project for the farm this year. They arrived last week, and this weekend we did the first inspection since installing them into their hives. Good news… everything looks to be proceeding inside the hives as it should be. We were even able to locate one of the queens in the Farm Boy’s hive. I’ve never had bees before. They are so interesting! I have so much to learn still.
The Farm Boy has been amazing with the bees. He takes the time to watch all the YouTube videos and read the beekeeping books. I’m not so good about that and kind of rely on him for bee information more than I should. We’ve adopted the approach of working on one hive at a time, together, which has made things easier and very relaxed. Its nice to have someone who shares the same interest and is also great partner to work with. Calm, relaxed. Perfect.
By the way, have you ever really looked at a bee’s face up close? It’s a little creepy and unnerving. The Boy pointed this out to me the other day. So now I think they’re cute from afar, but absolute demonic-looking up close…
By trying different things, we’ll hopefully discover what works best for the bees. The Farm Boy and I have made it somewhat of an experimental contest between the two hives. He’s in charge of one hive and the other is my territory. We’re both managing our hives in our own way. For example, he will be using a queen excluder, I will not. We also have our hive entrance reducers set up differently. Though admittedly, I think he now has me convinced I need to remove my reducer completely. I just haven’t told him yet. : )
I used a little common sense the other day and mowed the grass around the hives on Sunday as the sun was setting. The bees had all tucked themselves in for the night by then, so the mower didn’t piss them off at all. Obviously I would not attempt mowing around them at high noon. I’m not that cool.
Thinking way ahead here, and assuming everything goes well with the these two hives, the plan is to add two more hives each year, until we decide enough is enough.
With fourteen acres there’s plenty of space for more hives. Big thoughts for now, I know, but a plan.
What are we going to do with all the honey? Make gallons of Mead and sell jars of honey. I love making Mead! I’ll be sharing more on the bees as I learn more. And by the way, if you have any knowledge, experience or tips on beekeeping (or mead-making), I’d love to hear your thoughts. ~A
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Love your writing! Keep it up!