We're back in beekeeping business, y'all! We had a bit of a hiatus while I was pregnant and then caring for a baby. We did still have bees through much of both of those life stages but it was very difficult to find the time to get out to the bee yard. Then, we did lose both hives. I felt defeated and frustrated with the hobby altogether. We were rewarded with about 20 pounds of honey, which seems like a lot, but didn't feel like a decent return on our investment. Anson still wanted to continue while I wanted to quit so he said he'd take the bulk of the responsibility. Actually, what he said to me was a play on a Captain Phillips movie quote when the pirate takes over the ship and says he's the captain now:
He does the two fingers and says the line a lot and it hasn't stopped being funny yet. He was always very supportive but now he's actually very exited about beekeeping!
So, we're back! Anson bought two packages of 3 pounds of bees each.
Each package comes with a queen in a small box that is corked and then plugged with a bit of sugar.
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| He needs new gloves! These have duct tape on the fingers. |
You open the package, pull the cork from the queen's box, and shake the 3 pounds of bees into a hive. The bees will eat the sugar plug which allows the queen to be slowly introduced to the colony. The bees get to work busily pulling out wax comb and foraging straight away. We installed the two packages today so wish us luck!
Difficult to comment, but here is my third try. Glad to see Anson is picking up the slack. Good pics. If you are starting on foundation keep feeding. 1:1 ratio. That is 1lb of sugar to a pint of water. try a 4lb bag of sugar to 1/2 gallon of water. Since you probably won't get any honey this year, I'll be your supplier.
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