Garlic looks good for March...

Planting season has begun!

Just a quick update:  AMA planted sugar peas yesterday in the old lettuce garden below the deck.  It's such a beautiful day today that I planted Arugula and Lettuce at lunch today in the planters on the deck...  more to come.

Frame Building Day

March 3: My first attempts at building frames that will go in the "supers" went pretty well today. The frames are what the bees buildout comb on to lay eggs, fill with honey for themselves and when its a super, fill with honey for me. If you look at the pale green hives, you'll see two bigger boxes on the botton - they are the "deeps". The queen lays eggs in the lower one (brood) and the worker bees fill the second one with honey for to eat over the winter. Above that is an excluder that keeps the queen from entering the super - the smaller box above the two deeps.

Anyway, I took the parts below and built the frames above that will go into one of my supers - ten of them altogether.

The yellow part is wax that is called foundation - kind of a starter for the bees to build out comb on and again, fill with honey for me.

Also, Jesse texted me her guy's phone number for bees and I called him about getting two Nucs (pronounced"Nukes") to start my hives with this spring. All set - once I pay him. More about that later...

Haven't had much feedback on the colors for the hives. Debbie says lavendar... any comment? I do like naming them after my two favorite beatles as someone suggested, only problem is I don't have two favorite beatles, I have 4 favorites...

Let me know your thoughts - I fixed the settings and anyone should be able to post now... sorry about that Debbie.

Pale Green boxes

Ok, they aren't much to look at yet, but soon...

Color me purple? Paint it black?

March 2: First step is to get my new (old) hives cleaned up, painted and ready for the bees. I need help deciding on a color(s) to paint them. There are two. Be creative. I probably need to name them as well so that I can tell them apart. Let me know soon...

Just beginning

March 1: So it's after 5 and I have a few minutes to catch you up on "Bees". I've been attending Bee school at URI for the last 6 weeks and i expect to graduate summa cum laude next week. Last night's anticpated graduation ceromonies were snowed (rained) out. Bee School is enough to put most people off keeping bees, but I will persevere. I revisit the stories one day...

On to today: I am fortunate to have a friend, Jesse, a trainer at Anne Marie's gym who is slowly getting out of the bee business. I have been the fortunate recepient of 2 complete hives (I've already posted the picture. Very cool.) and will be getting more equipment after her once her current working hive of bees vamoose.

There still a few items I have to buy before then... some frames, a smoker, a bee jacket (not Georgia Tech), uh... bees. Ok, enjoy the pics, let me know if you are reading and I'll update you soon..

Getting Started...

It's March 1st, 2012 and today I'm headed out to pick up two beehives to start the beekeeping scene on Locust Ave. Not sure if I'll bee keeping or bee kept. more to come...