Prepping for the Bees

Well, I have 10 packages of bees coming in on Saturday, so I spent yesterday painting the hives to get ready for them.

What is a package of bees? Well, there are different ways to start a hive. One is to purchase a full hive from another beekeeper. Another way is to purchase a "nuc" from another beekeeper (which looks like half a hive). A third way is to make a split from an existing hive - taking a frame of bees and two frames of honey from a current hive, transferring them to an empty hive and either giving them a new queen, or letting them requeen themselves.

This year, I choose to purchase some new packages of bees to get some new blood in the apiary. A package is a wooden box with wire sides, approximately 10"x6"x4", containing approximately 3# of bees, a can of sugar water, and a queen in a little wooden box. This contraption is designed to transfer bees to a new hive.

Since it had been, oh, at least 5 years since I had really gone through my equipment, and since they are calling for rain most of this week, I went through everything. I tossed remarkably little equipment, but the stuff that was bad was about as old as the business, and infested with ants (they bore into the wood, leaving the bees alone, but really annoying me when I work the hive). The rest was either in good condition, or was fixable. Yea!

Everything got a good scraping and a new coat of paint. After scraping the second hive box, it occurred to me that I was wasting an awful lot of valuable propolis from the hives. It is now saved in a box, awaiting a time to be processed (somewhat) and offered for sale. I have several customers who periodically ask for it, so sometime this summer it should be available.

The net result of this weekends work was 10 freshly painted hives, a sore back, and a wrist that feels like it should be in a sling instead of typing on this keyboard. Happily, I feel as though I have made a major accomplishment, and I can't wait until Saturday!