Our First Beehive!

We got bees at the farm! We're starting off slow, with one

hive. So far, so good! We successfully picked up the bees and

put them into their new home.

Kiera proudly carrying our new bees from Simpson's Bee Supply

in Danville.

They made it safely to the farm. We could hear them buzzing in 

the bed of the truck from inside the truck!

First up, all three Kette girls painted the box.

While we painted the box and Dave moved two pieces of

barn stone for the base of the hive, the bees stayed in the cabin.

This little guy, whom Kiera named "Mr. Buzz" escaped, then

spent all of his time trying to get back into the box to be by the queen.

Kiera's first camo shirt...Thanks, grandpa!

Just as we were about to put the bees in the hive, it started to drizzle.

We put on our rain gear and got to work. First up, spritzing the bees

with sugar water (or in our case pouring since the sprayer broke!)

so their wings get sticky and temporarily can't fly, so they move away

from the queen, so you're able to take the queen out. 

Getting to the queen bee

A food packet to tide them over until more flowers are out

The queen bee is in this little box

So the other bees cannot get to her during transport,  there is a cork 

at the end of the queen box. When it's time to put her in the hive, you

replace the cork with a marshmallow so the worker bees can "eat" her

free. Once she's out of the box, you remove it. 

Rather than smoking and shaking the bees out of the temporary box,

we put the box into the hive and removed it a few days later.

The bees are in, now to add another layer...

The hive is temporary topped off with a sugar water mix, again 

to feed the bees until more spring blossoms are out.

Proud Bee Keepers!

The bee box is resting on barn stone. It's located in a grove 

of trees that nestled right between our garden and the blueberry

bushes. 

In other exciting news, here's our septic tank!