Our Backyard Beehive Stories

“The Keeping of Bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” Henry David Thoreau

I am always truly amazed where children take us and how their curiosity can lead us to places we never expect. Last year my 12 year old son came home from school and told me that his science teacher needed some help over the summer to extract the honey from the school’s beehives. Little did I know that we would be taking pounds of honey home to complete the harvest. We were delighted to experience jarring honey and making candles. My son was hooked and asked for a beehive for his birthday. To test the waters, he and I took a beekeeping class and before I knew it we were lined up and purchasing our first hive. You guessed it! We are picking up our bees and opening up our backyard hive this weekend! Welcome to Our Backyard Beehive Stories.

Our adventure began with a BeeKeeping 101 class at Crystal Bee Supply. We  purchased the Basic Hive Kit and came home and painted it on a rainy day. We are learning as we go….and here we go!

The next step was Hive Location. This is really important with many tips to consider. The hive should face the morning sun, but not in a space that is too sunny or too shady. The hive should have an open space (“landing pad.”) for the bee’s to enter hive. There should be some trees around to block the wind.

I hope our bee’s like their new home and it’s location.

We also built a little work station. This will help when we are opening the hive.

All this work outside inspired us to clean out the rest of the gardens. YEA!

There is a bee community out there and we are quickly learning how wonderful they all are. Tips from my neighbor Christina has guided me through this maze of information. She noted, “It is like being a scout. It is really important to be prepared.”

We have made our Bee Food. A mixture of sugar and water called sugar syrup. We understand they need to be fed a lot.

Thankfully we will observe a hive opening and have an experienced beekeeper by our side with our own backyard hive opening on Sunday! Stay tuned.

Are you a beekeeper? Do you have any bee stories? We want to hear from you. Share in the comments below.