Surprise, surprise!

We are expecting to get our 2 packages of bees next week on May 5th.  Today we got a call from Bill and he said he had captured a swarm somewhere north of us and did we want it?  At first we said no because we have no experience with a swarm.  But after a little discussion we decided we wanted it and called Bill back.  He did not have a taker yet so we went over and got the swarm.  We set up the hive and installed the bees!  It only takes a couple of minutes.

The swarm was in a 20 gallon tub with a hole cut in it for ventilation.  We have a video that shows the installation.  We estimated that there are about 20,000 bees.

The bees did make it their home.

What the heck is in the hive.

We have 2 basic hives.  They are Langstroth hives.  This design was created by the Reverend Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth in 1851, and was actually patented by him in 1852.  See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langstroth_hive for more history.
The basic parts are:
The bottom board
The deep body with the frames
Later we add another deep and also supers for more honey production
The top board and
The telescoping lid.

Here is the bottom board.  It's made with a screen on it and a removable white card.  This allows us to have better ventilation for the hive and to check for problems like mites.  The front of it is the landing area for the bees.

 

 The deep is the main living area for the bees.  It has ten frames in it for the bees to build the comb.

This is what a frame looks like.  The foundation is made of a sheet of plastic with the bees wax comb already laid out for the bees to start building on.

The foundation already has the comb design on it.  The bees will start with this to build the comb and it ends up much more organized later for harvest.

The top board is added to the top so the bees don't glue shut the lid and make it almost impossible to open up the hive for inspection and later harvest.

This is the lid for the hive.  It makes it much more private for the bees, and warmer.

Beginning our beekeeping adventure

A few months ago my son Isaac and I decided to start keeping bees.  Part of this was my interest in Colony Collapse Disorder(CCD).  More on this in a later post.  We started planning this back in January and February and will get our 2 packages of bees on April 21st.

We have an area in the backyard all set for the bee hives.

This is in the North west corner of the yard.



















We built foundations of concrete
block to put the hives on.

Kanga inspecting the area and making sure all is right.

 So both foundations are set and ready to go.  I couldn't wait to see how the hives look so I brought one out to set it up.

 

Arvada (our home town) allows anyone to have up to 2 hives in their backyard but you must have a water source available close by.  Sandi and I bought a large ceramic pot at a garden store and I sealed the hole in the bottom.  I then added a solar powered pump so the water wouldn't become stagnant.  It works great and we see bees getting drinks already.