Getting bees!

Even though the title of my blog reads Beeginning Beekeeper, I haven't posted much to do with beekeeping. Well, yesterday my adventure began. We headed to Miles City to get the nucs. No, I don't mean a nuclear bomb. When we arrived in Miles City we went shopping. After finishing our shopping, we went to Simpson Honey Farm to get the nucs. The nucs hadn't arrived from the bee-yard, so Mr. Simpson gave us a tour of his operation. After looking at all his equipment the nucs arrived, so we loaded them into our pickup and headed for home. When we got close to our house the migratory cover on one of the nucs was beginning to slip off so I crawled through the back window and put the cover back on. A little while later the cover on the nuc slid quite a ways off and a lot of bees were escaping, so I jumped back into the back and was begining to put it back on when one of the bees got irritated and popped me on the cheek. I quickly scraped the stinger sack off and put the lid back on the nuc. After I got back in the pickup a scraped the rest of the stinger out. The cover started sliding off again so I put it back on and Dad tied it on better. Here are some pictures.

The nucs in the back of the pickup.

Me unloading a nuc.


Dad moving a nuc.

Me standing by my two nucs.

When I install them I'll post some more pictures.

Danny

A few days ago (Like a week) we found out one of our cows had twins. She didn't take care of one calf and it was starving so we took it back to our house and put it on our milk cow (Who didn't like the idea of having another calf). It's really tame and also really small but it follows me and everyone else everywhere. Here's a picture of it.

And here's a picture of a goose I took.

Danny

Busy

We've been pretty busy these past few days. Yesterday we fixed fence and today we herded and sorted some calves. They decided to run off when we brought them in but we were able to get them to the corrals. Not much to say but I figured I'd better post something.

Danny

Yesterday we went to a beekeeper's place. He opened up the hives and checked to make sure the queens were laying eggs. It was really fun. After we got done checking the hives we went back to his place and visited for about an hour and a half. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures.

Danny

Today I painted two of my hive-bodies and one super. Here's a picture.

Frost

Today we went outside and took some pictures of the frost on the trees and fences. Yesterday it was around thirty-two and it felt a lot warmer in the sunshine! We even jumped on the trampoline! Here's the pictures.

Me behind some wire.


Barbed wire with frost on it.


The clothes line with frost on it.


A young bull checking out the camera. As you have probably guessed he's wild. Just kidding.


Frost on a blue spruce.


Frost on some wire.


A tree covered in frost.


An apple tree covered in frost.


A small ash tree covered in frost.


Danny

Beekeeping equipment

Wow! I haven't posted in over two months! I guess I've been neglecting my blog. Anyway I got home with my beekeeping stuff around Jan. 31st. Anyway, I guess there isn't much to say but I'll let the pictures explain it.


A picture of when I first got my beekeeping equipment.


A picture of a finished beehive with a smoker on top.


A frame with plastic foundation in it. Bees draw out the foundation making hexagonal cells for storing honey, brood, pollen etc.


There are ten frames in each hive box.


Here's a picture of me snapping in plastic foundation into the frame.



Here's a picture of the parts of the hive. This will need enlarged.