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The honey bees have arrived!!  A big welcome to hundreds of thousands of these little guys and gals, and especially to eh um... Mrs. Queenie Bee, to whom we hope will make this venture all worth while.

Our bee experts delivered the hives at sunrise when at their most docile and we were all up and ready.  Excited to see just exactly how all this works.  Months in the planning and finally well on our way to hopefully generating honey by next year!

 Noah getting suited up for the task.

These Carniolan bees are from Turkey and according to our beekeepers, the U.S. does not have any native bees, all originating in Europe.  Did not know that!!  I kept teasing about mistakenly getting Africanized bees instead.  Ugh!  My nightmare realized.  I actually have a very big disdain for most bugs, stinging bugs especially high on that list.  So, hopefully raising insects will prove to be good therapy.  Actually, Joe will be handling most of all the bee chores (which aren't many thankfully).

Your new home little friends....now get busy making that honey!

We are beginning with two hives containing a few hundred thousand bees.  They will continue to build the hive and eventually will split into a new hive (added later) otherwise they will swarm.  Bee science is fascinating and our expert actually breeds queens for money and LOVES the genetics aspect of raising them.  When it's time he will also show us how to extract the honey, propolis and wax.  One hive can yield anywhere from 30-100 pounds of honey depending on pollen sources around.  They will travel about a mile from the hive in search of pollen...great for our gardens, fruit trees and berry vines!

Admiring their handy work.

Bee fact:  All workers bees are female AND are the ones that sting.  Drones are male and are kicked out of the hive during winter where they will starve and die.  Guess they're like dead-beat, free-loading dads.  Get the heck out!



Kids getting a lesson on beekeeping.  Yes, this endeavor will count as science as there's so much to learn!



I have to say, how cool it was to look out our window and see honeybees in the clover.  If you haven't noticed, check out the clover in your yard.  See any honeybees?  Probably not as much as you did as a kid.  I remember always being careful of honeybees running around barefoot.  You just don't see them as much today.  Coincidence?  Actually not.  Bees have been endangered for quite sometime now, with many colonies suffering from collapse disorder.  Bees have been found not returning to hives (some scientists think they become disoriented).  Possible theories as to why are genetically modified foods, cell phones (EMF), pesticides, mites, disease.  Whatever the cause, decline of the bee population has raised huge concerns in farming and scientific circles.  Bees are responsible for much of the pollination of our plants.  If bees were to disappear then it's likely that WE could too.  Backyard beekeeping is a way to help create this healthy ecosystem balance and promote the survival of this amazing species.