Honey Bees: The Beginning

Oh, lord, now I’ve done it.

As if the buying the yard in spite of the crappy, falling apart, remodeled-by-hippies house so I could grow stuff wasn’t bad enough… and as though it’s not enough hassle to take care of those stupid chickens…  I had to have bees.

I started with my little friends, the mason bees.  Mason bees rule.  However, the problem is that the little buggers peter out right around the middle of June.  They also don’t, technically, “produce” anything.  They are crazed little pollinators, but I do love me some honey.

Just to add interest to the story, I should also say that I’ve always been deathly afraid of bees.  In retrospect, it’s because most people say “bee” when they mean anything that stings.  In fact, your average honeybee doesn’t sting very often (given that once they do, they basically eviscerate themselves and die).  Mason bees theoretically can (the females), but I’ve never heard of it.

Your yellowjackets, wasps, hornets, etc. love to sting.  Sting, sting, sting.  My GOD they love stinging.

Even so, I’ve been stung by anything, those vicious non-bees included, approximately twice in my life.  Both times, it basically merited an “ow, dammit!” and not much else.

I digress.  Back to my story.

Part of my ADHD is that I obsess about researching things like this until I feel like I know more than the guy at the store about it.  So, I read and read and read– magazines, web sites, and books.  Once I felt like I could be real Cliff Clavin smarty-pants about it, I went down and ordered the bees.

A package of Italian bees (3 lbs. of workers and a queen) is about $75.  The “woodenware” parts (boxes, frames, covers, etc.) is about $175 for two deeps (the brood boxes) and a medium honey super, covers, and a screened bottom board.

I chose, again because I have a syndrome, to assemble and paint everything myself (note, that’s assembling gluing, and nailing– and painting the boxes– 3 boxes and 30 frames).  I’m about mid-way on the painting now.  It has taken several hours.  On the other hand, these days I have more time than money, so it’s good middle-aged guy therapy.

The critters are supposed to arrive in April.  I’m trying to get a headstart on the whole thing so I don’t get caught with bees and nowhere to put them.  I also thought I’d get it all painted and then aired out a bit.

I suspect I’ll be going on about this little project as it develops.

On an unrelated note, I also put in a few flats of seeds the other day.  No one is popping up yet (hopefully not because they all dried out the first day for some odd reason).  I’m trying REALLY hard not to plant way too much.

I also planted some starts from the nursery for some spinach, mizuna, and arugula and built some little hoop houses for them.

Why no pictures?  Because a) it’s raining like crazy, and b) the hive is piled in pieces throughout in my office.  I promise, I’ll take some later.

Happy Monday.