A huge box arrived on our doorstep one day last winter. The boys tore open the box and spread pieces of wood all over the living room floor. And so began our adventures with beekeeping… including me getting stung by a bee for the first time since childhood! (That story mid-way down…)

Part 1: The Hiving of the Bees

My husband built several hives. Then he ordered our bees, and we drove to Kansas City to pick them up.

On the way home, some bees escaped and buzzed around the van. My older daughter was delighted: “Can I keep them as pets?” Like any good parent, we said, “Go for it!”

(She didn’t get stung.)

This is how the bees came:

Five boxes are nailed together, each full of thousands of honey bees. One box went to my husband’s parents for their new urban beekeeping adventures.

With dwindling daylight, we headed to the apple orchard for the “hiving” of the bees.

A tree nursery expert had come out several months ago. He showed my husband how to mercilessly trim those old, half-dead apple trees. Now they’re loaded with apples.

We hope the bees will make themselves busy next spring, pollinating the blossoms.

Each bee package had a tin can that had been full of sugar water. We sprayed the bees with more sugar water to keep them occupied. Then M pulled a can out and extracted the queen bee’s tiny castle-cage.

Usually, the opening of the queen bee’s cage is sealed by:
1) a piece of cork, and
2) a chunk of marshmallow candy.
The beekeeper removes the cork. Then the bees eat through the candy while the queen acclimates to her new home. This reduces the chance that she’ll fly off to a different home.

We discovered the hard way that there were no marshmallows in our queen bee boxes!

The first two queens dropped straight into their hives, fortunately. They must have liked it, because they stayed. We added marshmallows to the other two cages. M shook the other bees out of the packages into the hives, like so:

When each set of bees had been shaken into its hive, he tacked the queen bee’s cage inside, added a jar of sugar water, and closed up the hive.

The picture above shows a Langstroth hive. We have two of those, from my in-laws. Langstroth hives have sheets of plastic that mimic honeycomb. But the “top-bar” hives that we built have strips of wood across the tops of the hives, and the bees build the comb from scratch.

The bees’ sugar-water is made by boiling a certain measure of water, then stirring in the same measure of sugar. (Keep refrigerated.) Each hive can go through a jar of sugar-water per day. Purists feed their bees honey, as it’s more natural. Honey bee numbers are dwindling, so some beekeepers are fairly passionate about their bees’ health.

The bees above are fanning the queen’s pheromones with their wings. This tells the stragglers where their new hive is.

Part 2: In Which I Get Stung

It was getting dark. We had been so careful not to kill a single precious honey bee. Then…

My husband accidentally stepped on a big glob of them. We backed off slowly… hoping they weren’t sending out a collective chemical “alarm” signal.

Right then, a bee climbed up my jeans leg! I freaked out… internally… while externally trying to make like a statue and freeze! While I was slooowwwly helping the bee find its way out, another bee stung my thumb – and right near the joint, where it really hurts!

For a minute, I thought I might die. Bee stings sting, and I’m a wimp. I may have asked for an epidural, but it was all a blur.

Several days later, undaunted, I went along on a trip to the hives to get pictures of the bees’ progress.

Part 3: A Tour and Update

Since it was daylight then, I was able to get better shots for a “tour” of the hives.

This is a top-bar hive with a hinged lid. Very nice.

(By the way, I think my husband looks very nice in his Brave Beekeeping outfit. 🙂 )

The white lid of our other top-bar hive has to be removed and set on the ground.

Opening a little side window gives a peek inside without disturbing the bees. They’ve been busy!

The bees’ entrance to the top-bar hive is on the other side. In the winter, we’ll close the hole with a cork.

Now for the good part!

M lifted one of the bars out of the hive… very, very slowly…

See the smaller piece of wood on the underside of the bar? It’s just a triangular rod attached to the main bar. I coated all along the triangle with bee’s wax before we put the bees in the hives.

And here’s what they’ve done with that little coating of bee’s wax!

Isn’t it beautiful?!!! I love how the bees seem to drip off the honeycomb.

Work hard, honey bees! Our mouths are watering!