One more year...

So, we've decided to leave the evil hive until next year. They seem to be healthy (assessed from the road) and would most likely winter better on their own. It's really hard being an excited new beekeeper and leaving the hive alone. We figure that a little extra knowledge and clean equipment that's ready to go is better than jumping in with half hatched schemes. Thanks for the advice everyone. Stay tuned, it should still be pretty stupid.

The First Day

Greetings all, my name is Mark, and this is my first post.
(Hi Mark)

Anyway, we went out a couple of days ago for our first attempt at the phenomenal sport of bee-wrangling. We started out our journey by going and checking on a known hive and some suspected hives left over from my grandfather's honey reign. The known hive is in an extremely bad area for us to be able to move them safely. Furthermore, they seem quite irritable and plentiful. Here is their washboarding in full effect.



After that, onward we went, into the cornfield to get to the woods on the other side. I'm not gonna lie, Children of the Corn was going through my mind repeatedly. After braving the cornfield, we found ourselves in the woods. After a short walk, and alot of briers, we found the remnants of a bee yard, but there were no survivors.

Now was time to go back to the docile hive located at the grapevine. Let's see how docile they are when I fill their house full of smoke and start taking it apart. (At this point I would like to add that I would not do harm to honey bees for any reason, unless they stung me, but their deaths would be unintentional. I am simply telling the story this way for added dramatic effect.)



And of course, my big brother was there ready to get his honey bee on as well.



If I were the bees, I would have been petrified of us.

The first task was to smoke them out with a, well, smoker.

After smoking them out, it is time to remove the top of the hive. This hive has been set up for a few years without anyone keeping it, so, the top proved to be a difficult piece to remove. After much prying, we finally got the top removed.....



Now it's that time to remove the frame and check out the brood situation. Much to our surprise, there wasn't any brood, but there was a crap ton of honey.



Surprisingly enough, there was only one bee sting during the whole day, and I regret to inform you, that it my was arm that fell folly to the business end of one of our girls.



All in all, I think that it was a very productive day, even though because of the rain and wind and time of day it was probably one of the worst possible days that we could have chosen.

Plus, we got some honey out of the deal.


So until next time,

Love, peace and honey bees,

Mark (The brothers Makinson)

Washboarding Bees

Our evil little girls in the mean hive were cleaning up today. I'm not looking forward to rehiving them. The first day of beekeeping was a smashing success. Full rundown and pics coming up tomorrow.

Getting started

So... we recently went out to find out the location and condition of our equipment. My grandfather took care of his things, but had a organizational system that was apparent only to himself. Add to that a humid environment and years of disuse and you can see we have our work cut out for us.

One of two extractors (I think). This one is in the best shape.


Lots of jars.


Lots of tops, wells and supers.



A stack of rusty smokers.


Veils and gloves.


A hive with an extra hole in it.



And this thing.


Yea, we have a ton of equipment and are gathering knowledge. Hopefully we will be getting stung within the week.

The Brothers Makinson

The 2 most unlikely beekeepers ever!

Goudpootzandbij (Andrena chrysosceles) © sunshine.nature