Bringin’ Home a Baby Honey Bee…
Over the weekend, another one of our long-time dreams came true: We got honey bees! J. and I have both been dreaming of having honey bee hives for years and years. A long time ago when we both realized it was something that we wanted, we set a goal to have them one day. Last year, we talked a lot about where we would put the hives and he started researching everything that we would need.
Truthfully, I never anticipated how much work and knowledge was necessary for this endeavor. Over the last couple of years, we have done a lot on the suburban homesteading front–from raising chickens, to growing gardens, to raising bunnies; but beekeeping is completely different! It is not something that you can just do without a lot of knowledge and planning. Gratefully, J. was driven to learn all that was necessary to make our beekeeping dreams a reality and on Saturday, April 4th, our two beautiful colonies arrived.
Unfortunately the bees arrived late in the day so it was getting pretty dark by then and my big camera doesn’t do well with zooming in low light. So I just snapped these photographs with my phone camera. They aren’t the greatest, but they are so important to me and I wanted to share them anyway. In a couple of weeks, once our bees are well-settled into their new homes, I will get in there with my big camera and get some beautiful photographs to share here. In the meantime, enjoy these snaps of J. and his friend and co-worker installing the colonies into our bee boxes.
Also, yes, that is a real honey bee that landed on my face during the process. I received so many questions about that picture when I posted it to my Instagram stories the other day. Most people asked why I wasn’t freaking out and there are lots of reasons for that. Firstly, I am not afraid of bees. I love them and I have always lived by the rule that if you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you. I have had lots of bees land on me in my life and I have never been stung by any of them. The only time I’ve ever been stung is when I accidentally stepped on a bee with a bare foot, and of course that is to be expected! Another reason that I am not bothered is because honey bees are incredibly calm and docile. Unlike other species, such as wasps and yellow jackets which can be more aggressive, honey bees are very laid back. So I was not in any danger when that little bee landed on me. I just stayed still until it was ready to fly away and it was special to me to have such a close encounter with one of our new buzzing babies.
That’s all for this post, friends. Lots more to say about our honey bees in future posts and if you have any questions about them for me or J. just let us know and we’ll be sure to answer them in future posts.