He had friends in the northeast who arranged with beekeepers to have beehives in their yards in exchange for some honey. He wanted to know if I would be interested in having hives in his yard.
Jeff and I jumped at the chance to expand our apiary capacity. Sebastian, the GSU professor, lives near Jeff and Valerie's old house in East Atlanta, about 20 minutes from my house. His partner, Christina, comes from Canada where she says everyone has bees and honey is sold in huge gallon jars. They are both so enthusiastic about this.
Jeff, Valerie and I arrived to find that Sebastian and Christina have the perfect yard. The bees can have an eastern exposure and should do well and be happy. We'll install nucs that I am getting from Jerry Wallace in April. Jeff and I brought cinder blocks and equipment to use for these bees - we thought it would be good to get it all set up and that Sebastian and Christina could think about the idea more concretely if the hive items were there.
Before the final photo above, we talked about hive location.
They had all kinds of questions about what to expect from the bees.
We set up one 10 frame hive (we're running out of equipment!) and one eight frame hive on a 10 frame slatted rack and SBB (we're running out of equipment - did I say that already?)
We only brought three frames for the 8 frame because there will be 5 frames in the nuc and we brought five frames for the 10 frame box.
We're so excited to share bees with this enthusiastic couple. And I remember the kudzu in this neighborhood - this is where we had Topsy and Topsy was filled with dark honey, probably from the kudzu.
So here's to a good partnership with Sebastian and Christina and lots and lots of honey!
And on the good news side of things:
- Today many bees were still voting on my swarm trap - in and out, in and out, measuring and determining their vote about location, location, location.
- The Decatur swarm is still in Topsy and apparently settling in, and
- The SOS1 into which I put two frames of eggs - one from New Lenox, and one from Five Alive had bees flying in frantically with pollen on their legs today.
Congratulations on your new location. You need to have a honey house soon!
ReplyDeleteI use foundationless frames but have only put the guides in the groove of the top bar. Have you tried putting guides in the bottom bar as well, so they have 2 areas to start from? I may try it and see what they do.
There's nothing like a couple of cinder blocks to further "concrete planning"!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm new to this and haven't gotten any equipment yet. What is the first piece of equipment I should get? I'd like to get some honey by this summer, but want to learn about the bees and all the benefits from them.
ReplyDeleteSandi
Anonymous - oh, so funny - my unintentional joke!
ReplyDeleteSandi, On the side of this blog is a post called Beginner's list to get started in Beekeeping - start there. It's kind of late to get started this year, but get in touch with your local bee club and see if someone will sell you bees. It's not typical to get honey the first year unless you start with a nucleus hive of bees.
I'd love to hear more of the particulars of the arrangement. How do you educate on the use of insecticides? What advice/ direction would be given in the way of mowing and lawn maintenance directly in front of the hive? Children and playing? Allergic reactions? In short, as wonderful as this arrangement is, how do you protect your asset and prevent their good intentions and interest in bees from having a hiccup?
ReplyDelete- Cary