My Brother Barry is Becoming a Beekeeper

I was so thrilled because my brother Barry decided that he wants to keep bees. He came to Atlanta for the Short Course in January and went home and ordered equipment. He knows a commercial beekeeper in Natchez, MS where he lives and is getting bees from that man.

I went to Natchez this past weekend to help Barry put his equipment together. I had a great time and didn't take nearly enough pictures, but here's an overview.



We built and painted ten medium hive boxes. I took him two deeps because I believe the man from whom he is getting the bees will be expecting him to have deeps and not medium boxes. So we painted those as well. We also painted screened bottom boards, slatted racks, telescoping covers.

Barry single-handedly built 79 frames (one of the 80 broke!) The Walter Kelley jig for frame assembly is a convenience that I never want to be without. It was so much more efficient to build frames with this jig. Took a little getting used to - we goofed twice and had to take the frames apart to get them out of the jig. Barry became a master of the jig, though, in the end.

We then put wax foundation in all his frames and I set up the two basic hive boxes to show him how to do it. I also showed him how to hang the frame rack on the side, how to remove the second or seventh frame when you first open the box.

He had fun the whole time, but he really smiled when I showed him how to light the smoker.

I hope he will love the bees the way I do and will get into the zen of beekeeping!

Newbie Questions at the Beginning of Bee Season

Here at the beginning of bee season, there are many questions that the first year beekeeper asks. I have posted a lot about my challenges and what I have learned. Here are some of the links to posts that may be helpful if you are just getting started:

The basics: What you need to get started in beekeeping
How to build a hive box
How to build a frame
How to install a nuc (a four or five frame mini hive of bees)
How to light a smoker (as if I really can!)
How to do a hive inspection (and why?)

If you get through all of that, there are numerous posts on harvesting honey to produce clear honey, chunk honey and cut comb honey as well as posts on how to melt wax with a simple, cheap solar wax melter - just look on the right side of the blog under videos and slideshows.

Also be sure to search using the Google search bar on this blog for any questions you have and after 500 something posts, I imagine you'll find that I've probably been challenged by the same question at some point!

building supers

The honey super is a big empty wooden box built to bee specifications, allowing for what is known as bee space.

First you build the super - it's the empty box below.

Then the supers are painted to help them weather the outdoors in which they stay. I'm painting the one on the left Peach Beige (after all, I'm in Georgia) and the one on the right Golden Blonde. When I had my sunporch redone, I went through eight quarts of paint to find the perfect color, so I'm using the leftovers to paint my hives.




Here's a super into which I've begun putting "frames" for honey storage. The frames are made of wood with a thin piece of honey comb nailed into them for the bees to have a foundation to use to get started building their own honey comb.




Here the last frame is being installed into the super for Bermuda (the peach beige one). You can see the tiny nails that hold the honeycomb foundation to the top of the frame