Hi there! I thought I’d write about my experience so far in researching beekeeping and Honey Bees. My name is Rick Dearr, and the other day my friend Jim Kimmel, called and told me he was looking into beekeeping. We talked about it for awhile and he also asked if it might be OK with us to put a couple hives in our backyard. My wife has a good sized garden, so she was quite excited to have Honey Bees close at hand to help with pollination. One thing I learned was that some items in the garden will grow bigger with bees around. I have not looked into that yet but it sounds reasonable, as they would get cross pollinated better with the little buzzers around.

So now we have a couple hives in the backyard, Jim has come over a couple times and before his trip out of town, he inspected the hives and I videotaped some of that. (Look for a link in the resource box below to watch the video, and see some pix I took too.) Jim bought the parts for the hives and assembled them with glue and nails, he mentioned that having them built well is a key factor as to how long you can go without having to replace them and having the bees create new comb. An interesting thing about how they work with the comb is that they leave a little shell inside as each bee emerges so the cells get smaller each successive newborn. So after some time the bees coming out are also a little smaller. You will want them to make new comb after a couple years just to keep the little buggers at the right size.

My wife was worried about the dog getting stung and hurt by the bees, she likes to worry about the dog, that’s a whole different thing to write about. At any rate the dog hears the buzzing as she gets close to the hives and hurries right along her path that is about 3 feet from the hive entrance, and as far as we know she has had not one sting or run in with the Honey Bees. I have stood right over the super to take pix and video of the hive and had a couple land on me, but not one sting for me at all. Jim got a couple when he first set up the hives, but he said he was moving a little fast and put his hand done on one, and a couple more were just moving to quickly toward the hive and running into bees in mid flight so they more or less stung him on contact. No real ill effects for him, as he knew to scrap the stinger out as quickly as possible. I read about the stinger, it is shaped in such a way with three parts to keep working it’s way deeper in if you don’t scrape it off, as there are parts of the bee that come out with the stinger that keep pumping the venom in, and of course that stops as soon as you scrape the stinger out. Unless you have an allergic reaction to them they really are not that bad. Jim’s went away by the next day. He did however get a hood and jacket for the next encounter.

Jim used liquid smoke to calm the bees and get them to move away from some burr comb they had created. (see the pix on the blog) he likes the idea of liquid smoke as opposed to a smoker as it is easier to control and has the same effect. He did say it seems if you ask beekeepers about almost any subject on keeping bees they all have a different opinion. I am reading up, so I can maybe get a hive to catch a swarm this summer. Jim bought his and the were mailed in. Now that is something I’d like to see, the postman delivering a box that buzzes with Honey Bees, to the new beekeeper on the block.