It has been over a month since I have posted last. The main reason is that I am starting a new business selling Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Gi’s (KillerBeeGi.Com) and have been devoting most of my time to creating an efficient process for a smooth running business. The other reason is that I sometimes get lazy about writing but now that the honeybees are here I feel rejuvenated about writing something new instead of rehashing old beekeeping anecdotes from the past.
Of note, I have joined up with a new beekeeper who became hooked on it while serving in Afghanistan in the military. A fellow soldier talked with him about beekeeping and put the bug in his mind to start his own colonies. Now that he is back in the states he has set up two hives next to mine and I will try to teach him what my teacher taught me. Hopefully I will be up to the task.
As I said before I ordered my bees through BeeWeaver in Texas as they do not use ANY treatments in their apiary. This is the philosophy I will employ, maybe to the bees detriment, as my new outlook on beekeeping. Either my bees will thrive on their own or my wallet will laugh at me next year when I have to order three new packages.
The delivery of the bees did not have the perfect timing of a Swiss watch but they got here none-the-less. The bees were shipped out from Texas on Wednesday using a rented Ryder van with only one driver. Imagine shipping a time sensitive delivery across the vertical axis of the United States in a 48 hour time span with one driver, 55 cups of coffee, and probably 4 packets of No-Doze. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me but somehow they were able to eventually pull it off. My suggestion for BeeWeaver is for them to have a team of drivers like the Tractor Trailer folks use on long hauls. When the bees arrived they were in great condition. Only a few dead bees were on the bottom of the cage and they seemed to thrum excitedly to be let out.
The Bene Gesserit Pain Box
I drove home and then prepared to install them later that day. At four o’clock P.M. I drove out to the property and first mowed the lawn in front of the apiary so the bees would have a clear path of travel and the sea of ticks would have a harder time sucking the life blood out of me. I quickly deconstructed the first cage and installed the queen cage and honeybees. The second package was more of an issue as I dropped the queen cage into the package while trying to pull out the sugar syrup can. I had to stick my bare hands into the package opening and feel my way through the mass of bees for the queen cage. I am always amazed that honeybees are not prone to stinging when they do not have a colony to defend. My mind knows this but my hand inside the queen package does not. I am not sure if you ever have read Frank Herbert’s, Dune, but there is a section in the book where Paul Atriedes is bein
Time to go home.
g tested by the Bene Gesserit witches with his hand in the “Pain Box”. It was kind of like that but without the Sandworms. I finally found the cage by touch and extracted it like an EOD technician defusing an artillery round. With that done I quickly installed the package.
By package three my new bee friend arrived and he helped with some pictures and installation. We then looked into his two hives to see how they were doing and they appeared to be doing well. Because he purchased the standard Italians I might suggest he later order a different variety of queens as I don’t think Italians are suited for our climate.
With that done we talked for a while about bees, politics, economics and enjoyed the scenery. Following a cursory tick check we then headed on home.
So far so good.
Another day milking the bees.
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