So You Want to be a Beekeeper
Who would have thought that 2 years ago we would become beekeepers? How one finds beekeeping is a story that every beekeeper has. Our story starts like most with a husband in the grocery store. 4 years ago I was in the grocery store on the phone with my wife Steph. "Stop in the organic section and grab a quart of honey. It needs to be the good kind. One with wax parts floating on the top." Steph says to me on the phone. I work my way to the section thinking to myself this should be easy to find. I get to the location and to my surprise I find the honey. The price was the surprise $18.00 for a quart this can't be right. Back on the phone and confirming that this was the honey I put it in the basket hesitantly.
The following year we were not seeing bees in the garden. Steph says " I am thinking of getting bees." In the back of my head I was thinking $18 a quart. So I responded with a supporting "Yes I think you should. You have a nurturing knack." So the thought was put into both our heads bees!!!! We know nothing other than the boxes are white. Where do you get bees? What do we need? Can we keep them in the back yard? Are we allergic to bee stings? What will the people think?
Steph knew some hobby beekeepers. One was putting on a introduction to beekeeping at the local library. We went and listen intensely. The talk was only 2 hours but we gleaned enough to get us started. Steph asked me if I could build the hive. I thought sure how hard could it be. I started looking into hive boxes. We were going to use a Langstroth hive. I found it was just a small amount more to just buy the box retail vs building one from the lumber yard. This was for one hive. So we got a hive kit from Mann Lake . The kit came and a Queen was ordered. We were starting to get excited and worried about our first hive. I put the hive together in the house. Steph painted it. The day came to drive 3 hours to Hackensack Minnesota to get the Queen. Friends give us some frames of brood to start a Nuc. She made it home with bees in the back of the van with out any issues. The hive was started and fed. We're beeks honey. Yes we are! We started with just one hive as we did not know any better. Now we would tell any one else starting to get 2 hives. With reasons most new to beekeeping would not make sense.
The new hive nice and clean with 3 frames of brood.
