The Pollinators

I installed my bees on the 16th of April and checked on them for the first time this weekend. They are doing awesome! I started with a 5 frame nucleus hive (nuc) from the Sustainable Honeybee Program, Inc, in Loudon County, VA. (www.sustainablebees.org) Since they had to draw comb from foundation I guessed it would be a month or more before they were ready for the second hive body to be added. I was wrong. At three weeks they had drawn and filled the remaining four frames and had drawn burr comb under the hive-top feeder so that I nearly could not remove the feeder. I had to rush back and assemble another hive body to stack on top of the first hive. If they continue at this rate we will have lots of bees to work the garden and fields. When I removed the feeder I had to also remove the burr comb from atop the frames and below the feeder. It has a good combo of larva, pollen and capped honey. I showed the comb to my wife and kids and we all got to taste the honey our bees had produced. It is great. I hated to waste the larva that had already begun to develop, but now they will have much more space to use. I'm glad I checked on them!
This is my second year as a beekeeper. My first was very educational, but it ended badly with the loss of my hive to the cold winter. Much like my gardening adventures, I re-read the reference books I have and tried again, this time with a couple of ideas from other, more successful beekeepers. I had also wanted to have more than one hive, but as it turned out I was only able to secure one nuc this spring. Having two hives is a good idea in case one or both become weak because you can always combine the hives. I am hoping that if these bees continue to grow the colony at their current rate that I can make a split this summer.
Sometimes people look at me funny when I tell them that I keep bees. Most folks think it is neat and some know or have known folks who have kept bees. I think keeping bees is an important part of sustainable agriculture. I like it because it caused me to learn something that I did not know anything about and because I enjoy that place I find myself in when I am standing over my open hive with the bees buzzing, looking at the frames full of bees. It forces me to focus on the business at hand and on treating the bees gently. The smell of the honeycomb and the smoke, the sound of the buzzing, the sight of the bees working so diligently at their various tasks, the sunlight shining into the open cells, the tiny eggs, the various colors of the pollen, the white, capped honey, and most of all I think, the total disconnection from everything else. The stresses of work, traffic and finances are far away and its just me and the bees.