I am about to try beekeeping again.
Last year about this time, I drove to Hattiesburg, MS to pick up a nuc. It was a day of joy and trepidation. The end result, though, was that my bees died.
Since then I have read, thought, asked, contemplated, and just generally worried the problem like a sore tooth. I am not completely satisfied with my answers, but I am going to try again. Some things I will do differently. Some things will stay the same.
One of the things that is different this year is that I am apprenticing myself out a little. Which I did a couple of times this past month. I will write up my experience from this weekend later, but this is what happened with my first trip.
The guy that I am buying the bees from is named Steven Coy, and his place is in Bond, MS, near to my mother-in-law's home in Wiggins. A beautiful Friday morning in late March, I drove down to spend the weekend. Early afternoon, I rolled up and hopped out of the car, bee jacket and veil in hand, ready to get to work.
After a few minutes of pleasantries, we headed out. Mr. Coy and his employees had already put in a 6-hour day at this point, and there was still a lot to do.
We took two flat-bed trucks out to the back of a pasture, where there were about 40 hives stacked up. Some were three-high, some just one. Robert - the employee - explained quickly what was planned for the afternoon:
"Crorey, we are going to be splitting hives, which means we will force the queen into the bottom box, and divide up the brood and honey equally among the boxes on top."
At least, I think that is what Robert meant to say. What he actually said was a lot more like "You get two frames of brood that sometimes you can spread across three frames and you make sure that there is one frame of honey, like this or sometimes two, and then you put two empties and two foundations, and then you move to the next one." (I looked at the frame and asked, "OK, so which one is the brood, again?")
Last year about this time, I drove to Hattiesburg, MS to pick up a nuc. It was a day of joy and trepidation. The end result, though, was that my bees died.
Since then I have read, thought, asked, contemplated, and just generally worried the problem like a sore tooth. I am not completely satisfied with my answers, but I am going to try again. Some things I will do differently. Some things will stay the same.
One of the things that is different this year is that I am apprenticing myself out a little. Which I did a couple of times this past month. I will write up my experience from this weekend later, but this is what happened with my first trip.
The guy that I am buying the bees from is named Steven Coy, and his place is in Bond, MS, near to my mother-in-law's home in Wiggins. A beautiful Friday morning in late March, I drove down to spend the weekend. Early afternoon, I rolled up and hopped out of the car, bee jacket and veil in hand, ready to get to work.
After a few minutes of pleasantries, we headed out. Mr. Coy and his employees had already put in a 6-hour day at this point, and there was still a lot to do.
We took two flat-bed trucks out to the back of a pasture, where there were about 40 hives stacked up. Some were three-high, some just one. Robert - the employee - explained quickly what was planned for the afternoon:
"Crorey, we are going to be splitting hives, which means we will force the queen into the bottom box, and divide up the brood and honey equally among the boxes on top."
At least, I think that is what Robert meant to say. What he actually said was a lot more like "You get two frames of brood that sometimes you can spread across three frames and you make sure that there is one frame of honey, like this or sometimes two, and then you put two empties and two foundations, and then you move to the next one." (I looked at the frame and asked, "OK, so which one is the brood, again?")
