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swarm

Bees have somewhat taken over the lives of a few of us. I’ve been impressed with how much Gabriel has learned and is constantly teaching us and others about bees. He and Carl have become somewhat obsessed. Another cool thing is that occasionally he needs help and Carl is unavailable. Benjamin has been a very willing helper and that has helped develop their relationship a little deeper than just big brother/little brother.
On Thanksgiving we harvested a little honey with our extended family. It was really fun for Gabriel to share this with them.

That morning before everyone arrived the three of them went out to the bee yard and checked the frames. They came in with about 10 frames to harvest.

Then they found a small swarm on the ground. We don’t know if it is from our hives or not. Our hives have lots of room to grow but you never know.

They quickly got a deep ready and put it near the swarm…

…and into the deep the bees marched.

We’ve had a little trouble with a feral bee hive that Gabriel rescued. He requeened it with an Italian queen to begin domesticating the hive. The workers didn’t accept the new queen and began making their own queen. So Gabriel basically took the “Italian” hive and gave it to the swarm hive. He had to destroy the feral bees but he left their brood comb. At least that’s what I think happened. It was all so quick and I was cooking dinner. But it was exciting and the swarm hive seems to be doing really well.

As most of you know, we don’t really know what we’re doing with bees we’ve only been keeping them since this spring. Even Gabriel as knowledgable as he’s becoming it’s mostly head knowledge not experience. But if you have questions a great place to visit is Beverly’s Bees. They are super knowledgeable and super sweet. I’ve left comments with random questions before and Anita is always so kind to respond to them.

This post is shared at Barn Hop,

Thanks for sharing with your friends!

Angi Schneider

Saturday 2nd of November 2013

If you're curious about beekeeping, then read, Beekeeping for Dummies. It will excite you to either definitely want to do bees, or to definitely NOT want to do bees.

Patty

Saturday 8th of December 2012

Your bee adventures are so exciting.

becky3086

Monday 3rd of December 2012

Very nice. I want to have been as well but feel like I don't know enough yet.

SchneiderPeeps

Tuesday 4th of December 2012

I'm not sure we really know very much either. But my son has a great mentor who has been beekeeping for quite a while. He has been an invaluable resource.

Maybe you can find a beekeeper to be your mentor. I think that helps take away some of the fear.

Rachel E.

Tuesday 27th of November 2012

Beekeeping is very interesting to me. Keep up the updates.

SchneiderPeeps

Tuesday 4th of December 2012

I bet you guys will have bees in the future.