MY BEES HAVE BEEN HIVED

My mentor reminding me that I forgot to cut slits in the pollen patty and hubby handing me the knifen while video taping.

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SIGNS OF SPRING & HAPPINESS

This has to be the best sign of spring. While hubby was adding fresh cedar mulch around the perimeter of our home he found a nest of little bunnies. We decided to leave that area alone until they were grown and gone. Hubby found them in a hole under our front door mat that had blown onto the ground over the

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MY BEES ARE HERE!

Today was bee pick-up day. We woke early, around 6 am and headed over to Nature's Nectar to pick up our girls. I had an ok nights sleep, wasn't worrying too much about today but about 3 miles away from our pick-up location I felt like I was about to vomit. All that self-doubt started to creep in. What had I gotten myself into? Was I fooling myself about becoming a beekeeper? Could I really do this? Was I just

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DANDELIONS, DANDELIONS, DANDELIONS

What should I do with all the dandelions?

It use to be that I knew three things about dandelions. (1) They kill grass (2) they are medicinal and (3) they are edible. As for the edible part, I'm ok with eating dandelion greens, my grandmother used them in salads, BUT.... who wants to eat a dandelion that has possibly been peed on by my dog while on her potty break or worse yet, contains pesticide blow over from the neighbors lawn. < That's the best rationalization strategy that I've got.

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10 DAYS TIL MY GIRLS ARRIVE

I can't believe I have a little more than a week until my bees arrive. I'm trying not to think about it too much because I don't want to have any preconceived ideas about my experience before it happens. 

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ONE STEP CLOSER TO BEEKEEPING

My equipment arrived! My husband went from a nice healthy brown to a very pale sickly white when he saw me unwrapping the hive. The delivery man couldn't even maintain composure. He asked if I was making honey. It sounded funny me making honey since the bees are the only ones making anything.

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MY BEES WILL BE HERE IN LESS THAN 5 WEEKS

I finished my beekeeping course, ordered my bees, tonight I order my supplies. I chose the carniolan bees. Not sure if it was the best choice but I'll soon find out. They are the most docile bee, over winter better than others, but they love to swarm. I've been taught how to eliminate swarming and hopefully I don't screw it up because my neighbors wouldn't be happy if they found a swarm of bees hanging out in their backyard. 

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MY BEES HAVE BEEN ORDERED

I placed an order for my bees yesterday and I'll be picking them up on April 21. I'm more nervous than excited at this point. Right now I'm still pouring through beekeeping equipment catalogs trying to decide on what I need/want, plus making sure I remember everything I'm suppose to do once my bees arrive. I'll be ordering the beekeeping video put together by the University because it is very thorough and it will help me stay on track once my bees are hived. Yikes! Feels like April 21 is around the corner.

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PESSIMISM GETS YOU NOWHERE

I've talked with the neighbors and it seems all my pessimism did is give me sleepless nights because both neighbors were very supportive and intrigued by my need to have honeybees. The neighbors that I thought would be the easiest to convince were a bit skeptical only because the man of the house is terrified of bees after watched his own mother almost die from a bee sting. The neighbors I thought would be the most difficult to convince were excited for me and very interested in the process. So, nothing stands in my way of getting my bees except me.

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I MADE IT!

Not quite a beekeeper yet but 1/2 way there. I finished my 2 day 16 hour beekeeping course at the University of Minnesota. It was FANTASTIC! You'd think after sitting for so many hours I wouldn't want to do it again but it was full of information I kept wishing the time would tick by slower. Our professor

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BEEKEEPING COURSE STARTS TOMORROW

I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'll be studying bees for two full days (16 hours) total. I received a message telling me that 250 people have signed up for the course. I keep wondering what classes will be like. With such a large number of people attending are we going to be able to ask questions? Will everything be done by slideshow? The last time I was in a class with more than a 100 people was in college and I didn't like it because I was just a number and it created a limit on learning but hopefully this will be different.

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I KILLED MY OWN SOAP

Why Why Why? Is all I can ask myself. Twice in my soap making years have I had soap seize up on me, turning to a curdled mess. Sure, it's still salvageable for the sheer purpose of just giving it away but I wouldn't sell it if my life depended on it. Well, I would if my life depended on it but whatever... 

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NATURE: SOLELY FOR WILD ANIMALS AND THOSE WHO RESPECT IT!

Haven't we carved enough space out of this planet for us? Do we really need to start invading the space that our wildlife occupy and then complain that somehow the wildlife is a burden because they are there?

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A HODPODGE POST

Been busy around the house and with the family lately so I haven't had time to organized my thoughts in order to make an interesting post. Rather, I've decided to post now about various things since I hate leaving my blog to collect dust.

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