We started our odyssey into beekeeping about three years ago.  Ginger has always suffered with allergies and we heard that if you eat honey harvested from the area you live in that it would help to alleviate the allergy symptoms.  Well combine that with our love for raising animals, gardens, and just about every other aspect about farm life...we knew bees were for us too.  So Ginger got online and for my birthday in February and she ordered two hives and two packages of bees.   The earliest shipment date was in May so we had to wait a while for this adventure to begin.  While we were waiting for the arrival of the bees we noticed in our local paper that there would be a beekeeper's short course held at Oxbow meadows sponsored by the Chattahoochee Beekeeper's Association and CSU.  We signed up and bought several  books on keeping bees.   The course was informative and interesting...We were still waiting on our bees to arrive...We decided to join the beekeepers association in hopes that novices like us could learn from the experiences of the more experienced.

     Early one morning in May as we were finishing off our breakfast of bacon, eggs, grits and several cups of coffee, the phone rang.  Through the earpiece I heard an aggitated and nervous voice say "I didn't mind delivering the chicks, and all the eggs, plants and other odd things ya'll have come through the mail but I am not going to put two boxes with thousands of bees in my truck!" I laughed and told her that I would be there when the post office opened.  I arrived at nine o'clock sharp and to the relief of all the post office personel I took delivery of the bees and away I went back to the farm.

     I donned my beekeeping gear, gloves, helmet and etc.  I grabbed my smoker and headed to the back of the garden where we had set up the hives.  Then as I had learned in the course, I opened up the hives and deposited all the bees, inserted the queen cage, closed them up, and hoped for the best.   We watched the bees and learned so much from one of God's creatures. It was fun to watch them take an ant or two from their hive, fly away from the hive and drop them ...seems we may have heard a little buzz snickering as they did it too...Since we were a little late in getting our bees and much of the honey flow season had already passed we were unable to harvest any honey that first season. In fact since we were late getting our bees into action that year we fed them all the way through the winter.  It was cold in the winter and I had read about  reducing the entrance size with the reducer so I stuck them on both hives.  Well after a few weeks I was checking on the board feeders and didn't see any activity out of one of the hives.  This worried me so I opened it up and the reducer opening was blocked by a pile of dead bees and there was not a live one to be found.  Well my first thought was to run, but I did what I should and told Ginger how I had killed the bees then prepared myself for the wupping surely to be coming.  Not really she is a sweetheart.  

     At one of the next beekeeper's meetings Darryl Wainwright mentioned he was taking orders for nucs so we placed our order and anxiously awaited the time to go pick up our new bees.  This time we put in a nuc (bees, a queen, and several frames already pulled out with the beginnings of a hive) into our hive.  This allowed our colony to take off much more quickly. Novices as we still are...we didn't know we should have brought our hive body to put our bees in at the farm...graciously Darryl let us take the nuc body home and return it to him at the next bee meeting. 

     Soon bees were everywhere busy pollinating at Pate Farms and going back to the hive to make delicious honey.  We couldn't wait. They often visited the pool...so Ginger gave up her mesh float to the bees as a safety device to allow them to land and get water and fly away again.  They also visited the goldfish pond along the shore of small rocks...we named it bee beach...As the hot days of August approached we knew it was time to take the honey.  We had ordered cute little bears and anxiously awaited to fill them with the nectar of the bees.  We had our extractor ready, but were waiting for our hot knife to come in through the mail...yep... another internet purchase...the bees looked fine...A week later...we went to take the supers off to extract the honey... I put on my bee suit...had my smoker... walked out to the hives... the hives were there... lifted the cover...honey is there...sweet delicious...but not one bee???? Absconded!!  Every last bee was gone...from both hives...We harvested the honey...it was delicious... but now we had to start our hives over again....

.....Call in to Mr. Wainwright....Can we get another couple of nucs this year....and so the story continues....Mr. Wainwright called and left a message on my cell that the nucs would be ready the first of April.  We played phone tag for about a week or so and then one day at Church, Cricket Slappey mentioned to Ginger that Steve had picked up his Nucs the previous week.   That got me on the ball and I fired the phone up again and finally Darryl and I were talking too each other!  We set up a time to meet out at the Wainwright Farms and that Sunday evening Ginger and I loaded up the hives and away we go to pick up the bees.  We arrived at the appointed time and Darryl was there waiting with two of the newer members of the Beekeepers club waiting to get their first bees.  Darryl hopped onto the back of our truck and perched himself on the truck box along with his sidekick Killer....(his chihauha and I am not sure of its name but Ginger calls him Killer).  We went winding up the narrow trails through the woods to where the nucs were sitting and Ginger yelled back through the window at Darryl "You gotta be brave to sit back there with Richard driving"  I didn't think Darryl minded that much but he did have this strange look on his face and his fingers were leaving claw marks in the top of my diamond tread tool box.  As the tires screeched to a halt and the dust settled all around us we arrived at the nucs and the other guys pulled up behind us and we started over to the nucs.  The newer guys yelled over "Hey look we are set to go today, not only do we have Darryl but we also have the President with us today.  Do we need to suit up?"  Darryl and I walked over to the nucs and Darryl confidently says " no not at all these bees are gentle, I was just in them a little while ago and they are real calm."  as the words trail out of his mouth and I open the first nuc several very ticked off bees decided to teach this fella a lesson.  The first one lit on my earlobe and sunk his stinger as hard as he could.  I naturally reached up and slapped it off but about that time the reinforcements were working on my wrist and the back of my neck.  And don't think ole Darryl was in the clear, one of the wingman of the sortie veered off and set its sights on him and nailed him on the hand.   Well there were two new beekeepers kicking up dust heading to their truck to suit up....   We finished switching the nucs and then they moved theirs.   Just as a side note after the first sortie of avengers the bees were very calm.  I guess they just needed to remind us who was in charge.  Well as all beekeepers do we sat around for the next hour waiting  for everyone to calm down  (I mean the bees not me)  and we hoo hoo'ed and Hah hah'ed a lot Tim the Toolman style, Ginger was off in the woods pulling up baby blueberry plants to take home and then as the sun started fading into the skyline everyone loaded up their bees and as the last trailing wisps of redness faded from the sky two trucks loaded with bees drove off into the sunset to the new homes.

.................................................more to come