This is my first year of beekeeping, but I have been interested in keeping bees ever since I was seven and requested, but did not receive, a beehive for my birthday. Instead, I received Classic Space LEGO sets, and my chidlhood dream had to wait 32 years to come true. In hindsight, it was probably worth waiting, and bees probably were not an appropriate gift for an eight year old, even a strange and nerdy one like myself. 


This winter, I decided to take the plunge and take a beekeeping class with the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association. It turns out that the beekeeper who sells his honey at the little Bluff Park Hardware Store lives right in my neighborhood was the class instructor. I got to know him a bit and he agreed to sell me two nucleus hives to get me started.

Soon after the class was over, I went down my beginner's list of beekeeping necessities and ordered my hives. But these hives couldn't be just any ordinary hives, as these were going to prominent feathers in Elizabeth's garden. So in exchange for some of Elizabeth's real estate, she was the one to choose an assortment of pastel colors for paint, and we splurged on the fancy English style peaked copper top roofs. I'm fairly certain that we have the prettiest hives in town. 

On Friday, April 27th, I drove over to Paul's house and loaded two small hives into the back of my jeep. With Paul's help, we had these two nucleus colonies installed in my hives less than 30 minutes. It was so exciting to don my protective gear, light my smoker, and crack a hive open with my brand new hive tool. Each hive had deep frames full of both honey and capped brood, indicating that the queen was laying well and that I could expect these to be very good strong hives to start my little garden apiary. We were even able to find the queen destined for her new light green brood box, so that was especially exciting, considering that finding her was not the goal, as getting them into the hive safely but quickly was most important.

So, of course, I spend the next several days sitting by the hives to observe their behavior. My childhood dream of becoming the "King Bee" has finally come true. Although i should have started this journal the first day I received my bees, I plan on documenting my progress/folly over the next year. At the least, this can be a good way to make sure I remember my mistakes and successes.