Honeychick Homestead

Homestead, Health, and Happiness

Category Archives: Beekeeping Info


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I’m as Busy as a Bee!

I’m the one who’s busy as a bee! Summertime is always busy, and this summer has been no exception! The plum, and peach harvest that has taken up a majority of my time is winding down. I’ll be done preserving this weekend, whoo hoo! I hope to have an drip irrigation system for the orchard set up, and that will be a HUGE time saver!  I won’t need to drag hoses around to water each tree individually, YAY!!!

My least favorite things, Lyme Disease and Babesia, decided to flare up a bit during the last week, that put a damper on my writing, and updating Facebook.

I hope to have time to write about my bee adventures in the next week. Lots of cool stuff is happening with the bees! Check out this TED Talk about bees. Hope you enjoy it!

 

 


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New Hive Start Up Cost

Recently, a blog subscriber asked me how much it cost to get started beekeeping. Thank you Anita for asking, and inspiring a blog post! Overall, the most expensive thing has been the equipment. The bees are relatively inexpensive.  Here’s a breakdown of what I spent to get my first hive started.

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I’m a Newbee!

That’s what the Santa Cruz Beekeepers Guild call first time beekeepers. I’m THRILLED that I’ll be getting my very own bees soon! Having a local beekeepers guild is proving to be a terrific resource for this beginner. I attended their monthly meeting a couple weeks ago, and it gave me the confidence I needed to take the plunge. During the meeting, they explained in detail how to get a package of bees into a new hive. In addition to monthly meetings, the guild has mentors who help those of us just getting started.

Several mentors recently held “bee show and tells” at their homes for the newbees. I was able to see all three types of bees: drones, workers and the queen. I never knew drones were bigger and couldn’t sting! I also got to see various stages of the hive, including one that was dripping honey….YUM! I learned some beekeeping terminology, like brood, and I saw the different stages of brood. I even got to see some new baby bees hatching! I held frames full of bees. I was shocked the mentors and some newbees didn’t wear gloves when working with the hives!  Hopefully, someday I’ll have that confidence too!  In the meantime, I’ll be wearing my jacket, hood, and gloves when I’m checking my hives.

Here’s a couple pictures I took during the show and tell. Continue reading →