Hi all
I have a deposit on my first hive to arrive sometime this spring.
I am very excited

I am an avid honey consumer , but just want bees because I have seen the decline in the garden over the last few years. I am in the process of turning a once former pasture into a pollinator prairie.
I will be getting a nuc from a local bee person . In the spring i have been invited to help on her farm. She is a local educator about bees.

My father kept bees when I was growing up but that was a very long time ago and I fear I have mostly lost what ever he taught me .
I have a book on bees but may have questions
I am also very open to learning from others

First question is there a good bee web-sight for info and equipment? My son is building the box .

Sounds fun! We only started ours last year... for much the same reason.

Hi Cinda
Welcome to beekeeping. I don't know much about bees at all. That is my husband and when I need to know something I just ask him. He doesn't frequent beekeeping sites just goes alongon what the guy who sold him his first two hives taught him while they were waiting for the proper time to take the bees home.
I focus on planting stuff for them to forage. On that I can tell you that the blue hycinaths are a very popular favorite for spring and Sunflowers are buzzing with the bees in the fall In between those two plants are many others they like but it seems to depend on what they think they need what is popular with them during the summer .
Hopefully one of our beekeepers will pop in to share information

That is the reason I chose to get my bees from a local grower , she will let me help, and ask all the questions I want.

I asked her about skunks raiding the hive (read about it ) She said put the hive up high enough the skunk has to reach ...that exposes the belly and the bees take care of them selves

That is true about the skunks The skunks round her edon't even try to bother the hives because of that need to stretch themselves up like that

I had forgotten this thread

I did get my bees first week in June
They are doing great , I have checked them every two weeks .
I have a beautiful golden queen who is marked so I can find her more easily. they are filling the frames in the box and I have another for the top when they are ready.

they have been showing up in the garden on the hosta flowers , that was a surprise to me , never thought of hosta as a bee plant .
I let the lawn grow long for all the white clover another favorite

Congratulations on your new Hive if you have any questions please ask I usually check in on Saturdays I don't make comments or post very often. I have about 50 hives today I'll be pulling honey off of about 15 of them.

We get down to the Gatlinburg area about once a year and I usually get honey Maybe even some of yours.

I envy your sourwood trees

Yeah I envy the sourwood trees to I'd have to move my hives to Gatlinburg. I live close to Seymour. You only get sour wood nectar in the higher elevations.

Winterized the bees this week ahead of our 10 degree nights now we wait to see if they survive the winter.
they have been out in the 50 degree days

Very cool, Cinda! Spring is coming soon; I hope you will keep us updated on how they do during their first Spring.

We have had some 50 degree weather here in the Month of February and I have seen the bees out
nothing to eat yet but they survived the subzero weather of December

the bees were out this week and I have seen pollen on the legs
...so there is something out there in bloom
I can see swollen buds in the trees

I am happy to hear your bees made it through the artic blast in December.
If you check the articles i wrote o Gardening for Honey Bees you will see what is available for them in February.

Did a spring check couple weeks ago and found a happy queen and lots of brood
things are looking good

I think my queen may have flown
on checking last week we found capped queen cells

lots of brood and milk brood but no Queen
the hive was full she may have been crowded and left
sad to have missed the opportunity to have another hive in a split.

Oh, shoot! Sorry to hear that, Cinda! Sounds like they were and are are doing so well, although now some of them are out there in the world... Good luck bee friends! Hope the remaining bees rebound strongly.

A split for a new hive is a wild idea- pros and cons to consider there, I imagine. I'm resolving to research. Hubby and I must not delay building the extra brood chamber so it's ready just in case. I have heard about lots of swarm activity this spring, even with experienced beekeepers. Wonder if it's more swarming than usual?

We have been trying not to bother our bees too much as some errant comb and brood gets damaged each time we check the frames. But it is surprising to us to see how a hive develops in leaps and bounds during flow season, and it's hard to keep up. Checking fairly often to monitor the need for expansion and to destroy empty queen cells seems like a good idea when there is so much going on. Right now we may have queen cells we don't know about in the stronger of our brood boxes and I sure hope that hive doesn't fly the coop! She's such a good queen and her progeny are docile and productive. We can hope that if they swarm here on the farm, we can capture it. That happened to our bee mentor recently. Must build new hive...

I think the flow season came on before we were ready and the bees felt crowded
anyway we still have a ton of bees and they seem very busy
don't know how the Queen could have taken half the hive (that's what I have read)

....so now we are just leaving them to do there thing till we can be sure the new queen has mated and is back to work

I was researching swarms and splits and one source said that 75% of the bees can leave with thew swarm! I had heard half. It will be interesting to watch them rebound. Please keep us posted!

Pay attention to what is blooming or about to bloom when your bees swarm. That will give you warning that swarm season is about to begin in your area.
Here it happens when the blackberries are getting ready to bloom.