It Was Bound To Happen Sooner Or Later

Last Thursday, I went to my hives to check on my bees. I decided to smoke Beatrice's hive and take a look at her progress. Apparently I didn't smoke them adequately because they started to fly around and they began to kind of land on me. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but when a bee landed on my hand I broke a very important rule: NEVER SWAT AT BEES. Rather than calmly brushing the bee to the side, I swatted at it which caused it to do what bees do: sting my finger. It hurt a little for a short time, but not too badly. I took this picture maybe 10 minutes after the sting. See if you can even guess which finger was stung:

Those who don't learn from history are bound to repeat it:

Right after I got stung, I closed up my hive. However, the bees kept flying at me and landing on me, even more so than they were a minute earlier. I wasn't wearing my bee veil because the guy who sold me my bees said that it wasn't always necessary (you can probably already tell where this story is going). The bees kept landing on my head--and once again instead of gently brushing them off of me, I swatted at one of them. She then flew off of my head and stung me--in the eye.

Ok, well it wasn't exactly my eye, but it did get me on the very bottom part of my eyebrow. This one did hurt a little more than the finger sting. It stung for a little, and then it was a little sensitive, probably because it was a lot harder to remove the stinger from my eyebrow than it was from my finger.



Here are some other pictures for yall.

This is Beatrice's box:

Here is me fearlessly (and possibly stupidly) holding up a frame of bees without my veil:


And a close up of my girls:


Here is Beatrice in her cage:

If you are keeping bees, I do recommend always wearing your veil or at least some form of eye protection until you are comfortable around them. In the words of Jen Teems: "always practice safe beekeeping!"

My Honey B

Here are a few pictures of "my honey," Brittany, dressed up in the beekeeping gear:




No wonder people call her B!

Hello

As my friends and family know, I recently (yesterday) have begun beekeeping. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, so I was really excited to get my bees yesterday. I have decided to start a blog to track the progress of my two hives. I will try to update it semi-regularly with pictures of the hives, bees, and plants that I have planted for the bees.

I ordered two packages of Russian honey bees. Each package came with a queen and 3 frames of bees. I picked Russian honey bees for several reasons. First, they are a strong breed of bees which originated in a region of Siberia that borders both China and North Korea. Over the years, these bees have developed a great tolerance for cold weather and are very likely to survive even a tough winter. Also, these bees have developed a natural resistance to varroa mites which can be particularly devastating to a beehive. Russian bees evolved in Siberia alongside the varroa mites and because of this, they have developed either a genetic or behavioral resistance to mites. Since these bees are largely resistant to mites, I will not have to use any of the bee medications to vaccinate them against mites. My plan is to keep my bees and my garden organic. After all, no one likes to eat chemicals.

I named the two queens Bianca (Bee-anca) and Beatrice (Bee-at-trice).

I guess you could call me their pimp... which is why I tell them to go out there and get me my honey!


Bianca's Hive:


Beatrice's Hive:


They are guarding the front and exploring their new home:


Inside Bianca's home:


Bianca's ladies:


Its kind of hard to see, but here is Bianca in her cage: