Adding To The Apiary...

Last Monday(Labor Day), Daddy, Mr. Evans and I went to pick up some established bee hives!!! We bought them from an older gentleman that has been bee keeping for at least 30 years. He is trying to reduce his apiary because it is too much for him to continue caring for.

Mr. Evans bought 9 hives and we bought 2. It was a little bit of an adventure picking up the hives especially after dark! It went well though and we only came away with a few stings. We actually ended up doing about 180 miles of driving that night- all in a big circle!!!

I inspected my new bees the other day and they seem to be doing well. So, we now have an apiary of three hives!!! :)

 

This is the first location we went to.  It was quite an adventure getting back in here.  The grass/weeds were taller than our car!!!  We thought we were going to get stuck. :)  Unfortunately, you can't really see this from the picture- I wish I would have gotten a better one!

  

Look at all of the bees sitting on the front of the hive!  I think they rode like that all of the way home! 

  

This is the second location we went to.  It was easier to get back into this one, but it was so dark!  I had the job of holding the flashlight.  That is quite an interesting job when it starts attracting all of the bees! :)  I had taken my hat and veil off but quickly decided to put it back on when the bees started flying around and getting stuck in my hair!!!  Thankfully, I actually didn't get stung at all during the whole expedition.  I've gotten use to getting stung on my hands and it doesn't bother me anymore.  But, the face is NOT a pleasant location!!!

 

Finishing up with the loading. 

I didn't get any pictures of us unloading the hives, but it all went great.