Catch up on the first steps of our bee journey: Post One and Post Two.

After a busy week preparing the beeyard for the sudden influx of bees, “Bee Day” Saturday began before it was bright and early: foggy and not-quite-sunrise to be exact.

First stop: collecting our hives from the retiring beekeeper. He prepped the hives ahead of time, by stapling screen across the entrances, and the first boxes were loaded with ease. As Mr was carrying the fourth box however, things went awry. I felt a hot pinch on the back of my leg, and after ignoring it at first, looked down to find my legs covered with angry bees. {We thought they were the bees trapped outside when the entrance was closed. Spoiler: we discovered later there was an actual hole in the bottom of the box they were pouring out of. Yikes}. What followed was a wild few minutes: Mr had to smoke the bees off of me twice {they swarmed me again when I tried to get in the truck}; I was stung several times, and ended up having to “hide” halfway down the drive, until my mother-in-law rescued me. Good news: I do not appear to be allergic to honeybees. Bad news: getting stung 6 times is not the best way to get your first honeybee sting/test that allergic-status.

That misadventure aside, we ended up moving 6 hives, giving our beeyard a good jumpstart. They seem to be settling in nicely, so hopefully they like the new place and keep doing their happy bee thing.

We decided to give them time to adjust before doing anything else to them. One box is actually a swarm trap, so they’ll need to be moved to a full hive. And the grumpy hive appears to be queen-less, so we’ll attempt to requeen it. They’re strong hives, but we do have a bit of work to do to make sure they have the best chance at overwintering. But definitely going to wait for them to acclimate {and with any luck: cooler weather} … and order a full-coverage bee suit!

After the morning’s excitement, and taking care of my sting-situation, it was time to pick up our nuc! Immediately upon arrival, I noticed how calm the bees were. It was a hot day, but these bees were so incredibly chill – the beekeeper wasn’t even suited up, he was working them in jeans and a t-shirt. We watched him pull our nuc and then took them home. Even after a 30-minute car ride, these girls were so calm and chill, Mr easily transferred them into a hive box. They’re officially my favorites.

In the course of a day, we went from 0 hives to 7! While we didn’t catch a wild swarm, we were able to utilize local connections – a retiring beekeeper and an established bee-supplier, both of whom have made themselves available for questions and guidance as we go forward. And now we have bees, I’m hoping it’ll work to coax others to join the party next year during swarming season. Here’s hoping these hives make it through the winter and our bee journey is off to a solid start.

And if you’ve noticed that all the hives in pictures are the “traditional” kind – that’s the way the hives came to us, and now is not the time to swap them out. But we’re also thinking through options, trying to sort out what parts we like best about the various examples we’ve made so far and of the typical style as well. We may end up coming up with a hybrid version all our own design. Who knows? That’s the fun of it!