Last Summer, we were actively growing our beeyard: buying bees and situating them in more permanent housing – so we had to be messing around inside the hives. I think that spoiled me.

This Summer, in addition to the general chaos of things, it got so hot {so very early} that we have not been able to look inside the hives since mid-May. The reason for this is two-fold:

Reason #1: Bees work very hard to maintain the temperature inside their hive. In the summer, you will frequently see bees gathered on the outside of their hive, which is called “bearding.” This is one way they help keep the interior temperature regulated. {Check out this quick article for a little more on bees keeping cool}.

Reason #2: We have to wear our beesuits to mess with our bees. Even the calmest hive can get angsty, and that potential increases exponentially during the Summer. Our suits are hot on a cool day, and with the heat index being 100+ for many days this summer, it would have been dangerous to suit up and start working. If something had happened to us {like heat stroke}, and we fell into the beehive, it would have been bad. Very bad. And incredibly difficult for someone to be able to help us. So we just didn’t chance it.

While we’ve been unable to poke around inside the beehives this Summer, we have been doing “background” beekeeping work. We put together and painted a new hive {more details on this to come}, with hopes of moving bees into it before time to winterize everyone. If you’ve been following our bee journey, you know we’ve been talking about {and experimenting with} several different types of hives. As we are finding Our Beekeeping Style, we’re testing various boxes and methods – we want something fairly “natural” feeling to the bees, and also easy to use for us.

This is also the perfect time to do bee research! We love watching videos of other beekeepers, seeing all the different ways you can keep bees. Not only do we get ideas for things that might work for us, it’s also a good chance to learn more particulars. A simple search in YouTube will produce more results than you could ever watch, and that’s not even taking into consideration blogs and Instagram accounts.

If you want to learn more about beekeeping in general, here’s a handful of sites/channels to get your journey started:

• Beekeeping Like a Girl – I discovered Hilary’s Instagram, and enjoy watching her experiences as an urban beekeeper. She’s also a great educational resource.
• Bee Mindful – Les Crowder is one of our go-to resources for top-bar beekeeping.
• Beekeeping Made Simple – This channel is a powerhouse of step-by-step guides to beekeeping.
• Barnyard Bees – Based in Georgia, this channel has a ton of videos that break down various aspects of beekeeping.
• Flow Hive – I’m not sure our climate would be the best for a Flow Hive, but I am absolutely fascinated by the idea. {My beekeeping dream is to have an observation hive one day, to easily watch the inner workings of the hive}.

One of the best resources is your local beekeeper’s association! One thing I’ve noticed is that beekeepers love to talk about bees and help others learn. For instance, we’ve got the North Carolina State Beekeeper’s Association, with 83 individual chapters. I feel certain there’s an equivalent option in your state, so definitely look into that if you’re serious about bees.

And of course there are so many great books out there! We regularly grab books from the Library, as well as growing our personal collection of bee books. From technical aspects of hive-building to the folklore of bees through the ages to learning about the inner workings of the hive: there’s a book for every thing.

With temperatures finally getting more comfortable, we hope to be able to suit up and open the hives soon. I can’t wait! Be sure to check back often, because I’ll likely have a lot of updates to share.