I am an Apiarist~more commonly known as a beekeeper.

We used to live in Colorado. When we were living in Colorado, I developed an interest in Beekeeping.  I thought it would be a lot of fun to have a few hives in the yard and collect the honey from the bees.  The only problem with that dream, was the bears.

We had quite a few bears in our neighborhood.  They were awful about coming up onto our deck and eat the bird seed right from my bird feeders. The had broken through screens in our neighbors homes and eaten fruit left out.  They were mischievous.  I knew that having bees was out of the question.

Then we moved to Mississippi.

No bears!  Cool Beans!!!

Soon after our move, I mentioned to my husband my desire to have honey bees and he did not say “no”!  So, for my birthday that year, he bought me hives, tools, jackets, veils, gloves, smoker…oh!  And bees!

Most people purchase their bees over the phone or online and the bees are delivered through the good ol’ mail.  (Our postal carrier will no long deliver the bees to our house.  We must drive into town and pick them up at the post office.  Chicken.)  My last shipment of queen bees I had delivered UPS!  They did a much better job of delivery than the USPS~just a side note for you.

Beekeeping is physical work.  A full super of honey weighs about 60 pounds.  Picking those up off the hive, carrying them up to the house, taking all your supplies from the house to the apiary and back to the house…it really is hard work!

In the Fall and Winter you need to feed your bees.  A bee will fly any time it is 50 F. or warmer.  We live in Mississippi, the SE part of the United States and our winters are warm.  That means our bees are flying, looking for food all winter.  Obviously, there are not many things in bloom in the winter, so we must provide them with food or they will starve.  A hive full of bees that have starved to death is a very sad, sad thing.

What do you feed bees?  A 50/50 mixture of cane sugar and water.  You have to boil your water so that it will absorb all that sugar.  Then you let it cool (we do not want the bees to burn their little bee tongues, do we?).  I use cheap tupperware containers and fill them with the sugar/water solution and put on the lid.  In the lid, I have poked very small holes.  I take the containers to the apiary, and flip them upside down on top of the hives.  The sugar/water drips out very slowly and the bees eat the solution.  It is like a glorified hummingbird feeder.  Kinda.

Beekeeping is a year round job for us.  People up north wrap their hives in burlap and/or foam board insulation to keep the bees warm.  We do not need to do this.  We do do some hive modifications to keep them safe.  Today, we tucked them in for the winter and they should be safe and sound and ready to fly in the spring.

Sleep tight, bees!