It began about a year ago when we attended Montgomery County Beekeepers Assoc. beginner classes. We became official beekeepers or apiarist in early April with 2 hives filled with about 30,000 bees each – all mostly ladies, very hard working and too busy to even sting us on most days. We always knew we would raise them and were certainly inspired by John’s grandfather who had over a dozen hives in northern Florida on about 20 acres. Hive 1 is amazing with a strong queen and textbook hive development whereas Hive 2 has had 3 different queens and it still struggling. From Hive 1, we extracted about 30 lbs of honey a few weeks ago and it is - oh so golden and delicious. The ladies are gearing up for the second big nectar flow, which I am following as you can see on the left column of this blog.
My uncle in Alabama has been a bee farmer for over 10 years. His honey is quite good also. He has over a million bees in different areas of Alabama. He's quite knowledgable! I put on the bee suit and poked around their boxes/home. It was fun!
ReplyDeleteJessica
Wow, a million bees - that's amazing! We want to expand slowly -but to make it through the first year successfully is our immediate goal.
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