A Warm Bee is Better Than a Wet Bee

Bees don't like bananas, getting wet, perfume, and stressed out people. They do like early mornings, warm days and living in hives of 60,000. If all goes well we'll have one of those in our backyard by June.

This is SD's adventure more than mine. As long as I've known him he's been wanting a hive. So when the Essex County Bee Association advertised their Bee School he signed us up.  For the next eight Tuesdays we'll be learning the art and skill of the beekeeper, and once the class is done we'll be installing our own "package", watching the bees "drawing out" the comb, and harvesting over 8 gallons of honey.

Prior to our first class last night I didn't know much about bees.  I'd gotten pretty good at spotting bee hives, and using honey in just about everything, but that's about it. I've read A Country Year: Living the Questions, and while it's a good overview I'm no where near ready to put on a bee suit and open a hive. But after our first class, I'm beginning to think this may be doable.