Bees Arrive at HoneyDo Farms!

We have been anticipating the arrival of the bees for months. It has been a journey just getting ready for the little buggers. Things we had to do:
• Read books about bees – just 2
• Lots of research on the web
• Talk to as many people as we could find
• Go to the Cherokee County Beekeepers school
• Research where to get supplies
• Get supplies
• Put together bee hives
• Worry about getting stung

After all the hours spent researching, working and preparing – did we feel ready? Maybeeee….

We were ready to get them, but we definitely felt a little trepidation about actually getting several thousand bees and placing them in the hives.

Bob picked our bees up from BJ (that is the guys' name) in Ball Ground, Ga. Each of the packages weighed 2.5 pounds each.

I was at a beauty pageant with Sadie

Sadie - the Beauty Queen

so Bob had to go pick up the bees by himself. It was 90 miles from the house (one way) so it took half the day for him to get there, get the bees and then get home. We put them in the basement (cool and dark) until the next day. We were concerned about soaking them with sugar water and then it being so late in the day that they would not have a chance to get settled and dry before the day ended and it got cool again.

So, Sunday morning, bright and early, Bob is pacing the house because he wants to go put the bees in the hives. And as he is pacing, he is saying that we cannot do it until it is warm enough in the day. I, of course, am glad to lay around and let the morning pass without any anxiety about wanting to get going – you will see as you read our story, I am a “sitter”, Bob is a “doer.” I am all about sitting, especially if a drink that contains rum is near at hand.

The day finally gets warm enough – at 11:00 it was about 70 degrees so we go to do the bees. They are humming furiously in their little box in the basement and Bob was pacing way too much to put it off any longer.

Bob sets up the stand for their hives and realizes that he wants to make a slight modification. I have camera in hand so I amuse myself by taking pictures of some of the plants in bloom in the yard.