Getting Set...

My tendency is to skip over a lot in the chronology of setting up our hives. Well before we got our bees we had to do several things to prepare:

• We attended class each month to learn about site preparation, various feeding options, etc. This also allowed us to hear from experienced beekeepers to learn the different ways they deal with various issues.
• We got our boxes painted and stenciled to protect the wood from the elements.
• We selected a site that we felt offers shelter for the bees.
• We prepared the site by mowing and placing 14 bags of mulch beneath where the hives would go--we did this to try and keep ants and beetles at bay.
• We built a hive stand that would hold three hives, even though we have only two hives. We wanted the extra room to expand, or to give us room to work.

This stuff did not always occur in order--you can see from the photo (below) of the hive stand after I dropped it off at our site, before we mowed or mulched. 

 When we finally placed it for real, we secured it by wiring it to a T-post that we drove into the ground. We also use ratchet straps to secure the whole hive to the stand. We did all of that securing because we know there are wild hogs on the property we are using, and we want to make it as difficult as possible for a sow to destroy our hives. 

This photo is after we placed the hives (so way out of sequence). I wanted to show the T-posts and the straps we secured our hives with.

Mulch was on sale CHEAP at Lowe's one weekend...

Waiting Time: After our preparation, we basically had to wait for our teacher, Dick Counts, to call us to say that our bees were in--our job would then be to head to his house in nearby Arp, TX to pick up our two boxes, fully of brood, bees, our Queens, and honey. We had to go get them quickly, as Mr. Counts did not want his yard filled with other people's hives indefinitely.

So, after we got the call, we hopped into Jason's new Nissan and retrieved our bees! They came  with a piece of foam in the door to the hive, and we were instructed to pull the foam out little-by-little over a couple of days to reduce shock to the bees. We donned our suits, turned Jason's Air Conditioning down low to help placate the bees, loaded his car with live bees and drove our to our site in Noonday, about 20 minutes away. That was a wild experience!

Jason is irrationally excited by danger.

Not a "good" video, but it captured our experience.

Once we got out to Noonday, we placed our boxes, peeked at our bees, and left them for the evening to get their bearings.

Jason surveying our newly-placed hives.