To Bee or Not to Bee - That was the Question

A few years ago, somewhere along the road, I saw some beehives. That might be a fun thing to do, I thought. Every time I drove past those hives, I thought the same thing, but life is busy and it never went anywhere.

Fast forward to this last February. We went to the Seattle Flower and Garden show. As we were walking through the aisles of vendors, we saw a booth with Mason bees. After talking to the people in the booth, I discovered the shop they had was located in Snohomish, the same town I live in, and -- better yet -- they were about to start a honey beekeeping class. If I wanted to be in the class, I would need to call and see if there was room.

Of course, I called. And the class was full. They put us on a waiting list and we were very disappointed not to be able to go. A few days later, the owner of the store, Jim, called and said that some people did not show so we could join the class.

So off we went to the shop, Beez Neez Apiary Supply, for our classes. The class was held for four weeks and we would learn all about bees and beekeeping. After the first class, I was ready to get some bees!

So began the process of getting ready for the bees. We decided to buy the bee hive parts, and put them together ourselves. So first we had to get the parts, then nail them together. Next was painting. I decided to paint mine purple, and Rod, my boyfriend, decided to paint his green. You can see the boxes in the back of Rod's truck.

We also had to put all the frames together and then wire them and add the wax foundation. Since we really didn't know what we were doing, and were really learning by doing, it took us awhile.

Flash forward again to April 16, 2009 when we went to pick up our bees. We went to Beez Neez and parked. In the front of the store, were about 100 boxes of bees. There was a whole lot of buzzing going on! We looked at the bees and Rachel, who works at the store, helped us pick out a couple of boxes.

While we were doing this, one little rascal decided to sting me! There I was, just minding my own beesness (sorry, I couldn't resist) and a bee flew into my neck and stung me. It didn't really hurt, more like a quick burning feeling, and I was really glad actually to get that part over with. I was kind of worried I might be allergic to bees, but since I was stung, I can forget about it.

We loaded the bees into the car, and off we went, towards home, with 20,000 honeybees in the back, making quite a loud buzz. I was driving and Rod said to make sure I didn't get into an accident - that would be something to get rear-ended and knock those 20,000 bees loose in the car. Needless to say, I drove very, very carefully. You can see the bees in the back of my car, along with Echoo's dog bed.

By the time we got back, it was starting to get dark, so we decided to hive the bees the next night. So the bees spent the night in my shed where it was protected and ventilated. We left them there, waiting until the next day to put them into their new homes.