BEES

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Hubby and I signed up for a bee keeping class come spring.    I think it runs from Jan-April, but there are only 5-6 3hour sessions.  Sounds fun.

[StinkerBell]

Sounds like fun!

[Ernest T. Bass]

Welcome to the club! Hope you meet some nice folks... Take some of the conventional beekeeping methods with a grain of salt. Here's a super-informative website from an experienced beek who has a very natural approach:
http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Ernest T., you're absolutely right... the conventional beekeeping methods can be prohibitively expensive, and actually I've been locating scrap to build some hives very similar to those shown.  (There is a wealth of useful junk down in the barn left by the previous owner.)  Our place is a perfect setup for bees.... along both sides of the long driveway, there are rows of "butterfly bush" (not sure of the botanical name of this stuff, but the bees and butterflies love it) and it has naturalized in our woods here and there, as well.  Of course there are tons of wild plum and blackberry too, so I'm kind of excited about keeping bees, in spite of my serious bee allergy.  According to the local beekeepers I've talked to,  because of our long growing season and diversity of flowering plants from early spring until late fall, we can expect to harvest a bit of honey even the first year.  Anyway, my husband and I are taking the class together, which should be fun... we haven't taken a class together since ballroom dancing in college.

[Squirl]

That is a great site.

[Ernest T. Bass]

And I'm chicken around the bees without allergys... Hope you get some gentle girls! I've got two large hives that I installed this spring. They came from the same place and are both about the same size, but last time I checked on them their temperaments were totally different. While the one hive was very passive and quiet, the other would roar if you accidentally bumped it wrong. They can get a little protective of their stores this time of year..