This past weekend we got to go to a beekeeping workshop, hosted by MOFGA. It was a beautiful (cold) winter day, spent inside learning from an experienced beekeeper. He reviewed how to get bees and instal them into hives, what equipment to get and what books to read, when to add supers and how to treat for mites. He discussed how to keep bees alive through the winter in Maine, where temperatures can dip bellow 0 F multiple days in a row. He discussed different types of honey bees, and the pros and cons of each. And he discussed different money-making strategies one can develop from their beekeeping hobby.
The event was 6 hours long, and I walked out blown away by the amount of information swirling in my brain.
This workshop made me more excited about getting bees. I had fallen off the bee keeping train as I focused on crop planning and garden design. But boy oh boy do I want to keep bees again. We acquired hives from a close friend who was moving to Florida two years ago. Last year, weren’t settled in time to get the bees we wanted, but this year is a different story!! I am so excited to order some bees (soon!!!) and paint my hives a nice, dark blue.
Two years ago, we inspected and cleaned out all the hives. Now they are sitting in our storage space, waiting for some bees!