Two Frugal Chicks

Raising Honey Bees

I love my ‘girls’. They are so industrious and inspirational. They all have a role to play and they do it well. It inspires me
to go to the hives on a nice sunny day and just pull up a chair and watch them.

I get asked all the time ‘how many times have you been
stung”?  I’ve been doing this four years and I’ve only been stung
once and that was because I had on flip flops and stepped on one. My girls let
me know when they don’t want my company. I can usually tell their ‘mood’
by the sound of the hive. If all is well it is a happy humming sound, but if
they are being pestered by yellow jackets or too hot or just in a bad mood, they
will be much louder and I will step back and let them alone. They will bounce
off your forehead as a warning for you to back off. If that happens, I respect
their wishes and leave them alone. 

I also get asked “why did you get started raising
bees”? My mother had cancer and she switched to honey as a sweetener. The
price of honey skyrocketed due to colony collapse disorder and it was really
expensive for her. So I thought to myself “how hard can it be”? I went to a
class at the UW Arboretum taught by the Puget Sound Bee Keepers Association and
gathered the information I needed. My mother is a beautiful 10 year cancer
survivor and has all the honey she wants.

I had the opportunity to buy hives from a guy
who was going out of business. He told me to stop by and see his mentor Harvard
Robbins on my way home. I
did and Harvard said ‘hey, tomorrow I’m going to California to pick up bees,
you want some”?  Suddenly and
quite unexpectedly, I was a beekeeper. I ran to the bookstore and bought a book
called Beekeeping for Dummies the to Home Depot and bought a paper painters
suit and a pair of rubber gloves. I was freaked out when I got my girls home but
once they were in their boxes they just took over and I stepped away.

I know you are supposed to be checking on their egg laying
pattern and observing the queen, etc. But I don’t. My philosophy is to leave
them alone. If they look crowded or hot I will add a new box. I also don’t
like to smoke them. It frightens them and slows down their honey production. On
the other hand if it’s the only day I have to work them and they are in a bad
mood I will smoke them just long enough to extract their frames to spin honey.
Honey harvest day is the only day I will use my smoker.

It’s been a really rewarding hobby and I love doing it. I
give honey as gifts, make honey mustard, honey bran muffins, honey butter, just
about anything you can make with honey. Our first year we got 7 gallons off two
hives. We haven’t gotten as much since, but it still plenty of honey for us
and our family.