Bees!!

I never got to post about my bee meeting. It was interesting and interactive. Coincidentally, I ended up teaching a mead making class. Archie, the man in charge of the gathering had a mead making kit that he had purchased but never used and was going to see if he could sell it.

I got to try sage and manzanita honey and the sage was smooth, lighter, and less viscous than the manzanita honey, but both were delicious!

Carmen brought a small swarm catching TBH to the meeting and it was really neat to see the simple construction as well as her daughter interacting. She also raises goats and has Oberhasli goats.

There were a lot of people there from all over including some from Los Olivos, Santa Barbara, and Paso. It was very encouraging to see so many people who wished to start beekeeping. In total the ratio was about 3 new people to every experienced person.

And!!! They gave me a ton of really good advise on my frames and beeswax foundation. I got home late last night from my class and was able to work on the frames so that it could be nice and sturdy for the bees.

I should receive my bees today and I'm really totaly uber excited!! I have the Langstroth hive all set with 4 deeps though I might only have two on the hive until they are able to feed themselves. I'm going to put a feeder in the Langstoth and the Warre just to see if that will help them out. I hope they don't build comb around it and that they are able to forage for themselves.

Depending on what I hear back from my local bee keeping group, I might put them in tonight or wait until tomorrow. I still have to finish putting the fence up since they do not have a designated area for themselves yet.

So much to do, so little time, and so much fun. =)