After more than two years in the dreaming, planning, studying, creating: Bill’s Bees have come home. It was one of those random moments of inspiration: “I’d like to have some bees in our backyard.” With typical energy, Bill began to learn beekeeping from scratch.
The preparation included constructing hive boxes in the shop; joining beekeeping organizations at meetings and workshops; collecting a deep stack of books and magazines for study; fostering relationships and apprenticeships with local beekeeping experts; recruiting teams to help with the hives at two sites; and not least, creating a Bee Garden in the backyard, with nicely designed gravel paths and bee-friendly plantings.
As it happens, even with permission from the neighbors and the city, introducing bees to our beautiful backyard garden in Hyde Park proved impractical, as our summer travels might preclude proper care. So Bill proposed a deal with the nearby urban farm created by CultivateKC to install his new hives just a few blocks away. They agreed enthusiastically, and volunteered to participate in beekeeping as a team.
May 4, 2019 saw the first two hives of Bill’s Bees arriving at their new home, transported under wraps (we hoped!) in the back of the SUV from a farm sixty miles SW in Kansas countryside.
Here’s how it happened:
Situating the hives at Cultivate KC
Unwrapping the box of bees
Unboxing the new bees
Finding the queen
Placing an entry ramp
Climbing the bee ramp
Almost all inside
Some of the Bee Team
A whole bunch of bees!
As beekeeping goes, the above activities are a mere Introduction. The encroachments of human habitation worldwide, not to mention climate change, have made life difficult for bees, and that’s why bee survival now involves human intervention. Bees have their own precision culture, and cooperation is the key.
I’m proud of Bill for his dedication to the art of beekeeping. Getting educated; applying a myriad of skills from woodworking to team-building; and simply following through on the many challenges to bee happiness are just a few of the amazing talents I admire in him.
As chief cheerleader and occasional recorder, I wear my own Bee Suit with an air of authenticity. I like coming alongside Bill and the bees, with fearless admiration. I hope the bees know what a great friend they have. Perhaps the reward of honey will come along someday.
Please wish the bees and Bill good weather and good luck!
Bill is my third friend (that I know of) to become an apiarist. I applaud you all! You will join the list of those I send bee poems, too. They’re popping up everywhere, and I’m sure I’ll be seeing more from you.
Hive-fives to Bill (and you).
Great photos. Now I know how it happens.
I guess you found the queen.
There’s a queen in each hive. The bees know their own hives by her scent, and also by the color and location of their particular hive boxes. The two hives are about twenty feet apart, and the bees know where to go home.
Thank you so much for the photos and bee info. We have a friend that has bees and we have purchased honey from him. I applaud Bill for his work. Bees need all the help they can get!
This just great! I have never experienced any friends to work with bees until now..Please continue posts about bee-keeping…It is fascinating and I agree with Anita’s post…”Bees ned all th help they can get!”
B. – this is so cool he is doing this. Thanks for sharing!