The pictures on this page are the following items:

1) I got my first bee keeping equipment from a neighbor. The hive bodies in the back of my truck show the condition they were when I got them. The hives were in their barn for about 7 years.

2) I got some bees in the mail for one hive. This is called a 3-pound package of bees. There is a queen suspended in the middle of the box. The post office called me at 7:20am to let me know the bees were there for me to pick-up. It was my first time inside the back of a post office before they open ;) My package even had a 'hitch hiker'. This is a wild bee that hangs out on the exterior of the package. It is not an escapee.

3) The hive I put these bees into had a special box on the front to catch Small Hive Beetle. I was told some of the packages from GA, where this one came from, had SHB. The box on the front of the hive was to catch the beetle as it left the hive for part of it's life cycle. (I have not seen any damage in the hive from SHB)

4) I also needed to build some hive bodies. I purchased pre-cut panels from a local distributor. All I did was glue and nail the parts together.

5) I got the other hive's bees-I have 2 so far- as a nuc. This is a hive nucleus. I got 3 frames out of another bee keepers hive. This included the current bees and the larva/eggs/... on the 3 frames. It also came with a new queen. The cardboard box is the nuc box.

6) After having the bees in the hives, I did some inspecting to confirm they are really working and not leaving. One of the frames has a lot of white-capped area. That is capped honey. I leave the larger hive bodies for the bees to work and live. The shallow body is what I hope to use for the honey harvest.

7) We had some honey to harvet. So far, I have taken 8 frames for the hive that started from a Nuc. I jarred up Chunck Honey from them. Chunck Honey is where you have a couple pieces of honey comb mixed with extracted honey. I cut up the comb and put some in the jars. I also crushed some and poured the strained contents in the jar with it. Out of the 8 frames, I filled 7 quarts.