Yep! You guessed it! We have some bees!

Well, they’re not quite our bees but we will be getting some soon. A friend of mine, Peter, keeps bees and also gives training courses on bee-keeping. We were chatting a while ago and I said I was interested in getting a beehive and had been for a while and would like some advice. Peter was more than happy to help and asked if I wanted to babysit some hives over winter to see if I was comfortable having them around. “Great”, I said, “I’d be more than happy to do that”.

So we agreed that he would bring some hives down from the country as they are struggling with lack of food where they are and he would come over and show me the basics. In a month or so he would help me get all the gear together to either make or buy a hive of my own and get a colony started.

It’s going to be so awesome as I have wanted to do this for a long time. I quickly cleared a space protected from the southerly winds and warmed by the morning sun. I tell you what, those railway sleepers I had to move seemed to be a lot heavier than when I moved them last time.

Anyway, the bee’s arrived last night and the hives were set up and then opened in the dark so the bees wouldn’t get agitated. After a few minutes we could see the bees in the moonlight, milling around the entrances.

Today, I checked, from a respectable distance and I could hear the buzzing and see the bees acclimatising to their new surroundings. At first it didn’t seem like they were wandering too far but, as I took these photos, one collided into the back of my head and when I looked around they were flying all around me going to and from the hives, collecting pollen and nectar. A bit later, I noticed they were in amongst the broad beans, the bottle-brush and the other flowers in the garden, Excellent!

I’m really excited about finally getting some bees and can’t wait to set up my own hives.

This is going to BEE really good! (sorry, but I had to put at least one really bad pun in the post)