Black Lake Bee Farm - Meet and Greet

We haven't officially named our apiary. Maybe that will happen in the truck on the way to Clearbrook or on the way back on Friday.

In the meantime I thought we'd do a little meet and greet.

Kristine Kolar - Head Bee Keeper 

The operation is her brain child and the apiary is located at her house.

We rely heavily on Kris for two things:

1) Information - from the palm of her hand she can tell you at a glance things like: compass headings, weather patterns, honey recipes and who said what on Facebook

2) To worry enough for all of us.

Kris is also our financial backer and "old bee guy" handler.

 William Edwin Smith - Nuc Engineer

No kidding he's a Nuclear Engineer turned bee handler.

Bill gets to do a lot of the heavy lifting and heavy thinking. He's a selfless individual and seems to be the first to shed a little blood and "take one for the team".

We saw this first hand when tested our electric fence.


Bill is, however, against democracy, and thwarts any movement in the direction of a vote.





Karen-lisa Forbes - Apprentice, Most Likely to Be Stung First

Her personal motto - How bad could it be?- is what landed her a position in the bee world.

Full of bravado and a C'est la vie attitude Karen brings a background in horse farming and not much else to the table.

Karen does not worry or long range plan; she problem solves and is prone to being present somewhere else when she is most needed. 

Karen's biggest desire is to stick her hand into a swarm. "How bad could it be?"

 Dee Sweeney - Support Staff

Dee is married to Bill. They are a package deal.

Dee is boss at painting wax on foundation or any other menial task we give her. She is nothing if not meticulous when it comes to clean up and is the first to ask a question we cannot answer.

Dee is also our spokes model. Video coming soon.

Dave Harrington & Mike Forbes - Skeptic Services

Dave and Mike are the very tolerant and understanding husbands of Kris and Karen.


Mainly in charge of teasing and sarcasm they are occasionally coerced into manual labor. 

While not "into bees" they are into bees and we suspect they are secretly envious of Bill and his ability to attract women using bees as a ploy.

There you have it. The entire staff of The Black Lake Bee Farm. We'll let you know on Friday if the name sticks. Oh, no pun intended.

Peace,
Karen






 

There's No Place Like Comb

Our hives are ready. Three bases attached to three "deeps" sit in the back of Mike's truck waiting for our nucs (more on this later) which we will pic up on Friday.  A deep is one of the boxes that make up a hive. It's a deeper box in which the queen lives and lays eggs all the while attended to by her workers. She lays her eggs into cells  made by the workers. These six sided cells are built from wax on a plastic foundation which we have suspended from frames.

We are "new-bees". Our hives are brand new, meaning they have never had bees living in them. The frames inside are all sparkling clean and well, empty. What this means is this: if we were to dump bees inside they would have to build up comb from scratch and that takes time. Since the life expectancy of a worker bee is only 6 weeks and it takes 21 days to make a new worker bee we were advised to bring in some pre-fab housing for our new bees.

Now, when we go get our bees we are getting what is called a nuc, pronounced nuke, or nuclear hive. A nuc is four or five frames from a working hive including a queen. It is a colony that had been working well for a time and the bees know and are related to their queen. The frames contain honey and pollen and eggs and larva. Additionally, Kris purchased a deep of frames from her "bee-boyfriend" (that's a separate blog altogether) with drawn out comb on it. Meaning, comb that is usable for egg laying immediately or almost immediately.

Each one of our deeps has five of these "previously owned fixer-uppers" inside. Once the nucs are placed alongside these frames the bees will have to go to work cleaning up the after the last tenants; get the place ready for the queen and her new family; set up shop and make the hive own. Maybe even hang the sign, you know, the one that reads"

Bee it ever so humble, there's no place like comb!

Peace,
Karen

Preparing for the Worst

Next Friday we are getting our bees. By getting our bees I mean Kris and Bill and I are going to drive an hour to Clearbrook, MN with our three hives in the topper of Mike's truck and have some guys we don't know put some bees inside. About 30,000 bees to be exact. I'm guessing this is going to be our first chance to get stung. Now getting stung in bee-keeping isn't a case of if but when and that brings me to this: who is going to find out they are allergic first?

That's why I made a phone call to my doctors office today asking for an epi-pen. Nurse Melba asked why I needed one. I said, "Long range planning we are about to become bee-keepers and our bees arrive next Friday."
"Are you allergic?" she asked.
"Well," I said,"I don't want to be between Clearbrook and Bemidji when I find out."
  
Long range planning is not normally my forte'. I believe there are too many variables of "what if" to engage in such nonsense. I'm more of a "think on your feet kinda person" not seeing the sense in wasting time trying to second guess future events. Besides, you will nearly always miss the one thing that actually does happen.  I do, however, believe in luck, both good and bad. If anyone is going to turn up allergic to bees it will be me. That's why there is an epi-pen waiting at Target's Pharmacy.

Now I don't want to go borrowing trouble I just want to be prepared for the worst whether it's me or Kris or Bill or anyone who comes to visit our hive. I'm sure we'll all be fine....but what if?????

Peace,
Karen

Bee Space

 A Bee Space is an informal unit of distance used in beekeeping. 

In a hive, bees seal up an opening smaller than a bee space, 

and they fill a larger opening with new honeycomb. 

If an opening is equal to a bee space, the bees leave it open as a passageway.

It's April. We don't have one single tap in a maple tree. The road to our sugar bush has been sealed off to us by several feet of hard packed snow. No amount of horse power has been able to get us to our trees. It should be a sad state of affairs, yet, tonight in the kitchen we agreed we were going to let this maple season go on by. I'd like to say it's that we are more accepting of the things we can't change. I'd like to say that it's the teachings of Ekhard Tolle, Roshi Bernie Glassman & Jeff Bridges or the Big Lebowski and they may have played a part in it but, for me, it's the bees. I'm about to become a bee-keeper.

Earlier this winter my friend Kris contacted me about a knitting problem. Could I help her figure out a hat that was going wonky on her? She came over, the knitting was sorta solved and then beer was poured. Kris mentioned she was getting bees and setting up bee-keeping in her back yard. I mentioned that bee-keeping was high on my bucket list. And that is how I've come into bee-keeping.

Kris and I are not alone on this little adventure our friend Bill  is our third com padre'. Out on the fringes are the support staff, our spouses: Dave (Kris' husband), Dee (Bill's wife),  and Mike (my husband). What you need to understand is that not one of us has ever done this before. We've been reading a lot of books. We've been talking to all the bee people in and around Bemidji. We've attended a 7:30 am Bee Association  meeting and thankfully have found the King of Bees who has taken us under his wing. Our qualifications are as such: Kris is the brains, Bill is the brawn and I'm the bravado. Our mantra is "How bad can it be?" We're about to find out. Our bees are arriving on May 3rd.

Welcome to A Bee Space!

Peace,
Karen