Bee University

Tricia and I have had a colony of bees that live in a hollow fiberglass column that holds up our side porch.  They have been there for years and years, and we've posted about them many times.  We enjoy their residence there as they pollenate our garden and fruit trees.  There is one major thing we're lacking, though.  Honey.  We would like to be able to keep bees in boxes so that we can access the honey.  We will still allow the honeybees to stay in the column.  They like it there.

In order to learn about the art of beekeeping, we joined the Bayou Beekeepers Club.  The club meets the second Thursday of each month.  We've gone to the last two meetings and have learned a lot.  Since there is a resurgence of interest in beekeeping, the officers of the club have decided to have put on a beekeeping school.

The school is put on in four 2 hour sessions with a visit on the last class to a bee yard in which we'll put on equipment and go into hives to find the queen and observe everything that we'll learn in a hands-on environment.  Last night we went to the first class.  We were issued this book:

There were approximately 30 students in attendance from all over our area.  The teacher went through Power Point slides put together by a local university that began teaching about the different subspecies of bees, the bees' lifecycle, the tasks of the drone, worker bee, and queen, the stages in the life of a bee, etc.  The organizers of the school had fresh coffee and cookies - which is a sure sign of a successful meeting, in my book.

Honeybees are so regimented, so organized.  They work as a community - a whole team with tasks.  Bees live a relatively short time - only a little over 30 days.  They literally work themselves to death.

Here are some wild facts we learned about bees:

A queen bee lays about 3,000 eggs per day.
A bee makes 1/8 teaspoon of honey in its life.

Bees keep the inside of their hive at 95 degrees year-round.

Bee boxes should be placed in direct sunshine.

The main thing bees like in our area is Chinese tallow trees.

The stages of a bee: egg, larvae, pupae, adult

We will be continuing the class over the next month and will gather equipment we need and then get two boxes of bees!  We'll keep you posted with this new addition to Our Maker's Acres Family Farm.