This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links. When you make a purchase through links on this site, I may earn a small portion as a commission through the Amazon Affiliate Program. These commissions help offset costs associated with blog production and do not affect your purchase – thank you for your support.
Hello again my friends. Being a backyard homestead in a suburban neighborhood, we have expanded almost as much as we can expand, but I’m so excited to tell you about the new addition we made to our homestead! This new adventure is something I’ve been wanting for a while now, and this year we decided it was time to take the plunge. Read on to find out what we dove into this time!
The Prep Work
You might remember reading about last year when my husband and I took a trip to a local farm to learn some homesteading skills. It was there that we were first introduced to the world of beekeeping. Hearing about how the bees do their work was so interesting and I knew right then that I wanted to get bees. Unfortunately, we were past the time when bees were still available to buy, as many places do a presale in January and February for pickup in April and we were already mid-April. We went ahead and purchased a hive with frames, and some beekeeping tools just in case we were able to acquire some, but ultimately, we weren’t able to find any bees and decided we would wait for the following year.
Fast forward to this year. March rolled around and I realized we hadn’t even looked at any bees. It had been winter months, and my mind was on planning my garden and newly hatched chicks, not bees. That evening, I started looking up local bee companies and found out I was too late again. Everywhere around me was sold out. I was so upset that I had forgotten and now we would have to wait another year. In a last ditch effort, I found a local beekeeping page on trusty old Facebook. I made a post asking if anyone knew anywhere that still had bees available for 2025. It took a few days, but I got a response, although it wasn’t the response I was expecting. It was an invitation to a local beekeepers meeting taking place the following night. Since I didn’t have anything to lose, I went for it, and boy am I glad I did!
The Meeting
Withing five minutes of walking into the beekeepers meeting I had met handfuls of people eager to greet me. I had also been given several business cards of beekeepers who offered their assistance at any time in my beekeeping journey, got offers for used beekeeping equipment, and given a lead on a possible place that might still have bees. For the next two hours I learned more about bees than I ever knew. It felt like my head would explode with all the new knowledge I’d acquired. At the end of the meeting, I met one more beekeeper. In talking with him for a few minutes I discovered that he lives in the same town I do, and he offered to let us come over and get some hands-on experience in the hives. He informed me that the beekeepers association had already bought all their packages of bees for the year but gave me his number and said to call him in a week and he would see what he could do. I left the meeting with excitement buzzing inside of me. So many doors and possibilities had just opened up.
The Trial Run
A week went by and I gave the man from the meeting a call. Imagine my delight when he said he was willing to sell us a package of bees the following week! In addition, he invited us to come over the next day to do some hive inspections with him. Of course I jumped at the opportunity, there was only one problem – bee suits. Earlier in the year I had purchased adult size bee suits for my husband and I, but I hadn’t bought any childrens sizes just yet. Beekeeping was something I wanted to do as a family, and kid size suits were a must. Fortunately, I jumped on Amazon and managed to find a couple kid size suit available for overnight delivery, set to be delivered just an hour before heading over to the hives!
Eagerly we loaded up the truck with our bee suits and headed over to Mike’s house. Upon arrival we saw dozens of hives in his back yard, what a spectacular sight! Before suiting up we had some discussion with Mike and his wife about beekeeping, asking questions along the way and receiving so much more information. He graciously offered to walk us through our first year of beekeeping as a mentor. After that we all got on our suits for our first close up look inside a hive.
We watched as he opened up the first hive and started pulling out frames. He explained to us what he was seeing on each frame as he went and had the kids help use the smoker to calm the bees. When we got to the next hive, he said it was my turn to open up the hive. What a cool experience to jump right into using the hive tool to open up the hive and start pulling up frames. He asked me to tell him what I was seeing and observing on each frame. For the next hive, it was my husband’s turn to do the same, and after that each kid got a turn as well. By the end of the day, we had a much better understanding of what to look for when doing a hive inspection. It’s one thing to hear about and read about bees and another thing entirely to get up close and personal and see it with your own eyes. We were able to see some issues different hives were having and see how to remedy them. Because he has so many hives and they are all unique it was a much better learning experience than only looking at one hive. He invited us to come back anytime to do some more inspections with him.
Bee Day
After the experience of getting in the hives and seeing how well the kids did at staying calm, we were committed to getting our own bees. That week we got the beehive set up awaiting pickup of our new family members. Saturday morning arrived and we headed over to Mike’s to pick up our package of bees. While we had contemplated getting a nucleus colony (which is basically a pre-started hive), Mike said we could learn a lot more by getting a package of bees. This meant it was a box of thousands of bees with a tiny little box that had a queen bee in it. This way, we would be able to see the hive build from the beginning and watch the process as it unfolds. He explained to us exactly what to do when we got home and how to get the bees into our hive.
As soon as we got home we suited up and headed out to our hive, box of bees in hand. We hit a few snags along the way, like accidentally losing the queen box inside the box of bees, but with a little quick thinking we were able to adapt and get the job done. After finishing our installation, we felt extremely accomplished, like we had just done something spectacular. In reality, it was the bees that would be doing the spectacular, we’re just here to help them along the way.
How it’s Going
It’s been about three weeks since we installed our bees. In that time we’ve been in the hive a handful of times. Each time we have seen different things and we are still learning as we go. The bees accepted the queen and on our first hive check we saw eggs, and lots of them. A week later, we saw eggs and larvae. On our most recent inspection, we saw eggs, larvae in various stages, capped larvae which should be emerging in the next few days, and lots of pollen and nectar.
It’s been really cool watching the bees. Throughout the day you can find one or all of us standing near the hive watching the bees come and go. Occasionally one will buzz right by your head before landing on the entrance with pollen covering its legs. There’s something really calming about watching the bees. In doing so we’ve been able to get to know their usual routine. So much so that we noticed when there was a shift in their behavior. Three days after we first observed eggs in the hive, we noticed an increase in hive activity. There were a lot more bees buzzing around the hive at any given time. At first I thought something might be wrong, but after a quick google search we found out it was actually a good sign! Bee eggs hatch after three days which leaves a lot of hungry larvae. The increase in activity was due to the eggs hatching and the need for more food. How cool is that?!
The kids have been really great with the bees, and it’s been an amazing learning experience for all of us. They are already doing great at identifying different types of honeybees, identifying eggs and larvae and helping use the tools. They are eager to learn more and are counting down the days until our weekly inspection. In addition, they’ve been helpful in making bee watering stations and helping to plant new pollinator flowers in our garden. It’s fun watching them grow into their new roles as beekeepers.
In the below photos, you can see capped larvae in the first photo, the second photo you can see eggs (they look like tiny grains of rice) and larvae at various phases, the third photo you can see our queen who is marked with a blue dot
What’s Next
Last week, we went to another beekeeper meeting. This time I brought the whole family along because we are all learning so why not learn together. The meetings are once a month and it’s an awesome opportunity to learn and connect with other beekeepers in the area. If you are thinking about becoming a beekeeper or want to learn how you can help the bees, look for a beekeeper’s association in your area. They will be an amazing resource for you and will welcome you with open arms. The kids are already asking when we can go to our next “bee meeting.”
My next post is going to be about ending our homeschool year and how I do end of year reports. It will be really helpful to anyone who is homeschooling for the first time, or who wants to see a different way to do reports and portfolios. Be on the lookout!
