Family Time - Making bee hive boxes!

On my wish list is a desire to keep bees. My birthday present last year (2009) was two beehives. (I like to get two of things...so one isn't so lonely---And it worked for Noah!) So in October I made my pilgrimage to Blue Sky Bee Supply in Hiram, Ohio. The owner was friendly and knowledgeable. She gave me loads of information, some of which I jotted down and most of which overwhelmed me. Next time I think I'll take a video recorder and play it back when I need it. So now it is January 2010. I have a stack of wood that promises to be two beehive stands.

See I am somewhat intelligent... it's starting to look like a bee hive box. I think the technical term is...super.

"So Mom... what's with all the hammering.... oooo... can I help?" Please note, we are assembling these in my kitchen. It is about 9 degrees outside and our garage isn't heated...so its project time on the kitchen floor!

Dad jumps in and makes one too!

Allison and I finished our Supers first.

So then she says she needs to spin some more... I have three huge boxes of Alpaca fiber that need to disappear! Keep spinning honey.

Next, we assembled the "frames". That's those things hanging in the boxes. This is what the bees hang on to. This is where they make the babies, honey and a new queen if they need one. These frames are empty right now. We will wait for the glue to dry then insert the form. There is a form that looks like honeycomb that gets inserted into each and every frame.

That is all for today. We still have 20 more frames to assemble, the hive boxes to paint (to help it through the weather)and the honeycomb forms to insert into the frames.
Until next time....
Here is a quick photo (taken out of our window) of the wild turkeys that have been visiting us this week. We have about a dozen that check out our bird feeder. I have to buy more corn for them. They were walking away before I could get a decent picture. (The other half were already on the other side of the fence.)