Beekeeping - Part II

Your First Year with Bees

“My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste.” – Proverbs 24:13

                In order to get ready for your bees, you must first plan your apiary site. Things to consider are dependable nectar sources (bees travel approximately 12 square miles), fresh water sources, and avoiding areas that flood. When you place your hives, you should situate them so they face the morning sun. This wakes the bees up earlier in the morning and can deter hive beetles who like the darkness. You should also consider how easy it is for you to access your site and how the location might affect your neighbors.

                Purchasing your bees will require research. There are many different varieties of bees (Russian, Italian, Hybrids, etc.). Each variety has its own temperaments and pros/cons. Usually, bees are purchased as a 3 lb. package with a queen. Surprisingly, the reason why the queen is shipped in its own little box is because it is not related to the other bees. She comes with several attendant bees who feed on the queen candy and produce royal jelly for her to eat. This tiny box has an entrance/exit hole plugged with a cork and queen candy. This is sometimes fondant or another hard, sugary substance. Be sure to hang this between two frames with the hole facing skyward so the queen will be able to exit the box even if her attendant bees should die. This separation period allows her pheromones to permeate throughout the hive and for the others to have time to accept her.

                Bees can be purchased in a nuc (a mini-hive with only 3-5 frames) with a queen or in a package that you end up shaking over a regular hive. There are usually 10-12,000 bees in this small package. Queens can also be sold separately. Be sure to order your bees early because they start shipping out in mid-April here in zone 6.

Shipment Package for Bees

Courtesy of PlanterTomato.com

                After setting up the hive and installing your bees, you will need to set up a feeder until they find sources of food on their own. This can be as simple as an inverted mason jar filled with syrup (one part table sugar to one part water). Poke a few tiny holes in the lid so the syrup can dribble out. Be sure to check on this often as they can drain a quart a day sometimes. You will know when you can stop feeding because they will quit draining the jar.

Homemade bee feeder

Courtesy of GardenPlotter.com

A healthy queen will start laying within 24 hours. After 10 days, you should start to see capped brood cells. By 3 weeks time, you will see developed worker bees emerging from the brood frames. When examining your frames, remove the second frame from the outside and work in. This keeps you from smashing your bees that are hanging on the outside frame. Be sure to put them back in the same order and the same orientation.

First Real Woodworking Post, Insufficient…

I've felt conflicted this month. I've wanted to post some more about how complacent Christians are with witchcraft and magic, but have been to distracted lately with some life-changes that are happening with Elizabeth and me. So the only other thing that enters my mind at these times-other than prayer-is woodworking.

I'm not an expert or even an amateur by any measure but I know its in my blood and I can't ignore it regardless of how much I try. My greatest obstacle to becoming a better and to be honest "marginally relevant" woodworker is truck driving. When I'm done driving I will live in my shop 24/7. As things are now I've currently cached a workable staff of various tools and sharpening equipment.

On most weekends I am now either forced to skip a trip to my shop or if I am fortunate I am able to weasel in three or four quick passing hours. It goes too quickly. Most times it's doing small stuff like making a sidebead moulding on some poor piece of "furniture grade" oak that wouldn't pass even the most desperate furniture makers test or I could be doing something as simple as I did last weekend. I sharpened a chisel.

I'll say it again. All I did was sharpen a chisel. But as any beginning woodworker will proudly tell you, this is a very transformative time. When a man can go from simply using an edge tool to also being able to maintain and sharpen it-it is an enormous rush of potential. Anyone that has attempted to sharpen in the past may have experienced what I call the "false sharp". This is when you believe that you have sharpened your tool and begin to use it and the edge life only lasts a matter of short minutes if even that long. When you graduate from that to being able to use your freshly sharpened tool for over twenty minutes that is an ego boost like non-other. It's almost as exciting as the first time you thicknessed a board solely with hand tools. It's a talent and a skill that is an honor to own and maintain.

You may be wondering why I'm not spending my time with my pals in Eureka learning to make handplanes. Well the simple answer is that they really have taught me what they can without me really getting experience on my own. I've seen and learned alot from them. Now it's time for me to sink or swim. Albeit I have to wait till I am done driving truck. It's a tough situation to be in. But I know with certainty that the clock is ticking.

I'll try my best to take some photos of my limited tool collection. I'm sure you guys would like that. It might answer some questions or perhaps create more.

I really appreciate my teachers. I owe them alot. I wouldn't be where I am now or have had the experiences I've had, had it not been for them.



With regards to sharpening, I will concede that I do still have alot to learn about various stones and which orders to best use them in. Convex and concave edges also present a new trick when solely using stones and not electric systems.

To make it simple on yourself just use a medium or corse India stone, and a fine Arkansas with a DMT diamond stone to flatten with. Initially it may seem expensive but you will have these pieces in your sharpening arsenal for ages.

At this point I have two things going against my sharpening escapades, #1 inadequate lighting in my  shop and #2 I'd like some sticks that have a 25 degree bevel on one end and 5 degrees more on the other. This is fine and typical for most irons and chisels. But feel free to experiment once you have experience. FYI I'm not there yet- Yet. The only caveat to offer really is that the steeper either of the angles or both angles are, the shorter the edge-life.

I wish you well with your sharpening escapades, Lord Bless You