Final Post 2011 - What is Happening Now? What have I learned?

Wow.  What an amazing year.  How much I truly learned about bees this year.  An overload of information centering around bees I have attempted to intake and process this year.  Wow.  Too much to sum up really.

In short, I have decided to switch to organic beekeeping.  Being defined by me as doing as much as possible to be organic as possible.  It will be difficult to control my surround food sources of organic food for my bees, but I will not put any chemicals into or around my beehive as far as I see fit.  I will attempt a more natural beehive next year which entails many details about the honeycomb and other things that I will do differently.

My beehive is doing fine.  My fathers beehive was attacked in August by robber bees and was desolated to say the least.  Nevertheless, I will enter the upcoming winter season with most everything in my favor towards the bees.

I am currently undergoing research on bee sting therapy, starting with yours truly me :)  Being my own test patient is not ideal and therefore I am actually searching for other people w/ arthritis to do research on. I myself am testing bee sting therapy on pain in/around bones and back soreness.

It has been a great season in my life learning about bees, I have drawn closer to nature and closer to God.  I can't help but believe the bees played a huge role in this.  I am thankful for bees and for my family interest in bees.  I hope to have some wonderful honey for sale and sharing next spring 2012.

God Bless,

Benjamin

The Good Old Times

My good friend Marcus came all the way from to Los Angeles, California just to see my bees!  Ok, thats not really true.  But he was able to visit the bees and see the vision that I shared for so very long!  In fact, a few moons ago Marcus made the original long journey with me outside Los Angeles to a little farm town where a little oasis exists we call "the honey store."  (Actually known as Bennett's Honey Farm - one of my favorite places on planet Earth - check it out for yourself as I still order Honey, Pollen, & Royal Jelly from here   http://bennetthoney.com/default.aspx )  This place is like Honey Heaven.  Back to the story, on our way back from "the honey store" we found a local produce shop were we stopped and stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies.  We made this a tradition traveling to buy honey and fresh produce from local farmers.  Somewhere along those Ventura County roads outside the city I began to dream of having my own local organic raw honey.  A few moons later, I got my own beehive and looking forward to harvesting fresh Arkansas Raw honey.  

Ok, Marcus - how much do you love my bees?

Another Classic Pic 

Fruit... Part 1

Dashing words, long debates, small food fights, numerous talks, Ambiguity, local favorites, words like "well it depends on the season", blah blah blah.  Enough talking.  Make up your mind and speak your mind!

Ladies and gentlemen, without further a due (blah blah), I give you my top favorite fruits.

1.  Kiwi  (any, anytime, anywhere)
2.  Cold Orange (California or Flordia, never had a real blood orange though...)
3.  Cold Juicy Watermelon  (ughhh, duh, Arkansas!)
4.  Sweet Golden Pineapple  (Big fan of Coasta Rica although Im growing my own so...)
5.  Strawberry ( Its a family thing really, I like any strawberry, especially California grown)

Honorable mention #1  Pomegranate.  Why? God talks about it.  Plus, its totally amazing.  If I could have pomegranate prepared for me all the time it easily takes #5 or #4 even; however, its such a hassle to prepare pomegranate!
Honorable mention #2  Organic Washington Red Delicious Apple.  Organic Apples! hmmm
Honorable mention #3  Figs.  That is so fig.  Figs are amazing.  Period.  In a game of Desert Island (stranded for life) this would probably #1 overall.  Why?  Simple. Amazing. Healthy.  And you can just pick it of the tree and eat it.
Honorable mention  #4  Apricot.  Amazing
Honorable mention #5  Peach.  So good, especially n now when they in season!  Wow.  Big fan of the white peach
Honorable mention #6  Grapes.  Who can forgot about grapes?  Prefer red, or actually those purplish California grapes is what I am into right now.
Honorable mention #7  Blackberries.  Plump blackberries.  No need to say anything more.
P.S.  I heart all berries, love pears!, oh, and cherries - well they are my WILDCARD because they are always good!

Bee Tourist

Hello to all my friends out there!  I don't know where u are in the world right now, but it might be hotter in Southern Arkansas than the equator!  Whew!  It is just peachy out there - speaking of which the peaches are in season and amazing all across the South.

This past Sunday Ben's Bees had the pleasure of giving a good friend a tour of the show.  Like any visitor we first had to properly equip our guest in the finest veils around town, nope these are not your typical wedding veils we wear around here - these are kiss proof ( aka sting proof as well haha).
From our visit of the bees we learned they are really making some headway filling up their home with lots of honeycomb filled with honey to my delight!

^ now if u look really closely you can see a top layer of white on the top of the frame. Those honey cells are called capped - white capped means they are full of honey and they have capped them off to seal them.

Bee Pollen? I think so...

Disclaimer:  You need to decide for yourself if u want to take bee pollen... if u do I can surely put you in touch where to order it from.  Some people are allergic but rare, you will know if u start sneezing.  This is just my opinion.  However, its my opinion on something that comes from flowers in nature... Think about it...eghhhh its a flower its gonna get me - lol - no, its beautiful and amazing!
Bee Pollen.  Love it.  Lick it. Eat it.  Thats how I roll.  Do you eat bee pollen?  I have read in a non-sourced pamphlet ( I guess look it up for yourself but I believe it) that pollens contains these vitamins and minerals:  calcium phosphorous, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, potassium, Vitamin a, b1, b2, b5, b6, b12, folic acid, C, E, biotin, plus many more...  Simply put its undeniably a super-food with numerous health benefits.  There is some narley research out there that is mind boggling.  Many scientific studies have been done on pollen, not once have I read anything bad.  I myself have been taking bee pollen for at least one year now maybe more.  I love it.  I can tell you some stories about bee pollen.  I have seen someone crying/sneezing/red eyes allergies perk up in less 2min after ingesting bee pollen!  Yeah the taste is somewhat rough, not worse than meat loaf though...  And after about a month of pollen it starts to taste like candy.  Keep in mind I have studied this through trial and error and read many many studies and research.  The health benefits are fantastic - bottom line.  This one study blew the roof off of anything I have ever heard though.
Check it - THESE MICE WERE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO DEVELOP CANCER AND DIE.  THAT WAS THERE PURPOSE MIND YOU.  (animals lovers simply add the word theoretically in front of capitalization - thanks) WOW.
More importantly though the link to an awesome bee pollen informative website is at the bottom.

"There is a wealth of information available on the amazing medical results that have been achieved through the use of bee pollen. Bee pollen is proven to be very effective in building a strong immune system and reversing a large number of ailments in humans.

It is not practical to list here the many clinical trials that have been done on bee pollen and in particular those relating to cancer. However, we will relate a particularly interesting study that the US Dept of Agriculture carried out. Most of the other trials were in Europe.

This particular study was published in the:

• 'Journal of the National Cancer Institute' over 50 years ago in 1948. The article is entitled 'Delay in the Appearance of Palpable Mammary Tumors in C3H Mice Following the ingestion of Pollenized Food'.
• The author was William Robinson of the US Bureau of Entomology, Agricultural Research Administration.

This article relates to the results of a trial in which a strain of mice was bred specifically to develop cancer tumors and subsequently die from them. The tumors would appear in the mice when they were between 18 - 57 weeks and they would die shortly after. The pollen used in the study "was the bee gathered type". One group of mice was fed mice chow only, whilst the other group was fed mice chow with the addition of bee pollen at a ratio of 1 part bee pollen to 10,000 parts food.

In his summary, Dr Robinson reveals the incredible results:

• "In the mice not given bee pollen, mammary tumors appeared at an average of 31.3 weeks. Tumor incidence was 100% and they all died".
• "The average onset of tumors of the mice given bee pollen was 41.1 weeks... around 30% later in time".
• "Seven mice in the bee pollen group had still not developed a tumor at 62 weeks of age when the tests were terminated".

Dr Robinson concluded that bee pollen contains an anti carcinogenic principle that could be added to food.

This is only one of many studies, which have been carried out using bee pollen on cancer. Some less well documented ones are even more spectacular. Unfortunately because natural products cannot be patented and as such big profits cannot be made these amazing results get very little publicity and regrettably will never become 'mainstream'."

7/14/11

(http://www.bee-pollen-health.com/health-benefits-bee-pollen.php)

Check out the site for yourself...and explore the site!

http://www.bee-pollen-health.com/index.php

Nirvana

I saw a bee the other day on my Echinacea (Pink Cone Flower) whatever you people call it.  I touched it, yes, it was dead.  I immediately thought to myself - what a way to go.  Just resting on one of the most beautiful flowers on Earth.  This bee had died a beautiful death - and was just basking in the sunlight pink petal of nirvana.  I was for a brief mili-second jealous of this bee.  How could I ever die like this?  Next to something I passionately need and love completing it as it completes me.  Bees are just wonderful.

Video/No Fear

Two of my favorite aunts came to town recently.  One of them showing no fear getting very close to some bees.  Just look how close she is to all those bees - in short sleeves.  She is surely courageous.  I didn't tell her but she was in the danger zone alright.  One slip holding that frame and there might have been some serious stings!  Good news though, nobody got stung... this time.  
In other recent news, I have been on vacation.  Wow!  I had a great time.  I encourage everyone to take a vacation and just get out of town even if its just for a day or two.

Hidden Treasures

We have flowers at our house.  I mean not just a couple of marigolds; No, we have flowers of all kinds and all colors in all seasons.  We have beautiful flowers.  Flowers that just amaze me when I look at them.  Yet, rarely do I find bees on our flowers.  I do see them, I do, but not as much as you would think.  I mean we have so many beautiful flowers that are so close to the bees.
One day I was walking through our yard and all of the sudden I heard the sound.  Alarms went off in my head, oh yeah, I know that sound.  That's the sound of a bee swarm - Quick, Where are they?  Are they coming for me again?  I looked up and I mean holy Mackerel there were what seemed like 1000s of bees in these trees.  But these trees did not have any flowers - or did they?  I was confused but I got out of there because there were a ton of bees around.  Later, I plucked the flower to inspect what could possible draw so many bees.  It didn't look attractive, cool, or even remotely beautiful.  Yet, the bees found it magnificent and far superior to anything else we have.  How could this bee?  What makes the bees choose this flower out of all the flowers?  Why?  Why is it so special?  Go ahead and take a look for yourself - we have pink cone flower, cannons, hibiscus, marigolds, geraniums, and many more.

I bet you didn't even notice the little green one in the middle.

That's the one they love.

I suppose this supports the old saying, It's not what is on the outside but what's on the inside.  Also, remember to take time to notice the little hidden treasures of life that we so carelessly glance over not knowing the power and beauty it beholds.

Epic Newsflash!

It is my great pleasure to inform you all that Ben's Beehive is thriving and will be expanding into a 2 story( us beekeepers call it a 2 deep) house.  That's right folks, I need more room as Queen Ortensia has surely been a busy bee producing tons(literally) of new bees!  Pictures to come.

For now there is a lot of buzz around the family so to say - we have added some beekeepers.  My brother now has a beehive(with bees in it - in fact we opened it up and found the Queen).  Soon you will call us the "honey brothers."  LOL

Also, my father has got the bug too and purchased a beehive(with no bees in it).  His plan is to have me suit up in my beesuit, blindside a natural beehive, and then procede to put the bees in his hive.  Needless to stay this will be an epic story.

Bee Pix

No stingers in my face today :)

The first picture you will see my bees outside the beehive just huddled up because its cooler outside than inside.  It has been really hot here in Arkansas lately.  

The second pictures shows a top view and you can see the I have a full hive of bees.  I am not exactly sure how many I have but I have a few tons of bees for sure. 

***Expansion is on the horizon***

Untitled

Sometimes in life you get stung, and it hurts. And you would have never got stung had you not have been going for something great!  In my case it was - honey. I love honey.  And I did not get my honey...yet.  But it will be worth it when I get my honey. It will be sweet, and be everlasting...

----some moral fiber for you to chew on...

Peace

Ouch! Right in the Face!

A routine sugar-water swap got a little out of hand late Thursday night.
My bees became very flustered and I probably should have just walked away, when out of no where comes a bee ( who by the way got a huge flying start) and rams me ( piemmm) right in the face.  This guy landed a direct hit.  I had never been stung by a bee before.  And it probably would not have been so bad except a few things went wrong.

1) I could barely find the stinger to pull it out because it was in my beard.
2) This bee stung me like 2-3 freckles away from my lip.  See pictures below

Visitors From A Far

A good friend mine comes to visit Ben's Bees,

He wanted to see the Queen,

Instead, he received some honey-cinnamon teas,

His name is not Charlie Sheen.

This bee is on a beautiful white flower,

Did you hear they were gonna rebuild the twin towers?

I sometimes wonder how it feels to fly,

I  sometimes wonder if I will when I die.

Bee Video

Emergency Entry!

URGENT.  EMERGENCY.

These two words ran through my head late Sunday night.  Sunday afternoon I noticed that my bees were very, very flustered.  I mean they were in a ruckus.  They were blocking the entry, flying and buzzing and swarming around the hive for no apparent reason.  I thought is this the attack of intruders - a wasp, another colony perhaps - is this a war going on.  Is my Queen mating?  Do they need more room to enter/exit?  I didn't know.  Finally, they calmed down.  Then, I noticed that I had more ants lining up and around my beehive appearing to enter from the top.  OH NO!  MORE ANTS!  What if they are eating all my honey inside?  That's all I could think about.  They better not be eating my honey, hmmm, I bet they are.  Quick, we must get rid of them.  I quickly researched online to find out.  Turns out -  ants are in fact a big predator of bees.  They can eat the honey and even eat the young bee larva.  Solutions:  peppermint or spearmints leaves on top of frames and cinnamon around the hive.  My friend had also just told me the ants hate cinnamon.  I quickly searched for a big cheap bottle of cinnamon.  No such luck.  Great now I have to use my cinnamon from Saigon that I bought in California that I know I will never find in Arkansas - just dandy!  Fine, when it comes to my bees I spare nothing.  Luckily for me, my mom happened to have some spearmint on the front porch - CLUTCH.  Grabbed it, suited up, and went in for an EMERGENCY hive opening.  Upon the emergency opening of the hive, I was RELIEVED AND GLAD to see that there was not a trail of ants lining into the beehive stealing honey or eating my baby bees.  In fact, almost no ants were inside.  I took the this time to examine almost every frame.  It appears as my bee larva has hatched, and I could not find any currant bee larva uncovered which I was surprised at.  But I did find lots and lots of honey.  I place the spearmint leaves on top as planned just in case, as well as poured my precious cinnamon around the hive.
BONUS SIGHTING:   QUEEN ORTENSIA WAS ROAMING AROUND... My little Queen :)
What an awesome sight to see,  She looked healthy and happy. 

Patience...Waiting

Patience. Strong word, strong secret powers. I really felt like God taught me a life lesson the other day and I want to share it with everyone. I was sawing down some tree limbs, I was sawing upwards. Very hard to do. I mean I have sawed down trees with chainsaws, hand-saws, and even axed trees before. But nothing compares to how difficult it is to saw upward with an extended polesaw! Anyways, I was struggling, struggling to saw this limb. It would not fall. I made up my mind I was goinh to saw 50 strokes. I crashed on stroke 40. I mean I could not saw another stroke for the life of me. I rested for about 2 minutes there on the ladder and while resting, suddenly, crack- that limb fell down. I was shocked. Then, I got this message. Sometimes in life the work has already been down- it just becomes a patient waiting period for the right time- God's time. So don't get burnt out on something in life, learn to wait if you feel as if the work is done. Remember, it's ok if the work is done. Have peace in that.
Peace... :)

A work in Progress...

Poll results in, the people say I that being stung is as imminent.  Great.  Thanks for you opinion.  LOL!
The beehive is going good.  The bees are great.  I will be entering the hive soon to do some research, primarily focusing on the cleanliness of the hive as well as looking for any signs of diseases.  I believe and hope my hive to be a healthy one.  Like anything you care about in life, beehives require attention and care.  Why just the other day numerous ants were invading my beehive, mostly attempting to lick whatever sugar water drops they could find.  I spent a lot of time just killing them one by one as my beehive will not be home to two different insects if I can help it.  Also, my father and I built an entrance gate to the beehive area.  This gate makes it easy to walk in and out and keeps out the dogs, raccoons, and opossums and such.  Beekeeping require work!  Hope to get some new videos of the bees up soon!

Pretty cool huh?
Well, my current project is clearing some tree limbs around the beehive area to increase sunlight into the area both for the bees, but also in order to grow things.
Hope to get some new videos of the bees up soon!

What's For Dinner?

Bee Larva!!!! YEAHHHHHHHH.  Bee Larva!!!! YEAHHHHHHHH... - old school crank yankers joke... come'on somebody out there gets it... Yeahhhhhhhhhh.  Ok just me, thats fine.

And just kind of kidding about bee larva for supper, although, in some countries to do.  Yeah, they do.  They fry it like stir fry and eat it up.  They make excellent health claims about eating bee larva ( baby bees not devolped, similiar to caviar if you will), claiming its low in fat and high in protein.  Well, unfortunely that will be one bee product I will not be putting into to my body.  I need my baby bees to grow up and make me some honey!  I really wanted to post some links or pictures of this dish... lol... but I thought I would be nice and not do that to ya'll.  Google eating bee larva for all those curious who want to be like the cat.  Oh, how about this disneynature movie out now called African Cats - I want to see it!  Looks good. 

Why are we talking about bee larva???  YES, there is purpose.  Today's goal was to open the beehive (safely, implied) and search for bee larva ensuring that Queen Ortensia is laying eggs.  Now, serveral things have to happen before this can be, new baby bees that is.  Honeycomb must be built in order for the Queen Ortensia to lay the egg in the cells, Queen Ortensia must have mated with the drones in order to produce these eggs, and nature's process must naturally occur encompassing many aspects.  My family was in town for this exciting event making it all the more special.  My father, my main man Max (my nephew), and myself suited up for the event.  Others watched from outside the fence with holes in it...As if that would protect them in an all out attack of 10,000!  We opened up the hive, pulled out one frame.  Nobody can see anything, just chambers of honeycomb sealed - but what is in that?   Honey? Eggs? Of course, the side with stuff on it is facing my father and nothing on my side.  It's very difficult to turn  and view.  I put that frame back, grab another.  Again, the side with stuff on it is facing my father's side, just bees on my side of the frame I am looking at.  Nobody see's anything.  I now am a little nervous.  And I now realize that having my father looking for this bee larva may have not had been the best idea since he cannot see that well and we are looking for tiny eggs/larva.  At the last second, my sister chimes in with "Ben, put that in the other way."  I did forget, the frames go in a certain way and need to be put back in that way.  How she saw and knew that from a far I am not sure? - but I was thankful.  I grabbed a third frame.  This time there was stuff on my side, and bingo, I saw bee larva.  It was abundent and obvious.  YEAHHHHHH, we got bee larva.  I started to show my family when shouts of "there's the Queen" came flying in.  I didn't see her, and believe it was just a drone ( a bigger bee).  Today's mission was complete and boy was it crucial.  This, as far as I know, ensures I have a fully functioning healthy beehive and will soon have new bees.  I can't wait.  Possible video to follow........ STAY TUNED.   

BEE PIX's

This Queen comes in this cage, really neat.  You have to uncork the end with candy blocking it, insert into bee hive and then she eats from one side while the other bees eat from the outside in, whats that old song, "We meet in the middle..."  haha.  Once the candy is clear she can escape.  Good stuff.

Let me tell ya bout today.  Today's Goals:  Extract Queen cage to examine to insure that Queen Ortensia has escaped(if not have plan to encourage Queen to get out), Remove original bee box from hive and insert other frames in place.  In addition, put inner cover the bee hive.  Sounds easy right.  Well first we smoked the bees a little bit, opened the bee hive and grabbed the Queen frame out.  I was just simply holding the frame looking at it, when the weight of the comb and bees flopped out of position downward.  Round about the same time I noticed the Queen's candy appeared to still be not eaten completely.  Just great.  Now I got a situation... A few aggravated bees buzzing around didn't help.  I decided, to focus on the Queen cage.  I put the now bent frame back into hive and pulled the box out at same time.  Put cover back on and throughly examined the Queen's cage.  There were tons of bees on this cage I couldn't see anything and we had misplaced our bee brush we use to brush them off.  Finally, a breakthrough, I could see the candy was not eaten through entirely, but a path had been eaten and cleared.  Yes, my Queen had escaped into the hive.  Perfect, what a relief.  I was starting to think irrationally at the time so this was good news.  Now what to we do with bent frame?  I wanted to leave it and get out of there.  The main goals had been accomplished.  Dad pointed out what if that Queen works that frame first is on the frame?    Hmmm, yeah we should fix it now... So we did, not exactly easy to fix something when roughly 1000 little six-legged insects are crawling on it, thats 6000 legs, 2000 wings, and 1000 stingers you have to watch out for.  We were able to repair the frame the best we could.  We put the remaining frames in along with the repaired frame some comb on it already :) back into the hive.  Put the inner board(custom built by the way!) in the hive and walked away.  Mind you the mood of this procedure was tense, and there was an elevated level of concern at one point.  When the weight of the frame pulled it out, it was a strong jerk on those bees, they were cool though - but that could have been a bad situation.  I learned today, the you always hold frames vertically until you know for a fact the are complete and solid and eligible to be held horizontally.  Next check up for the bees will be in 2 weeks.  Will be observing if Queen Ortensia has been laying eggs.

Queen Ortensia Takes Her Throne

At 6:00 am this Monday Morning, I received a phone call from my local post office.  "Ben Temple this is Donna and I just wanted to tell you that your bees are in and..." before she could finish I said half still asleep I will be right there.  Now last week I stuck a deal with mom in which I agreed I would have a "real" beesuit instead of my homemade version I wanted to do.  I had to rush order it to get here in time last week, except it did not come last week or Saturday like it was supposed too.  It was also going to rain this morning, it's not advised to put bees in hive while it rains.  Not too mention I had ordered a smoker w/ my beesuit and I needed that to smoke out the ants that had invaded my bottom board of my beehive ( I got most of the ants out with honey, ahhh the irony :) - thats a different story for different day ).  Needless to say, I had a couple of problems on my hands this morning and I thought the bees would come on tuesday or wednesday.  I had to get my bees though, as I was driving into town praying to God to bless my bees amongst other things, I was HAPPY.  I haven't been this excited about something in a long time.  The preparation, the research, the hard labor, so much as went into this day, this moment that was coming, the moment of holding these bees.  I remember when I was still in California, I vividly remember ordering these bees.  A myriad of thoughts ran through my brain...
I got to the Post Office.  I knocked, hollered, and peeked through the crack.  No one was there.  Knocked again.  I remained calm, I know they would come.  I finally saw them and knocked and shouted again.  They said, "just a minute."  It seemed as forever...patiently I waited.  The lady goes, "oh, and this box came to for you so I grabbed it for you."  Perfect, that's my beesuit!  Then she gave me the bees.  Of course, as all men do I tried to carry both boxes at once to the car still in my flip-flops still waking up.  I thought to myself as I braced the bee box up to my chin walking to my car, this would not bee good if I dropped this box.  Made it home, sprayed some of the bees with sugar water as many had died on the journey.  Put them in storage while it rained.
I was very unprepared for the main deal.  The main deal is I have to stick my hand in the bee box pull out the queen box, release the cork(ever so carefully), put the queen into bee hive safely, dump the rest of bees into box, shut the door.  Sounds simple, it's not.  First of all, my beesuit barely fits, but it fits.  It's difficult to see with the veil on.  Luckily for me, my father had all the odds and ins all ready to go.  The corkscrew to pull the cork, the sprayer to spray bees, the sugar water already made, pliers to pull can out with, rubber band to hold queen cage in place, and he even built an entrance reducer.  So we got ready to put 10,000 bees ( now about 300-500 less) and one Italian Queen into their future home.
We opened the lid not knowing what to expect, dad said, just rip it open as it would be sealed by the can - which I think is normally actually correct.  However, I opened it slowly and took a peep and sure enough one bee popped out and started crawling around.  Named him Charlie.  Nevertheless, we had a situation on our hands.  What had went wrong here?  Why were the bees able to get out?  And if I opened this lid all the way were all my bees going to fly out?  I had no choice.  I had to get the Queen.  I opened it and the feeder can was still in place along with the Queen cage.  Only about 100 bees were roaming around.  No big deal, Whew!  Ok, so next I pulled to Queen cage out did not drop it bonus points for me!  Checked her out and officially named her Queen Ortensia upon first site.  You may remember the poll I had up earlier, Ortensia is Italian for "the garden lover".  I like this name, and apparently so do some other people and I intended on making a garden area down around the BeeMax area.  Now, when we pulled her out many bees did escape and we had to cover that up pretty quickly.  I wish I could have taken a close up picture, Queen Ortensia is very pale, reddish in tint, but more like clear reddish/brown.  She looks very different than the other bees.  I gave her to my father to look at and before you know it my father had rubber banded her to the frame and stuck her in.  I asked to have Queen Ortensia back in order to remove the cork (the main thing you have to do) in order for her to get out at a later time.  We then put her back into the hive attached to a frame.  Next, took off the piece of wood blocking hole and pulled out the feeder jar and dumped the bees one or two times into beehive.  As instructed before, the bees did not like that and they got a little fussy.  Then, set the box in the beehive so rest of bees will be able to fly out into their new home!  I will come back in a day or two to remove this box and replace with the rest of the frames.  For now, the bees seem to be liking and adjusting to their new home just fine.

I will post pictures later this week of event and maybe even some video.

All in all, it went pretty well.  Glory be to God for always providing everything we need at the right time.  

Another Beemaster Meeting

Proverbs 19:20  Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.  - God, aka The Bible
Proverbs 13:10  Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those that take advice.
- God, aka The Bible

One day earlier this week I was extremely blessed to get another chance to meet with a wise old beekeeper.  This guy's grandfather was a beekeeper and he worked with a commercial outfit that operated around 1000 beehives, I just have 1 - LOL  This guy was amazing, he answered all my many questions and gave sound advice.  I tried to listen in and understand everything he was saying.  One of the most interesting things he said was that once you decide on your beehive location, leave it there and don't move it.  Even if you move it 3 feet over it will confuse the bees as apparently they have this totally righteous built in GPS compass in their tiny little brain.  Nevertheless, he was extremely helpful answering many questions that I had.  Overall, he said I have a pretty good set up and everything should go just fine for me.  Between this Beemaster and the other Beemaster there is a combined total of around 1200 beehives mastered experience.  I think its safe to say that I might be the most advanced beginner beekeeper there can be!  
CURRENT UPDATE:
Tick-Tock, the bees come in like 4-5 days.  Enlight of not being able to convince my mother that my home-made bee suit was sufficient, I now had to rush(and pay for that rush order) an order of a completed bee suit to pass my mother's inspection.  Which I still don't have by the way.  I went by the post office to tell them that I would be receiving bees (very surprisingly that conversation went wonderful, actually perfect) and to call me as soon as they receive them.  They should be here this monday or tuesday, wednesday at the latest.  Dad and I exactly don't have the beehive completely fixed yet.  We have done some vast improvements though!  I actually did a DUMB thing and sanded everything a little too much or rather in areas I should not have.  Thus, some ends are like wavy and not flush like they should be which is not good.  So, we are dealing with that, among other improvements that are going ok but not complete. 
STAY TUNED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORE UPDATES COMING & THE BEES :)

BeeMax

Thank you all for voting on the Queen name, the Queen's name will be released on Opening Day...that's a baseball joke :)

Current Update:  Working on getting last couple of bee suit items, Working on getting last couple of pieces to beehive, Built/Building frames(what the bees use to make honeycomb on) for beehive, Working on restoring, painting, and add-ons for beehive, Planted/Planting Bee Food, Building Foundation for beehive and walkway.

BeeMax is the name my nephew and I choose for the area we worked on that will contain the bees.  The name is perfect:  it contains the word "bee", contains two letters of my name "Be" from Ben, and Max is my nephew's nickname.  I love it.  It's a Triple Play...just not gonna quit am I = LOL.  {Side note - to all those Los Angeles readers and unto all really, it saddens my heart to hear about the recent violence at Dodger Stadium,  and I just want to say I learned along time ago that it is important to have good sportsmanship on the field, but equally important is having good sportsmanship as a fan.}  Back to BeeMax, my nephew and I worked tirelessly to get a bunch of work done with limited time.  Just to give you idea of what we did, here are the tools we used:  Rake, Leaf Rake, Garden Hoe(Spade ended), Long Shovel, Regular Shovel, Clippers/Sheers, Pronged Hoe, Axe, Hedge Clippers(electric power), Lawn mower(gas power).  And here is what we did.

Sticks, Trees, & Vines...Oh these Vines!

                            
 <<<Max working Hard>>>

 Stump ville...What an ordeal these trees were!!!  Seriously, I had to hand saw ALL of these because I was unable to fix my chainsaw...As you can see> there is always that one in life that stubborn.  No, actually it was just polar.  I had to dig deep, axe it, and then just cover it.  There was no way to pull it out(with my tools at least), and no telling how deep it goes.

<After clearing all the trees
After clearing most everything>










Good Job!

Buzzupdate!!!

Since the last time we talked a have a little more peace than stress.  It has not been easy though.  Hard work almost everyday this past week has produced some good results.  Another update is soon on the way with pictures of the hard work along with some stories.  On the goodside I recieved confirmation that most of the bee suit equiptment has been shipped.  Now, I ordered a khaki helmet because it was what I wanted, but they were out and I had to settle for a white one.  This was a big deal to me, however, I got a few more bigger problems to deal with rather than the color of helmet, and the time is ticking a little bit faster now, a little bit faster now... HA!

On the not so cool side, I would now like to share a little beehive story of the day.
I was on my way to go sand the inside of my old beehive to kind of give it a new start, a new look.  My plan is to sand the entire thing, repaint it and repair it as needed.  In addition, I am going to build a landing deck for my bees to take off and land on.  Its' gonna be awesome.  So, I got everything set up to sand this hive that has been sitting outside for about a 10 days now.  I was thinking to myself how cool it would be if I had an organic beehive in their already by random chance.  Like some bees that found the cool shaded area and started a home.  I was just thinking that in my head to bee funny.  Well, I opened it up with some caution just in case their was something in there but I knew their wouldn't bee.  Except, there was.  There a nest of RED WASPS.  I bolted.  I am not scared of bees at all, but these red wasps have been buzzing around the house chasing me all week.  I am not scared of getting bit, I don't know what it is about these red wasps that bug me, but I do not like them.  But I am defintely faster than them.  I bolted around the house dodging and darting these wasps to safety inside my house.  Just peachy, I am thinking.  I am trying to have honey bees and I get red wasps.  Dad got the nest out, and this one wasp kept coming back haunting me the entire I was sanding.  Didn't get bit, but didn't get much sanding done either.  Looks like will have sand another day.  Always exciting stuff here on Ben's Bee Blog.  Stay tuned, I have feeling I am just warming up...

Meeting w/ The BeeMaster

VOTE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

This week I was able to accomplish a major task.  I was finally able to set up and attend a meeting with a bee master.  This man at one point had over 200 beehives.  Needless to say, he knows what he is doing.  I took a notepad and a pen.  When I arrived I soon realized that this guy was a man, like a man's man, like a farmer, like an outdoor kind of guy.  Nevertheless, he was extremely helpful and knowledgeable.  We went to look at old bee equipment of his to get a better idea of what I needed, needed to do, and learn some bee termanolgy.  He used words like "nuke, deep, super, spilt frame, divided frame, wedge frame" among other words I didn't know but now do.  First thing he says, "you got a smoker?"  Nah, I said.  He said, "well, you gonna need one of those."  I told him about my plan about just going down with my beesuit(which I still don't quite exactly have yet....) He said, "well that would work for me or a professional but not you."  I said alright.  The smoke calms the bees down.  I am considering his words of wisdom and currently looking for a smoker.  So we go in the old chicken house aka storage unit to get my first bee hive he gonna give me.  Holly Moley if this guy didn't have a 100 bee boxes and everything else under the sun.  I had hit the jackpot so I thought.  So we are looking for a good "deep" code for main home for bees.  When he is kind enough to warm me that there is a swarm of bees in those boxes near me and to watch out for them they are kind of honrey.  Wonderful, this guy got bees and he isnt't even trying to have them.  We find a deep and some frames among other accesories for my new bee hive.  Now, how do I say this - these boxes were not clean.  Yeah, lets just say that.  As I attempted to point the spider crawling out from the box he was giving me onto him as I was concerned he just didn't care and didn't even brush it off.  This guy was pretty tough.  He showed me about the frames.  Very difficult to understand we had to go over frames twice.  One time I was looking down thinking, He goes, Listen, Now listen here boy! Don't get the the pre-made frames with comb.  Don't do it.  I perked my head up and said yes sir, I will not do that.  It was a good ole time and I got my first hive and he said when my bees fill that one I can comeback and get another.  I was so grateful for this man and knowledge he shared with me.  Except for knowledge about how you CAN NOT GET HONEY until the second year.  I was HEARTBROKEN when he said this.  And I strongly inquired why not and implied that I might do it anyway.  He said, "Boy, Listen here, Don't Rob the Honey, that's where everyone messes up and they won't make through the winter."  With sadness in my heart and slow powty voice I said "yes sir, I will try not too..."  I mean I am going to take honey.  I am going to, but prob just like a couple of spoonfulls or something not like a jar or anything. 

Days are starting to count down...And I have yet to clear the area, yet to get my beehive set up completly re-built, my labor help has been delayed, I can't find the red clover I need, yet to get  complete bee suit, no smoker which apparently I need, need other supplies I do not have, my chainsaw is in the shop, and 10,000 bee are due in around April 12th.  Prayers and best wishes are now starting to be accepted with love and happiness.  On the positive side, I did order a totally sweet bee helmet.

Queen Bee

Everyone must have a Queen.  No man is complete without one, and neither are bees.  As similar to humanity, Queens are essential for reproduction; however, the Queens of bees spend somewhat more time in labor... try like up to 2000 eggs/per day in egg laying season which apparently is in spring.  I'm still learning a lot about this bee culture stuff.  Moving on, this is why it is absolutely, without a shadow of doubt, imperative that I name this Queen correctly.  I can't give her a name like Jennifer, Laura, or Katie.  Although all of these names are very lovely, I need a name with Power.  With Authority.  With Respect.  With Love.  My Queen must be proud of her name when I call it ( as if she is going to fly out and land on my finger...maybe?), seriously, it must be a name encompassing everything to do with royalty and respect.  Since, I ordered an Italian Queen, I thought I should give her an Italian name.  Please check the newest and latest and greatest poll and VOTE!  Thanks for your help :)

P.S. Last poll results in showing in favor of Ben the beekeeper buying a protective bee-suit.  Sounds safe.
Sounds wise.  I think I will :)

"B" Salad

Here on Ben's Bee Blog, you never know what exactly your gonna get.  Some days you get stung somedays you get honey.  "Life's like a box chocolates, you never whatcha gonna get." Forrest Gump.  Classic.  Oh yeah, extremely ironically, I had some shrimp gumbo today.  Gotta love the South.  I try to live my spontaneously and adventurously as wisdom allows me.  So I'm in the kitchen the other day and Im trying to think of what I can make for an appetizer.  I got berries in the frig, sounded good, when I went to put them in the bowl I saw a banana and then it just hit me = B Salad.  Perfecto.  I whipped it right up in a fancy bowl and we got ourselves a health little treat of blueberries, blackberries, and bananas.  That's my little recipe tip of the day - hope you enjoy some B Salad!  Watch out Rachel Ray....! LOL

The Buzz

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Yeap, I'm going be hearing lots of that pretty soon.  Real quickly just want to let everyone know that I will be updating this website with pictures, videos even maybe, but mostly stories and adventures encompassing bees, and even some words of encouragement from time to time as well. So check back as often as you like as I'm sure you find a smile here on Ben's Bee Blog.

I have chosen a site for the bees and the bee hive (that I don't have yet...yeah - got to get one those).  I intend on planting red clover all around my bee hive; plus, one apricot tree and possibly a cherry tree too if I can find one, if cherry trees grow here?  Hmmm... I really don't know.  For those curious why I am going to plant an apricot tree near my beehive.  Well, that's a good story....  Four years ago almost, I planted an apricot tree.  Dad ran over it with the lawn mower.  Gone.  Two years ago I planted an apricot tree.  It did well the first year and was on it's way to being a strong two year tree(they take 5 years to produce fruit) and well the deer ate all of the leaves and then bit the tree in half.  Still alive and trying to grow back up, the deer came back and rubbed their horns on my tree leaving not enough bark on it to make through the winter.  Gone.  I have in my possession a 3rd apricot tree.  I hope to plant this tree in the bee hive area which has a small fence around already.  I plan to re-fence and re-enforce this area to be deer proof, not to mention my little army of insects inside this area.  And if I catch a deer near my tree this fall during deer season, I will buy a license and we will have deer for dinner - Game Over.
Peace Out

Buying Bees

In late January from my California residence, I made a decision to purchase some bees from a Kentucky company called Walter T. Kelly.  I called to order what's called a starter kit which comes with one queen and some bees.  Well, like any curious new bee keeper (thats what they call people in the bee business - "bee keepers") I asked what comes in a starter kit.  The lady replied, "3 lbs. of bees and one queen."  I then asked well just how many bees is 3 pounds?  She very simply replied, "about ten thousand." 10,000! Oh ok, perfect, thank you very much.  She then asked me, "do you want an Italian queen or Russian queen?"  I said, "Italian."  Then she asked me, "how many starter kits would you like to purchase?"  I said, "just one will be fine, thank you very much."  As if...?
Anyways, my bees will ship April 9th and arrive in Arkansas (my new home) where I will attempt to bee keep (i think thats the verb) a successful hive and make it thrive.  Wish me luck!!!

P.S. I haven't told my parents whose land the bees will be on about the 10,000 part yet...I'm thinking that should be an April's fool joke on April 1st...except the part about April Fools will be April Truth!