"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!