Bee keeping Starts

For the last several months i have been doing a lot of reading on bee keeping.   I'm not sure what got me started on this idea maybe it was a video on you-tube maybe it was all the reports on the news about the bee's dying.    I joined the local bee keepers club about a month ago.  The first time i went i didn't expect there to be a lot of people and i expected those that where there to be above retirement age.  I was wrong.  Every time i go to a meeting there's at least 30 of us there.   The ages are spread from around 20 to a very fresh 87.     Everyone is so nice and helpful and they all love bees or honey or both.  

My first experience with the bees was quite fun.  I was worried how i would react to a few thousand bees flying around my head.   I wasn't scared at all i was fascinated they where so gentle.  Until that is one tried to fly in my eye and i wiped it away with my hand with out thinking and got stung right between the eyes.   (yes i looked funny the next few days)

Last weekend I found 2 Trugstader on line cheep.   There was a very kind man who had kept bees for 5 years who due to ill health was selling off all his bee gear.    He sold me everything i needed for the two hives.    Trugstader are popular in Denmark   I will post some pictures of the insides in another post.    I like them mainly because they are made of wood and will look better in my garden then a bunch of plastic boxes stacked on top of each other.

I ordered a bunch of wax frames and a bee jacket and hat.  I don't want to get stuck between the eyes again :)

as a fun side note.  I came home from work the other day and the ants had found the bee hives.   Apparently there is still something good in them.   There was a little army of ants going in and out of one of the hives.   I guess they need a good cleaning and paint job before i get the bees.