Amazing, Awesome, Incredable, Fantastic, Extraordinary Bees

Lots of pictures in this post..... Enjoy!! =)

On Saturday our family attended the last of our beekeeping classes!!! It was a hands on type of class with live bees held at a local nature park. I was a little intimidated by working with live bees. After all, I have only taken the classes and looked at pictures of bees! It was a perfect spring day! The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze, and the azaleas in bloom were gorgeous.  As we drove back to the class area, I was getting more and more nervous.....but by the time we suited up and were in the thick of things, I was pretty relaxed and ready to work!!
The veil and gloves really do help calm the nerves!!!

Our class started with a demonstration of catching a swarm....

  This swarm is about the size of a basket ball.....pretty intimidating...

Yes,that is a five gallon bucket on a pole...the invention of a master swarm catcher!!!

Then he dumped the bees (hopefully including the queen!) into a prepared hive. This ensures that the bees have a safe place to live and can be cared for without being threatened.

After we caught this swarm, we went to the "Bee Yard" where there were 6 or so hives that are tended by a Master Bee Keeper....



This is really where all the fun began!!!! We are being instructed on how to fill and light our smokers, how to approach the hives (always from behind), and how to check the health of the colony.
We looked at the frames to make sure the bees are doing what they are supposed to be doing...caring for the queen, feeding the larvae, and capping the brood. Pretty awesome stuff!!!

Then we got to put a package of bees into a prepared hive!!!

This is my baby girl (and her daddy, both in ACUs) helping with that!!!

So awesome!!!!

While we were in the bee yard we were privileged to witness a live swarm happening!!! We were right in the middle of thousands of bees flying around!! AWESOME!!!!!

There was actually two spontaneous swarms that happened, but one flew too far away to capture. One, however, flew only about 10 feet and we were able to recapture and place them in a hive!!

Words cannot describe how incredibly awesome this was!!!! Extraordinary!! =)

This is the hive we caught at the beginning of our class.....very happy and peaceful, working in their new home!!! Love it!!!! =)


 Roger and I left our class and picked up our own bees. It is just amazing how these creatures can adapt to a new home and make it there own.  Bees are amazing!!! 
These are our bees!!!

The brown box is the Nuc that the bees were housed in when the hive was split. The large white box is their new home.  They are all in the hive today and seem very happy!!!! =)  
BEES ARE AWESOME!!!!!

Blessings!!!!