The Bees Have Arrived!

I have wanted to keep bees for years - even before we moved here, I was hopeful I could find a way to keep a hive on our postage stamp lot in a neighborhood. When we bought our homestead with its small orchard, I was desperate to get some bees to pollinate the trees and make delicious honey for us.

Unfortunately, I'm severely allergic to bee stings. I went to conferences and talked to bee keeping suppliers in an effort to find out how I could work around that. The disappointing answer was that even with a suit I was still very likely to get stung - and that meant that bee keeping was out.

Following this sad news, I tried to find someone who was willing to keep a hive on my property for the benefit to my trees. But I was always too far away, or they didn't have an extra hive, or it wasn't worth their hassle.

But then I met Michael Fike of Blacklab Apiaries. At a chicken swap meet (yes, I know - the things farmers think up for fun!) he was selling honey. I had sort of given up on my dreams of bees at this point. My mother, however, asked if he'd be willing to put a hive in my orchard. And he was! It turns out he works just down the street from where I live, and he brought out the hive and set it up about a week later!

It's wonderfully peaceful to watch the bees come and go from the hive. (I watch them with my zoom lens from the safety of the driveway.) I can't wait to see how our fruit crop turns out this year!