One dream Christi has had for several years is to raise bees. In our last neighborhood, the boy next door was allergic to bee stings. Being (mostly) responsible neighbors, we opted to wait for a better location. Ninety-seven acres seems to fit that bill.
Together we took an online bee keeping class over several weeks. Who knew that keeping bees could be so complicated! They seem to survive in the wild just fine.
We purchased some bee equipment and clothing and a few Nucs in March. Nucs are a few frames of bees with an established queen. Shortly after getting those two hives started, a friend from church decided he was getting rid of his hives and gave them to us. So essentially overnight, we went from zero to four hives.
Christi has taken the role of apiarist. While it has been a bit challenging with no shortage of stings, we were rewarded with 6 pints of honey this year. Being new hives, this is pretty good. If the hives stay alive and healthy through the winter we should get 10 times that much next year. Anyone want to buy honey?
