# And next year they want 12!



## jynxt (Apr 5, 2004)

My dd has had a fascination with bees for as long as she can remember and finally this past spring she was introduced to the wonderful world of beekeeping and is more in love with bees than ever.  Mr. Iddee has been such a blessing to our family by helping her get started with her bees and mentoring her and then her brothers who caught the "must have bees" craze during it all. Now all 3 of the kids have their first hive. I have to say that at first I really really really did not want them to get bees!! I made up excuses for years to keep it from happening because I was just terrified of bees. Iddee helped bunches with that too and now I always seem to be carrying on little conversations with the bees that like to hitch a ride in my hair  

Because they are still on the young side (dd is 14 and the boys are 12 and 11) my dh wants me to always be sure to be out there with them when they are working with their bees.... just in case (of what I don't know but that's what he says LOL). Soooo, I'm always there in the thick of it right beside the kids helping with the lifting, making sure there are no fights, trying really hard to be the calm voice in the midst of the sometimes overly exuberant decision making skills of youth and always always saying "wait, just don't do anything yet, let's look it up or ask Wally". It has definitely been interesting around here to go from no bees and no clue about bees to trying to manage 3 kids managing 3 hives so I thought maybe I would just share a bit of what goes on at our house with the bees.

A little while back 12 year old ds gets ants in his hive killing the bees, then wax moths and fairly soon his hive was nearly totally gone including the queen. He mulls over his options and rather than just let the hive die off and wait to get more bees he cuts back on the size of their home.... "they just need a more defendable territory Mom" he tells me... Then he sweet talks his brother (who has an incredibly strong hive of some kind of super bee hybrid that just never stops or slows down) into giving him a couple of frames of eggs and brood. He goes out first thing every morning and feeds bees and prays over his hive, then goes out every afternoon and talks to his hive, and goes out every night to "tuck them in". We got into his hive yesterday and his big beautiful golden queen strolls right up to the edge of the frame almost like she was telling him to come see what a good job she's doing! The bee population is definitely more than what I thought it would be by now and my boy is just thrilled that they have survived and seem to be out of trouble now. :dance: He told his queen yesterday that if she keeps up the good work he will give her back a big house (regular hive body instead of nuc box) in a week to two.

During all of the goings on with Jared's hive we notice that my dd's queens laying pattern is awful, then progressed to nothing but drone brood, then nothing at all. We had intended to take care of the problem but things happened with my health that kept us out of the bee yard for awhile longer than the queen could hold out. Dd tried to get the hive to rear a queen by putting in a couple of frames of eggs from the little brother's super hive but the bees didn't take the hint. As of yesterday that hive is roaring so loudly you can hear them way before you get close enough to the hive to do anything and the workers are laying like crazy. She has two deep brood chambers on that hive that are both just packed with bees and she doesn't want to let it go so .....

Little brother's super hive had 3 deep brood chambers on it until a week ago when he got in there to "check on his ladies" there were so many bees in there and so much brood in there that the bees weren't storing hardly any honey and they had swarm cells on nearly every other frame.(no kidding as he opens his hive he hollers at the bees "it's okay ladies I'm just checking on things for ya") So little brother split his hive making sure to get the queen in the split hive and letting the donor hive rear a new one. Last night little brother tells me and his daddy that he wants to give dd the hive with the queen and maybe that will save her hive by fixing the laying workers because that queen is so strong. Which sounds like a risk to me but then again, these kids have done fairly well with the bees and I guess maybe most of the time I should probably just hush and do the lifting which I guess I what I'll be doing later on today :help: 

And then.... later on this week we are going to help dd's best friend to thoroughly inspect her hive. Oh, I forgot to mention that during all of this my dd got her best friend hooked too! And Mr. Iddee was so sweet to take on another student to teach and mentor. But miss friend's momma is as afraid of bees as I used to be with no intention of getting over it so she has us to come help with those bees too. Dd and miss friend have such fun talking about all that they want to do with their bees and planning what to do with the honey and the wax. They even have in mind future business ventures with their bees.

With all of this to keep me busy in what little spare time I have I try really hard not to worry about next year.... the kids say that their goal is to have 12 hives (at least) by this time next year!! :doh:

Truthfully now .... I am enjoying the bees as much as the kids are! I'm happy that they are so excited and that the trials their hives have gone through haven't dampened their enthusiasm or discouraged them. I guess actually we should be very thankful for the things that have gone on with their hives since it has been great learning experience for them and they are still so young and willing to take those risks that sometimes us older folks would just not do. It sure has been interesting though!


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## BasicLiving (Oct 2, 2006)

What a wonderful success story! It's so neat that this has become a family project. I was a very reluctant hive wife. I really thought I could have done without honey bees in my life. Now I find my self amazed that I ever felt that way. I love our girls! My heart swells whenever I find one sitting on a flower or down at the creek getting water. What a fabulous addition to our lives! Glad to know y'all are doing so well with yours.

Penny


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## Iddee (Sep 25, 2005)

12 each, or combined? Every kid should have at least 12 hives for his/herself.
:shrug:  :angel:


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## jynxt (Apr 5, 2004)

hahahahahaa..... Iddee, now I just KNOW that you are conspiring with them kids!!! Actually they would love to have 12 each but they don't know if they can raise the $$$ for the extra hive bodies etc that soon. Right now they have 4 hives and figure that come spring and next summer they should have no trouble making the splits to get 12. I'm hoping that they can do it, so far they have really impressed me with the way they've been handling it all!

Penny, It has been really great to see how this unfolded from the interest of one kid to a project that has bonded our family together in whole new ways! I was so hoping in the beginning that the kids would either take the classes and decide that they really didn't want the responsibility or that they would get stung and decide they didn't want that either. Now we all love the bees, the honey, the extra help on the garden and even the noise of the bees buzzing along side us as we walk around outside!

Iddee, see what you've started!!!


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