The big day finally arrived. I went to pick up my packaged bees early Saturday morning and then transported them to the site for installation. The following slideshow chronicles the steps to get the bees into the hive. I really only had difficulty getting the syrup can out of the package. Once that was accomplished, the rest was fairly straightforward. The bees were very docile, and my wife and friend Brenna were 10-15 feet away taking photos. Queen Large Marge is now safely in the hive and hopefully when I check on her next weekend, she will be released and laying eggs.
Category Archives: beekeeping
One more day….
The bees are officially in Austin. Tomorrow morning, I’ll pick them up and then head on down to the bee friendly south Austin site to install them. The adventure is about to begin!
Filed under beekeeping
EpiPen
I made a trip to the doctor today to get a script for a few EpiPens. As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve never been stung before by anything in my life, so I decided to play it safe in the rare case I’m massively allergic to bee stings. I find it somewhat ironic that one of the main flash animations of the EpiPen website is a scenario where little Sam gets stung by a bee during his baseball game. However, the picture of the “bee” they have doesn’t look like any bee I’ve seen. It actually looks pretty scary. I wouldn’t want to be stung by that thing either.
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Wild Hive
This photo is courtesy of the owner of the bee friendly south Austin site. It turns out there is a wild hive in the lot next door that has apparently been there for as long as most people can remember. I think it is a good sign that the area has enough flora to support a hive.
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Hive Placement Preparation
I took a visit to the bee friendly south Austin site yesterday to get the site ready for the hive.
Filed under beekeeping, Uncategorized
One week!
I just received e-mail confirmation from Bee Weaver that I will be able to pick up my packaged bees on either April 10th or 11th. I was a bit worried that the colder and wetter winter here in Texas would delay bee shipments, but I’m happy to report that is not the case.
Tomorrow I’m heading down to the bee-friendly south Austin site to prepare the area where the hive will live.
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Two of my favorite things…
I love bees, and I love bluebonnets so this photo combines them both.
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Austin Bee Removal Video
I’m a little jealous that I didn’t get to do anything this interesting when I took the beekeeping class from Round Rock Honey…
Here is a link to the video of the bee removal from an Austin home. I can’t even imagine having a hive in my ceiling. What a mess.
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Urban Beekeeping in Austin, Texas 