So, up north on our property we have an old barn which is mainly used for storage. It use to be the home of my mom's rabbits, but now houses our volleyball/badminton net, kayaks, garden tools, junk and... honey bees! And yes, they are there on purpose.
My mom decided that the barn would be the best place to house her two bee colonies. I was skeptical at first, but have since decided that she is right: the barn is perfect.
There is a piece of plastic which prevents the bees from flyinginto the barn above the hives. And it works! You can walk behind
beehives and check out the bees without worrying about getting
stung. Below the beehives are comfrey and rhubarb flowers, and
the surrounding area is full of blueberry bushes and locust trees in bloom.
We will hopefully have some pretty tasty honey by the end of the year!
The only problem right now is the hive on the right. As far as my mom can tell, there is no queen! There are some queen cells, so for now we are crossing our fingers that the bees are making their queen. If that doesn't work, we could either buy a queen (which is actually pretty expensive) or we could do this complicated procedure involving removing a frame from the healthy hive, isolating it, making a new queen, and introducing it to the sick hive.
Needless to say, it would be a whole lot easier if the bees made their own queen.Either way, they sure are mesmerizing to watch.
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