Bees, Bees, Bees. Bzzz.; 20,000 Bees Bought Online – How it All Began

The long awaited post on Zachary’s bees! 

Zachary’s interest started several years ago.  Although he is unable to remember exactly what inspired him to be a beekeeper we do know he found 2 dilapidated bee hives while doing some clean-up as a 4-H volunteer a few years ago.  He brought them home and shortly after that there was a swarm of bees found on a tree in our front yard.  He wrapped himself up like an Eskimo (since he had no suit and veil at that time), put on some ski goggles and went to capture the swarm.  He looked quite hilarious and I’m really wishing I could find that picture!

Before he got the swarm, he sprayed the bees down with sugar water to keep them from flying around so much.  Sugar water sticks to the bees’ wings and then while they’re busy cleaning themselves, you’re able to work with them.  He then reached with his gloved hand in between the swarm and the branch they were swarming under, gave a little push to separate the swarm from the branch and plop! they landed in the old bee box.

They were willing to be his guest for a few days and then decided to move on. 🙁  (They were probably Africanized bees so he was quite fine when they decided to depart.)

After that, his uncle loaned him a bee suit and veil for any future escapades with these buzzing creatures.

Then he did nothing except for reading an occasional book on beekeeping for a few years.

     Fast forward 2 years…

He found an excellent book that we just happened to have for sale in our online bookstore.  It was called

The Backyard Beekeeper: An Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden. 

It is written for someone who knows nothing about bees.  The vocabulary used was more for someone who had not yet learned the beekeepers lingo.  This book, more than anything else, got him going.  It gave him confidence and helped him to understand how to get started.

He then ordered supplies to make his own bee hives from http://www.brushymountainbeefarm.com/.  I forgot to mention that his brother, (I won’t mention any names) had thrown away his old bee boxes that he had found while doing that 4-H clean-up project.  He got his supplies in the mail and then took the next few weeks putting them together – in his room!  There were bee supplies everywhere, not to mention wood shavings.  Sometimes, mom’s, it’s just better to stay away from their rooms! 

He built 2 hives.

Then he ordered 10,000 bees for each hive to get him started.

For your information:  if you do not order your bees early enough, they can sell out quickly.  This is what happened to Zachary and it took him some time to finally locate someone who still had bees for sale.  Keep this in mind because you all will be so fascinated with bees that you’ll want to start your own bee hives after reading this post.  Of course…. 🙂

So Zachary ordered his bees… 20,000 of them – overnight mail.  And good ole UPS was the carrier.  UPS is the best.  They drive everywhere – even down our long dirt road to bring us one little itty bitty package.  We like UPS! 

This time we met our driver in town, hence the garbage dumpster in the background.  (garbage service isn’t as kind about driving to our house as UPS 🙂 ) I wonder if Nick’s ever delivered bees before?

20,000 bees total for Zachary’s two hives.  This is only the start.  After a bee hive is established, there will be up to 70,000 bees in 1 hive.

Cutting the two boxes apart.

And the bees are unveiled.  This box holds 10,000 and the other half of the box that he cut away has the other 10,000 bees.  Zachary then sprayed these bees with a sugar syrup to revitalize them after their transport from California and let them rest for about 1 hour. 

 Everyone wanted to watch the bees so they suited up.  Zachary had read that bees only sting when they are protecting their hive or defending themselves (for instance if you grab one and squeeze it, they won’t be too fond of you and will want to let you know!). 

Since the bees had not yet established their hive they would not be aggresive in defending it, so he was not worried about getting stung.   Being that there was a shortage of suits and veils, Zachary took the experts’ word about it and went without any protection. 

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He didn’t quite look like this fellow

but he did have bees crawling in his ears and all over him as he tranferred the bees to their new home. He was quite happy that the books he had been reading were accurate.  Not one sting did he get!

Inside this “queen cage” is the Queen!  A hive only has one queen.  Zachary removed a small cap on the base of the “queen’s cage” and placed the cage into the hive.  There is a small layer of sugar candy that the other bees have to eat through before they can reach the queen.  By the time they have eaten through this sugar candy, they will have become accustomed to her scent and will accept her.

A look inside the box, before the bees are dumped into their hive.

Dumping them into their hive.  You basically just shake them in.  At different times through the whole process of transferring the bees to their new home, Zachary would spray them with sugar water to keep them busy.

Justus didn’t know if he quite believed Zachary that he would be safe from the bees so he got on the other side of the wire fence for safety. 

And that was the excitement we had when the bees first arrived.  I must say they are absolutely fascinating creatures!!

Zach’s opening up his bee hive today to do some checking for various things. Stay tuned for Part II of Zachary and his Bees.