Suited and Booted for Bees

Ready for Bees! Jacket and hood came today, along with a bundle of basic tools. Hives come Sunday, bees in April. I already put in a windbreak for the future hives.

Bee keeping is about raising bugs that face a torrent of viruses, parasitic mites, and beetles. Along with fighting starvation, cold, and damp, you also have to worry about semi-random genetics, queen death, and swarming, to say nothing of fungus and bacteria.

Honey is merely an incidental benefit, and is not guaranteed, especially in Year One. If you think $2 eggs from your backyard chickens is expensive, the cost of your first 10 pounds of honey will make you weep. The good news is I am not in it for the honey, but for the hive.