What's All The BUZZ??

Bzzzz....Bzzzz...    Honey BEES!

So you haven't exactly met my better half yet, here he is:

I call him "Pig Pen" for short!  Well actually, he is "My Little Pig Pen".  He leaves a poof of dirt everywhere he goes.  It's not a bad thing...

Pig Pen wants Bees!  So for Christmas I got him all makings of a Beekeeper!  I had no idea what he'd rope me into later...  Christmas Day sounded like Santa's Workshop around here.  Tap! Tap! Tap!  He had to put the hive together immediately!  Of course, he couldn't do anything with them for months!

As Spring rolled around, Pig Pen was ready!  With one exception...where are all the BEES???  Ugh....Wisconsin.  Hours away!  Yes...you know where this is going.  So my Mom and I got suckered into a very, very long day to go fetch them up!  We drove forever, and when we arrived in the middle of bee country, a big red barn greeted us along with bees whom had escaped from their little cages!  Mom stayed in the car!

I walked up with my arms firmly planted at my sides so not to disturb anything and the gentlemen said, "Are you the Beekeeper?", I said, "Hell, no!"  Now these little guys at the barn were the nicest of sorts!  They carefully brushed off my bee box and secured it in the back of my truck and everything.  3 lbs of bees...that's a few thousand I'm told!  There was another gentleman there picking up his colony too...he said his wife would have never done that for him! I must be a fool!   Nope, just dearly love the Pig Pen!

When I noticed we had a stow-away, the nice gentleman just PICKED IT UP (Ewww!) and tossed it out and away we went!  When we got home, it was all Pig Pen could do to get things rolling!  He didn't get stung once!  Pig Pen's very allergic friend and I were safely ensconced in my truck for a few pics:

It is pretty amazing how it all works and we are really looking forward to the Honey Harvest this fall.  So far, the bees are doing great!  Making bee babies and capping stuff off!

We HAD just the one hive until his buddy down the road called and as if it were a lost dog, asked "Hey, are your bees in the hive??"    They were of course, but LOOK at what was in his buddy's tree: 

So what does Pig Pen do?  Yeah...his buddy and him cut the limb from the tree and shook the bees, queen bee and all, into our newest hive!  CRAZY!!!  Apparently bees wont sting when they 'swarm'.  And that is what this was, a swarm that must have outgrown their other resting place.  Now if I had known "if we build it they will come"...I would have never drove with those buggers in my truck!  I would have prayed for a swarm!  The new hive has even more bees that our first.  Again...CRAZY!

Tally of Bee Stings so Far....Pig Pen - Three.  Apple Pie Gal...None.  Honey...Yummmmm!