As some of you may have known, I’ve been taking a beeping class put on by the Jefferson County Beekeepers Association. The class is 8 weeks long and is taught by the most knowledgeable bee folks in Alabama. Incredible class. The main reason we are raising bees, aside from the honey and the experience, is to pollinate our chestnut orchard. At the orchard, we’ve planted our trees on 35-foot centers. That spacing is spot-on for the orchard long term, but too wide short term. We’re hoping the bees will bridge the gap.
This spring we are starting with two ‘packages’ of bees and two ‘nucs’. A package is around 6,000 bees and an unrelated queen. A nuc, or nucleus, is closer to 15,000 bees, an established queen and 5 frames of honeycomb. Our plan is to build up 4 hives this year and some more next year 4 more so that in 2-3 years when our trees are ready to start producing nuts, we’ll have a pollination air force ready to go. Not to be confused with the Polynesian Air Force. 
So Saturday morning we went to the Botanical Gardens to pick up our 2 packages. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that it felt like Christmas morning.
One thing that i’ve been surprised by is how calm and not afraid my kids have been. I’m not sure why, maybe its how many conversations we’ve had recently about bees. Or maybe it because they haven’t been stung yet.
In any event, here is my attempt at installing the bees along with my barefooted son, who is much braver than his father…
