Hive progress

Not too much to report on. We spent Saturday at the Borden's place. Ron and I went to the hardware store and picked up some stuff for the hives. Once we got everything together we headed back to the house and started pulling out all of the wood for the hives. It looked like quite an ominous task before us... there were literally hundreds of pieces of wood that all have to be put together. Once I had convinced Ron that I somewhat knew what the pieces were all for we got to work. We still have a bunch of work left before it is complete, but at least we have a start on it! So far we only have the frames (the part where the bees make the honey) glued, but I think that the rest of the project will go pretty smooth since we have a majority of the pieces glued at this point. If any of you decide to tackle something like this make sure you have ample room in the garage, and ample time on hand if completing the task alone. As for me, I had my son Brighten sorting the pieces and handing them to Ron, and then Ron setting the wood in place for me to glue and then we would assemble them together. We had a regular little sweat shop going! Brighten loved helping out, and he looks forward to the hives being complete so he can check out the bees. Well, that's it! We will be heading down next weekend to get them finished up, and I will keep ya posted on the outcome. Pictures should follow shortly...

THE BEES ARE COMING, THE BEES ARE COMING!!!

So it is coming to a point of reality; the bees have been ordered through a local company http://www.bee-outside.com/ and they are set to arrive April 2nd. This week I will be going in to get all of the supplies and whatnot. We will be starting two hives out at the Borden's place in Aumsville, OR. We are going to do a garden hive style that is supposed to be better as far as ventilation and winter heat retention for the bees. I decided to go with two different breeds of bees to see what the difference between the two would be as far as honey production, temperament, and so forth. Our girls will be Italian and Carniolans. Both of these species is said to be good "beginner" bees. I have not been able to get into a beekeeping class simply due to time constraints. I have been reading up and watching tons of youtube videos  about bees though.
Next weekend I will be heading down to Aumsville with all of our new tools of the trade in hand and ready to get set up. Ron (Grace's Father) and I will be putting the hives together and painting them, which I am sure will be interesting since neither of us has any experience in this stuff. After that we have to find the perfect spot on their property to place the hives. The next step from there will be to just wait for the bees to get here! I will try to get some video when I go to install the bees in their new homes, but it may be hard since Grace is allergic to bees and Ron will be out of the country, so I won't have a cameraman. I think I will try to use a tripod to get as much video as possible. Nothing much more to say right now... I will keep you posted once the plans start to unfold a bit more, and I will add a vid after the package install.