Pear of Hearts Farm: The Birds for the Bees

I finally built, painted and set up my new beehive. Now all I need is bees. They are due to arrive later this week - so I'm all set - and feeling hopeful and optimistic that this will be a GREAT year.

This is the beginning of my third year of beekeeping. In my case, I'm not really sure I should say bee"keeping" - as I have yet to make it through a northeastern winter with the same colony. Perhaps a better description of my bee yard is a bee hostel. I give them a home and food (as needed) and, ideally, they share their honey with me.

Because, in the past, I have only had used equipment - I felt the need to start fresh this year. Perhaps it will bring me success. Thankfully, I had some honey to sell to friends - so I was able to invest in some new hive boxes and frames. I will be starting with two colonies this year - one in the newer of my two used hives and the other in my brand spanking new hive. Both hives will have all new frames.

I am rather handy - but by no any means a woodworker - so I purchased my hives unassembled from Forest Hill Woodworking in Paradise, PA. Not only was it a beautiful drive, but I must also say, Forest Hill Woodworking was a pleasure to deal with! http://foresthillbeesupply.com/

Here is a little show and tell of my building and painting process. I love creating things with my hands (even though I had lots of help with this one). The process only made me more excited and determined to be successful with my new Italian honeybees. I like to add a little something to each hive to make it special for me - and I'm pretty happy with my finished product. I hope the bees like it as much as I do!


The hive kit I purchased included a hive stand, bottom board, entrance reducer, 2 deep boxes, 2 medium supers, an inner cover, and an outer cover - plus frames for each box.