Latest report:

Third lesson in beekeeping was greatly enhanced by the presence of our two daughters (23,19) who are visiting from out of town. My bee-mentor brought over extra veils and gloves, everyone tucked everything into something, and we opened the hive after nearly 4 weeks of "not peeking" except to add sugar water to the jars.

I learned how t0 separate the frames with the hive tool, got reminded how to pick up frame without squishing bees, we all got a chance to smoke the bees, scraped some burr comb off frames, watched expert even out some way-bumpy comb (stole some comb while we were at it) tried to eat honey through the veil, oohed and ahhed at the dense and varied comb filled with honey, larvae, capped, found the queen.

In all the best two hours I and my daughters have spent together in a long, long time. And although my husband was taking a long nap, yesterday he put the new super and frames together by himself in 1 1/2 hours, with no complaints whatsoever.

What a wonderful hobby. Actually, what a wonderful life.

Marie