April 20th was an important day on our calendar this year.

We had been preparing for awhile, counting the days until… BEE DAY!

When the day finally arrived, we drove to town to pick up our bees.

This year we ordered our bees through Down To Earth, and picked them up at Glory Bee. We decided to order more, and to order a different kind of bee this time. Last year we purchased our bees online, and ordered one package of Italian Bees. This year we ordered two packages of Carniolan Bees.

We appreciated being able to pick up our bees locally. We weren’t expecting cute, little hitchhikers on the outside of the containers and we had no bee gear with us, so we had an eventful drive home where I got a play by play of what the bees were up to. (For the most part the hitchhiker bees wanted to hang out on the outside of the container, and it was fine.)

In the weeks before, we had been preparing the homes for the bees, and put up a second hive this year. We had a whole family assembly line going, putting lots and lots of frames together. We have so much practice at this point, we could go into business assembling frames. (Not really.)

(Pictured above you can see the blue box that a friend painted for me for my birthday years back. I love it. The cedar box below it has an opening that Jeff put a plexi-glass cover on so that we can have a view inside the hive, which we all enjoy immensely.)

The day we brought the bees home it was overcast and a bit rainy, which worked out well for getting them settled into their new homes. One queen cage was placed inside each hive, with a gummy bear, so the bees could eat their way through it.

B has learned a huge amount about bees, so he explains a lot of the process to me. Apparently you want the bees to smell the queen, without being able to get to her right away. They need a slow introduction. It’s like a dance. It’s all very interesting to me, and I love watching the bees and being around them.

A few of you have reached out about blog posts I’ve written about bees. We love hearing from you and everything you have to share. We’ll keep posting here- it’s fun to share as we go along.

Here’s to another year of beekeeping adventures!