Y'all...
Y'all.
I found my second career.
Okay, not like I really HAD a career to begin with... but that's besides the point!
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's start at the beginning.
I know I've talked about my amazingly awesome, lovely, generous, wonderful neighbors before. And I think I've mentioned the fact that they were bee-keepers for a while, too.
It's moved more into hobby territory for them, with only a few hives active.
We were down visiting a few weeks ago and Kevin needed to build some frames and do some general maintenance on a few of the hives in their backyard. So, I jumped on the opportunity to lend a hand.
I'd helped build the frames before, but I never had the chance to actual get into the hives themselves.
So, Kevin helped me get geared up (by the way, if someone wants to send some monetary donations my way to help me buy a jacket for myself, I'D REALLY APPRECIATE IT! This fat lass has a bit of trouble trying to squeeze into Kevin's jacket since he's a wee bit skinnier than me...) and out we went.
It didn't even occur to me to be afraid. I just dove right in and did what I was told.
We split one hive, added a honey box to another, and checked out the other hives.
As we were working, Kevin was explaining and teaching me what he knew, pointing out what each frame was holding, pointing out what the different bees of the hives look like, what the difference between day one versus day three eggs are...
And I completely fell head-over-heels in love with the whole dang thing.
I couldn't stop bloody smiling.
The second time was even better.
I got brave and only had one glove on so I could actually take some pictures of the insides of the hives.
Look at those precious little babies!
We were looking for the queen in this hive so we wouldn't accidentally transfer her to the swarm Kevin had found.
This was a frame we had put in the previous week and look at how fast they're filling it up!
I'm so excited that I actually wanted to do some bookbinding again after over a year of not touching the stuff.
I had an idea in my head that I could just not get out of a watercolor sketchbook where I could sketch and draw and write everything I've been learning down.
But I haven't even told you the BEST news!
See this little hive right here?
That is now MY hive! My own! For me to love and nurture and help take care of!
This was the one we'd split off from a much larger hive. I helped to fill it with brood, eggs, some honey, and just a couple hundred bees.
And they are already thriving.
Right now we are eagerly awaiting the hatching of the new queen.
See those two large lumps there?
These ones?
Those are queen cells and one of them will be the new Lady of our hive. And that's where YOU come in.
Since I'll probably be documenting the bees on here, in addition to all the yarncrafts, I thought that you, my dear readers, would like to help with naming our queen.
Leave your suggestions in the comments below! I can't wait to see what we can come up with.
For now, I'll just leave you off with more picture spam. Because just like a new parent, I have to take ALL THE PICTURES!
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