It's Beginning to look like a lot like a Bee Yard......

Cozy area for the bees.......

So why an enclosed bee yard you ask?   Well after looking at a fellow bee keeper's "bee yard" who had two small kids and pets.....this was the obvious answer to me and my family.  I have two kids....ages 5 and 10 and a Labrador mix named Daisy.....  Granted they probably would stay away from the hives as well as the dog.....but I felt that this was a safer alternative and a little bit of peace of mind......especially if the kids had friends over playing in our backyard not to mention it would force the bees to fly vertical after leaving the hive.....Plus it looks really nice :)

This is why we needed an enclosed bee yard..........

We knew after we dropped off the bee hives with my bee supplier on April 12th....we only had 7-10 days to get all of the final prep work done around the yard.    This meant getting the enclosed bee yard completed.....no more procrastinating....it had to be done.....Then Mother Nature had other ideas......

Laying out the area for the bee yard

The bee yard starting to take shape

The clock was ticking and Mother Nature was not cooperating...... We had some nice weather and then a 180 degree turnaround......Easter which was the following weekend was a COLD MISERABLE & RAINY day here in Wilmington NC.....We had 5 inches of rain fall over the Easter weekend and temps barely getting out of the 50s......  I wondered if spring was ever going to stay around and I felt that Mother Nature was drunk and I think she needed to go home and sober up...

Installing the gate and as you can see.....despite the sunshine....it's still cold

We put down a layer of landscaping material and then mulch on top....

Waiting for the bees to arrive.......

Eventually the weather cooperated and the entire family pitched in to get the bee yard ready.  I was really proud of the work that we put into it.  Location, location, location is everything.  Luckily we have an area in the yard that backs up to the confluence of several drainage ditches so the bees are not located anywhere near our neighbors houses and within the bee yard I have plenty of room to work around the hives.  And down the road if the hives decide to go gang busters on me and I have to split them....then I would have plenty of room to add more hives......

BEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We finally got the word that the bees were ready to be picked up on April 24th......I was worried because of the crappy weather we had over Easter and the colder temps would delay the bees even further and that I would never get my bees.......patience was the key.....and after I got word.....there was no turning back.....all for nothing!  I was ready to begin this journey......

Mother and Daughter......Suited up and ready to check out our Nucs

Me and my oldest daughter met up with my bee supplier at his farm up near the Porter's Neck area of New Hanover County which was not too far away from our house.   That was nice because I wasn't too keen on driving too long with two nuc hives in the back of my father in law's truck at 8pm.......

When we got there.... both my daughter and I spied our hives in the field along with the other nucs.......again wasn't too hard to find them since they were so brightly colored and even our bee supplier's wife knew they were ours and figured that the girls picked out the color scheme.....

Nucs everywhere!

Caroline's Nuc.....

Riding in the back of the truck......

We got them loaded up safely without incident....got them home....unloaded them and placed them in their new home........I tried to do an evening inspection with a red flashlight but it wasn't turning out all that good.....the hubby burnt his thumb on the smoker....the kids were hyped up and the neighbors were being loud.... which was stressing me out.....so I went in quickly....looked at them and decided to wait till the next day after everyone and everything had calmed down ........

The next day was warm and perfect to inspect a hive.....got the smoker lit.....and found the queen in the purple hive but not the blue hive.....was happy with myself going in alone.....Life is good......now just have to wait till they build up the colony until I can put on the second hive body......Patience.....I must have patience........

HOME SWEET HOME

The girls during the first inspection......