NC State Bee Convention and Bee School Field Day....

March....busy busy as a bee....preparing for the season.

March came and went very quickly....so quickly that I failed to keep up with the blog......

March was a blur.....I mean a complete BLUR!   Between the NC State Bee Convention which was held the first weekend in March and then some other issues like work and life.....and eventually the bee school field day ....March seemed to go by away too quick.

The NC State Bee Convention was held in Wilmington NC and was hosted by the New Hanover Beekeeper's Association.  It was a lot of fun to help volunteer at.  Attending the State Convention also allowed me to scope out the various bee vendors and pick up my supplies.  I didn't get a chance to attend any of the workshops but it was a good experience nonetheless.

All of our goodies from the convention

Every bee keeper should have one :)

Future bee keeper.....Can you tell she was happy to "bee" at the convention?

Field School 2014

The weather was less than ideal in March - cold rainy miserable conditions finally cleared out and we were able to have our field day experience towards the end of March.   The day was warm and breezy.....a perfect day to be in the hives.....

Our gracious host and bee club memeber had his hives in a nearby blueberry field.  The field day was a hands-on experience for the beginner bee keepers who had taken the course.  There was round robin stations of showing us how to light our smokers, how to install a package of bees (without the bees), and then getting into the hives..... 

The hive that I was in was not a happy hive.....the hive on the end was nice and docile and calm.....the hive I was in was buzzing all around me and the other students. ... I got to thinking "what the heck did I get myself into?"  But it was a good experience.....being in a buzzing, angry hive of bees gave me the courage to deal with bees......All I could think was calm collective thoughts.....plus I got to see several drone bees emerge from their cappings.....as seen below......

And the photo below was of a random honey bee collecting some nectar from our dandelion.......which was really neat to show my girls......

Until next time......