Our First Official Day of Beekeeping!

Yesterday I officially became a Beekeeper! YAY! After so many months of learning and preparing, it feels really great to finally have my hive up and running, populated with buzzing bees. I'm really looking forward to sharing my yard and garden with them. I'm also looking forward to sharing their honey and beeswax! 

I picked my bees up yesterday afternoon. I was just a tiny bit nervous about getting them into the hive, but luckily, the bees were cooperative, and it went so smoothly... beginner's luck, perhaps? I started out wearing my protective bee gear, but found it cumbersome, so I ditched it. I thought I might be inviting a few stings by handling the bees unprotected, but I walked away without a single sting, so I guess I got lucky there, too. Here are some photos of the process... 

The bees came in this wooden box, with a can of sugar water attached to feed
them on their journey. First step is to remove the can, to open the box. 

Using my hive tool to remove the sugar can.

Once the sugar can was out of the way, I put a piece of wood over the hole
to keep all the bees from flying out while I removed the queen, who comes
in her own little box attached to the top.

There she is! The queen! She's hard to see here,
 but believe me, she is lovely! 

The rest of the bees waiting, while I install the queen.

The fun part: Dumping in the bees! The queen is hanging
there in her little box, attached to the top of the frame.
Her bee attendants will help her out soon. 

All in, except for a few stragglers
(who did make there way in on their own when they were ready)

Attaching the feeder

View from the top: The bees are settling in. 

Putting the rest of the frames in.

Brushing some bees off the edge of the box, so
they don't get get squished when I put the top on.

The start of a Happy Hive!