And so it begins…<\/p>\n
Last week I went to a beekeeping class. The teachers were hilarious. They just kept making fun of each other. Some of them do it for fun like I will. One of them does it as a side business. It’s pretty amazing to see how into it they still are after 8, 10, 15 years.<\/p>\n
The warnings are stark… you will fail. You will have a hard time keeping them alive. It is expensive to get started.<\/p>\n
But the opportunities are there too… lots of honey, lots of wax (chap stick forever!), and a whole new hobby to explore.<\/p>\n
I’m really excited because it gives me a hobby that isn’t technology. It gives me a pet who I can leave for a month at a time, and it will be ok. And it gives me something really fun to do with the kids that also teaches them about simpler things.<\/p>\n
So after class number one, I’ve sat here tonight and looked at multiple bee equipment vendors finding the least expensive one. There’s a tie between two of them, and the guy teaching the class had a very clear winner in his eyes.<\/p>\n
I think I’ll go with that one, but I’m going to call them to see if it’s even cheaper than I thought. Then we’ll build the hive. Take one more class in March. And then the bees show up in April.<\/p>\n
Then we rock and roll.<\/p>\n
Here’s the crazy thing… your bees take about 6 weeks to\u00c2\u00a0find<\/em> themselves. Well in that six weeks, the only bee that you bought that will still be alive will be the queen. The rest will have died, and the queen will have repopulated her hive.<\/p>\n And in 18 months when she can’t lay any more eggs? Well, they off her, find a new queen, and start all over again.<\/p>\n Crazy, huh?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And so it begins… Last week I went to a beekeeping class. The teachers were hilarious. They just kept making fun of each other. Some of them do it for fun like I will. One of them does it as a side business. It’s pretty amazing to see how into it they still are after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[70,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pQyAq-nN","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1505,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/03\/24\/beekeeping-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":0},"title":"Beekeeping update","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The bees are ordered!They arrive on April 11. There will be a queen, and her newly adopted family of 10k bees.\u00a0I have 2 more frames to paint. I have an entire stand to build. And then the infrastructure to support the bees will be finished.\u00a0This weekend, I got to go\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in beekeeping"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1591,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/05\/16\/beekeeping-update-video-of-the-action\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":1},"title":"Beekeeping update - Video of the action","date":"May 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"I promised my dad I would make a video of an inspection with all of the action. Here's the intro video: Today's game plan was to fill up the sugar water, and then make sure that the hive is queen right. Queen right is just terminology to mean that there\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in beekeeping"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1530,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/04\/11\/twas-the-night-before-bee-mas\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":2},"title":"'Twas the night before Bee-mas\u00c2\u00a0","date":"April 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"and all through the night. I'm slaving away on one last project. I started it last weekend, and I'm inches away from finished. Over the course of the week I've learned that:I'm so glad that Davis Drive Middle School had wood shop, and I spent 3 years there with Mr.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in beekeeping"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1555,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/04\/25\/talking-about-bees\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":3},"title":"Talking about bees...","date":"April 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We are on week 2 of bees.\u00a0 I've reduced the hive down to one super (the technical term for the boxes). It started off as 3 boxes - 1 to house the bee transport box, 1 with frames (the technical term for where the bees build comb), and 1 to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in beekeeping"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1549,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2015\/04\/24\/dont-teach-fear-teach-respect-instead\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":4},"title":"Don't teach fear; teach respect instead","date":"April 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The bees are drinking as much sugar water as the kids are drinking milk. It's amazing how quickly two sets of little ones can consume these liquids. And so yesterday, I went to refill the sugar water for the bees so I wouldn't have to do it this morning. Mornings\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in beekeeping"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":220,"url":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/2009\/10\/30\/frankly-my-dear-no-one-gives-a-damn\/","url_meta":{"origin":1475,"position":5},"title":"Frankly my dear, no one gives a damn","date":"October 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"That's how I feel right now about my need to make excuses for myself of late. No one gives a damn, and nor should they. I don't have any good ones... there rarely is a good one. I need a good reason to move forward, and I think that I've\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "just thinking out loud"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onvural.net\/melih\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}