Bees have kind of taken over the lives of a few of us. I’ve been amazed at how much Gabriel has learned—he’s always teaching us and others about bees. He and Carl have gotten a little obsessed, to be honest. Another cool thing? Sometimes Gabriel needs help, and when Carl isn’t around, Benjamin has been more than happy to step in. It’s been nice seeing their bond grow deeper than just big brother and little brother.
On Thanksgiving, we harvested a bit of honey with our extended family. Gabriel loved sharing the experience with everyone.
That morning, before the rest of the family arrived, the three of them—Gabriel, Carl, and Benjamin—went out to the bee yard to check the frames. They came back with about 10 frames ready for harvesting.
Then they spotted a small swarm on the ground. No idea if it came from our hives or not. Our hives have plenty of space, but you never know with bees.
They quickly grabbed a deep (a type of hive box) and placed it near the swarm…
…and one by one, the bees marched right in.
We’ve had a little trouble with a feral bee hive that Gabriel rescued. He tried to domesticate it by introducing an Italian queen, but the worker bees didn’t accept her and started making their own queen instead. So Gabriel basically took the “Italian” hive and gave it to the swarm hive. He had to get rid of the feral bees but left their brood comb behind. At least, that’s what I think happened—it all went down so fast while I was busy cooking dinner. But it was pretty exciting, and the swarm hive seems to be thriving now.
As most of you know, we’re still figuring this whole bee-keeping thing out—we only started this spring. Even Gabriel, as much as he’s learned, mostly has book smarts, not hands-on experience. But if you have questions, a great place to check out is Beverly’s Bees. They’re incredibly knowledgeable and super sweet. I’ve left random questions in their comments before, and Anita always responds with such kindness.