YAY! I'm a beekeeper

[likes2grill]

Today my mentor (Dallas) and I put together my 1st hive. I moved it to my bee yard and will open the doors 1st thing in the morning  :-D Much thanks to Dallas for letting me help (mostly watching it done for the first time.) and learn. I hope to keep helping and learning.




 P.S Can't wait for morning to get here... lol  :lol:

[Understudy]

That is awesome. Watch out for that Dallas guy. I expect great things out of him.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

[buzzbee]

Congratulations on being an official Beekeeper! I'm sure you'll be spending a lot of time watching and learning.
Keep us posted on your adventure.Talk soon!  :)

[beemaster]

Dan:

Welcome to the most interesting and fristrating hobby on Earth - I wish you all the best and STUDY those girls using everything you have learned. Having Dallas as a Mentor is a great thing. His speedy voyage from beginner to pollinator/producer has been amazing, he too has great mentors and it is awesome to see the knowledge being share.

Great Beekeeping

[Billy The Beekeeper]

Congrats i hope u have a good time with ur bee's and everything goes well :)           :mrgreen:

[pdmattox]

Congratulations Dan, Good luck and keep us updated.

[Cindi]

Beautiful. It is morning now, so what did you see?  Tell us about your first experience into a new and wonderful life.  You will love to watch the bees, very relaxing and get a comfy chair or just sit on the ground.  Best to your day.  Cindi

[likes2grill]

Well my 1st day as a beekeeper was a long one. I didn't sleep the night before just tosed and turned all night wait'n on day light so I could release my girls. Morning did come and I sat out there watching them come and go and do the things bees do. Never seeing a hive before I wanted to take mental notes on what is normal so I can know when something is wrong. One of the combs broke lose from a frame during  the drive home but they had already started building a new one on the frame so I took out the broken comb and will use it in my swarm trap. It only had uncapped sugar syrup in it so I didn't think it was a big deal.

I did see them bringing in yellow-orange and white pollen so it looks like they are on thier way.  :-D

[Billy The Beekeeper]

sounds good to me but hey if u got any ?'s im sure others and myself would love to answer them for u  :)                   :mrgreen:

[Cindi]

Dan, good for you.  You ain't seen nothin' yet.  You will find watching your bees to be one of the most fascinating things.  They are an entire little world in their own right.  It is fun.  I cannot even begin to count the hours that I have spent watching my bees since I first began two years ago.  There is always something interesting going on out there.  Time seems to have no meaning when I am sitting in the lush green grass near their home, or on a chair, or milk carton.  A milk carton is my favourite thing, other than right on the ground.  Enjoy your new sights in your life.  Have the best day.  Cindi

[Mici]

congrats and best wishes!
i have to join cindy, time stops when you're in front of hives, and that scent, oh that scent that comes out of the hives, if there's a more magnificant smell on this earth...please enlighten me, because the smell that comes out of a ventilated hive is absolutely GORGEOUS!!!

[Zoot]

I have to agree Mici...it is one of nature's most intoxicating scents.

But it might be prudent to prepare Dan for that first time he drops a bee laden frame and his entire body is instantly covered with 10,000 angry bees, dozens penetrating unseen openings in his garb, him running, shrieking, his family looking on in horror.....  Just kidding of course. Welcome aboard Dan. You've chosen well here., great mods, varied input, etc.  I take it you are a carnivore?

[Cindi]

Zoot!!!  Come on now, I am sure that Dan is an omnivore!!!!

Mici, right, there is no other scent on this earth that I can compare to the sweet scent emitted from the entrance of a hive and it is surprising how far away one can detect this aroma.  Beautiful.

Wait.   I think that I do know something that smells nearly as nice, it is one or two flowers.  I grow them, they are night scented flowers, their petals opening at dusk, remaining open all night long and closing with the daylight approaching.  Any guesses?  I have written about these before....think.

Night-scented stock (matthiola bicornis) and nicotiannas (many species). 

Honestly forum members.  If you enjoy to sit outside in the evenings, resting, or whatever and you enjoy intoxicating fragrances from flowers, plant the night scented stock.  You will never regret growing this untidy little plant by day, but when the sun goes down!!!  Watch out.

During my tenure with my small greenhosue business, I pushed this species of stock on my clients.  It is like when one discovers something wonderful, you gotta tell the world.  So many of my clients just looked at me like I was from outer space when I tried to push this little plant on them.  But they complied.  They trusted me.

Everyone that ever brought these little stragglers into their lives came back the following year to tell me of their experience with fragrance and how grateful that I was so pushy to "make" them try. 

I was so anal retentive about pushing this plant, if they refused to buy one, (actually I sold them is groups of 3 to a pot), I would give them one.  They were not leaving the nursery without one in their basket.  I wanted to share the joy of the fragrance.  And as I said, not narry a soul ever regretted that "pushy" woman.

Dare to explore that particular world of fragrance.  Tell me in the fall if you did or if you did not, what your thoughts were, if you were grateful for me to extend this extremely long post about:


NIGHT SCENTED STOCK (MATTHIOLA BICORNIS)
and one that comes to a close second
NICOTIANNA

Do it.  You will not be disappointed.  Plants the plants near where you can catch their alluring fragrance after the sun sets.  Have the most wonderful day, dream of the summer to come.  Cindi

[Zoot]

Cindi,

We actually cultivate a "night garden" on our deck in the summer, moon flowers, etc. It is truly one of the least appeciated yet most magical of horticultural experiences. Once you are initiated you will never give it up. Unfortunately, we have to grow everything as annuals due to the winters here. There is an amazing amount of good literature available on the subject, books by E.L Swann, Peter Loewer, etc. Aside from the aesthetic rewards - scents, visual beauty, etc - ones learns much about other pollinators like moths and bats. Amazing.

[Cindi]

Zoot, agreed, the night gardens.  NOt too many are involved in that.  Too bad, is such a shame, as you said, one there, you will never look back.  I love to grow the highly fragrant trailing blue petunias, they are pollinated very highly by the night flyers.  I hear them when I sit out on the patio in the dark. I do this many times, I am in another world in the nighttime gardens.  White, a colour that is luminescent in nightime, particularly nearing the full moon and days surrounding.  I love the night garden and its scents, it is  magical and takes one to another place in time.  We know that.  Most of my flowers in my immediate home area are annuals.  They die off in mid October, anything in containers I consider an annual.  I await their presence all winter long.

I do not know the moonflower.  Is it a member of the mornig glory family?  I seem to recall something about the flower, but I can't bring it to the forefront of my mind.  If you don't mind, elaborate a little bit on the moonflower for me.  I could google it, but I have a lazy side.  Best and beautiful day.  Cindi

[Zoot]

Cindi,

I'd have to look up the details tomorrow - I'd wake up the house if i go banging around right now. But I do recall it also being known as Queen of The Night. It's a vine and would probably go crazy where you are. My girlfriend's brother grows them all over his ranch in Pt. reyes CA which is where I got the seeds from originally. I also saw them for the first time ever in a catalogue this year, The Cook's garden.
We grow the others you mentioned along with new ones each year. I can't tell you how much I look forward to being able to re-plant this garden each year, alas, a solitary pleasure as I'm the only one in our home who appreciates it.

Not sure what stimulated my 'carnivore" comment. No Idea whatsoever. It just sort of came to me....

[reinbeau]

Moonflower is one of the common names that cause the most confusion. 

One vining plant called Moonflower is Ipomoea alba, a member of the morning glory family. 

Datura is also sometimes called Moonflower, typically Datura inoxia.

I think there are others, too.  Thus the confusion.

[TwT]

Congratulations Dan, you are hooked now so get ready to start some more hives, want be long you can pollinate with ole Dallas.....

[Cindi]

Poor Dan, man did we get off topic, going to the proper forum.

So Dan, I am looking forward to hearing more about what you are seeing with your bees.  Keep us informed, it is good to watch and learn.  Have the best day, guy.  Cindi