I'm a freshly minted beekeeper in Rogers County, Oklahoma.
I'd been thinking about getting into beekeeping for 4-5 years and had done quite a bit of studying on the subject over the last several years but I'd just never quite made the commitment.
The 21st of April I Had a swarm take up on a tree branch about 20' out my backdoor and about 14' up in the air.
Being an amateur photog the first thing I did was grab the camera and get some pics, the second thing was to call a beekeeper friend/co-worker to see if he wanted to come get the swarm.
He showed up with a hive and his bee jacket and we proceeded to put the swarm in the hive. Somewhere about then I realized that it was unlikely that he was going to load an open hive full of bees in the back of his SUV. He told me he knew I wanted to get bees and had decided to "push me over the edge" a little.
Cool!
Friday morning when I got home from work they were still in the hive. When I got up for the day a little after noon they were gone, not even a hint they had been around.
Win some lose some. Saturday a little before noon I figured I load up the hive and take it back to the guy. Darned if the bees hadn't moved back into the box. Lots of bee butts in the air fanning and other bees taking out the trash left by the colony that had died out the previous winter.
They were a pretty small group of bees and I wasn't counting my honey just yet. The first inspection was at the 2 week point and being a little nervous I was extra cautious handling the frames covered in bees and didn't see and eggs or brood. Yesterday I inspected again and found eggs, larva and capped brood.
The swarm looks like it may make a go at it yet.
But being fully hooked on bees now I had decided to hedge my bets and bought a couple of nucs from a local operation. So in the course of a little over 2 weeks I went from no bees to 3 hives.
This stuff is addictive.
Topic: New beekeeper in NE Oklahoma (Read 2370 times)