Jacob has been fascinated with bees since he was a little boy, and I've loved to eat honey since I was a little girl, so we were both excited with the idea of getting bees. Jacob researched it out and built a beehive, called a top bar beehive. Basically, the box is hollow inside, and you lay bars across the top. The bars have a thin strip of beeswax inlaid facing down. So when the bees are deposited, they know to start building from that beeswax. They build a file of comb that tapers down. They'll do that with each bar. So far they're building on about 5 of the bars. The biggest comb is about 10 inches wide and 10 inches long. It's really fascinating to see.
In the picture below you'll see a little tiny box with one bee inside. That's the queen. She successfully ate her way out and is now reigning quite well in the hive.
It's a fun experiment. Jacob looks great in the bee suit. And so far no stings--except for one that Jacob got on his pinky finger at his friend's house. In the picture below is the first bee we spotted returning to the hive with pollen.
1 comment:
Wow - I had no idea that's how it worked. I can't wait to see it in real life and see the honey you get from it. This is so cool.
-Jody
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