I've mentioned the birds... now lets talk about the bees

I know it may seem like I'm jumping ahead in the story, when in actuality, I'm backing up just a tad. Somewhere after having acquired the chickens, but before having actually secured a goat, I decided that I also wanted to try my hand at bee keeping. Why? More like why not! I had decided that if we were indeed going to run a farm, I wanted the animals on it to "pull their own weight" so to speak. Give back what we put in. A friendship, harmoniously balanced with a give and take on both parts. Bees just sorta seemed to naturally fit in to the equation so very perfectly. Because I had extensive experience handling  them you ask? Absolutely not. What kind of fun would that be(e). I had stepped on several honey bees as a child and lived to tell the tale, what more did one REALLY need to know?

I began the obligatory search for bees on line which then lead me to a small organically raised bee farm out of South Carolina. And I was SOLD. The only "string" attached was that the bees, while an active colony, couldn't be transported down here until May. As "The Z man", (trust me, you'll just want to call him that as his full name can only be understood at a frequency which only dogs can hear) explained in detail in an extremely thick German accent, which I will simplify for you now. Bees "hibernate". Which really just means that they are dormant during the winter months, and live off the precious honey that they have painstakingly worked all the rest of the year to produce. So while an active producing colony, they need what they've got. I understood, we shook hands on the deal vicariously through modern technology and that was that.

I went about designing my website and making folks, "facebook aware" of our new venture, and the spoils that it would entail. I was very pleased, AND surprised to see that it was graciously widely received. Almost TOO widely. I was able to gain access to small amounts of our bee's honey via the United States Postal Service which might have been enough, maybe? Until we somehow caught the eye of an AMAZING fresh, as local as they can get and as organic as they're allowed, restaurant(S) home grown in the Orlando vicinity. RusTeak was interested in OUR honey. Please, can we all freak out about this just a little bit? Sigh. Thanks.

 8 pounds to be exact. Monthly. This is TOTALLY doable when your bees aren't asleep somewhere in South Carolina. However, at the moment,  I could easily produce month 1, the next 3...

This left me reeling, and trying desperately to locate local, organic and TRUSTWORTHY bees (the bees are pretty honest, it's their keepers you gotta wonder about). Eureka! In a very bittersweet form. An amazing man who loved his bees (and they had loved him) just "couldn't" any longer.  And, as it were, his children were left guarding one of the "sweetest" legacies any parent could offer. Of which they (after much conversing) had allowed me to adopt one small piece of over 200 hives. No pesticides, or dyes in at least 45 years had come within MILES of these amazing creatures. Wow. What a legacy.

Some of the seemingly "legendary" honey had already been extracted, Which made life just that much easier. And so, without a thought, or care, the story alone told itself, I went all in on one hive. Greatest, and at the same time, possibly the most insane chance I had ever taken. Still, I had all the honey needed to fit the requirements of the demand... and all was right with the...

Oh and then there was this...