Honey Bees in the Garden

We have a beehive! Back in early May, our neighbor set up a hive in our little garden. He has quite a few hives, at his house down the street and near some cranberry bogs up in Wisconsin, and had asked us if he could put one here. Oh, yes!

A few weeks later the bees arrived. He opened the back of his vehicle and there were boxes and boxes of bees for the new hives he's setting up -- and a few strays just flying around.

He set up the first part of the hive and then put in the queen. (She's in the little rectangular box in his right hand.)


She's sealed in the little box with a bit of beeswax and when the other bees find her, they eat away the wax to release her into her new kingdom.




All the bees are poured on top of the racks and when they settle down, with a little smoke applied to calm them, the top boxes are stacked into place.

And here's our new hive. It's so fun to watch the bees and see where they are each day. They were very busy on the crab tree a few weeks ago. Yesterday they were all over the patch of mourning-widow geranium. Usually I deadhead the geranium a bit early so it doesn't self-sow all over, but this year I'll be waiting for the bees to finish. And I'm planning to put some more plants in just for the bees. Then maybe they won't mind sharing their honey with me at the end of the summer.