Monday, June16, Temp 74, Cloudy
Our first two hives arrrived Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. Our friend Valerie, who is really the brainchild behind this initiative, and her husband Steve arrived with the hives in the back of their truck. The bees came from Sedalia to find a new home in Parker. As Valerie instructed, we found a perfect southeast location for them, made the sugar water (5lbs of sugar to a gallon of water – boil water, then add sugar, cool water) and laid down the pallet.
Within ten minutes of Valerie and Steve placing the hives on the pallets, the forager bees were already doing the bee dance to show the other bees in the hive where to find the perfect flowers.
One super had a few bees outside the box, and the other was eerily silent. Valerie and I both thought that was a little odd, so we opened up the box where the bees were silent. Well, lo and behold, they were working up a storm. The honey and honeycomb already produced was crazy and very thick. It will only be a week or two before we will be adding the next level.
The box that had bees outside the box was the one where the bees were already dancing and out in the field working. They had a job to do and were determined to do it.
As instructed, we placed a small birdbath very close to the boxes, added some rocks, so the bees would not drown, and filled it up with water. The rocks allow the bees something to walk on, so they do not drown in the water.
Valerie helped us clean out the feeders, which are located on the top of the boxes (I will post a photo later) where the sugar water is located, and we added our homemade sugar water. We were instructed to check the water in the birdbath daily and check the sugar water about every other day.
What is so interesting is that we were in Valerie’s hives last week, and I was not as nervous as I thought I would be. The first time we went into the hives, I had a hat on, but Erika did not have anything. I looked at Erika and told her that the reason we get along so well is that we are both a little nuts. She agreed. Now, a week later, we have our own hives and are learning as much as we can about bees. Keep learning. Bees are very misunderstood. 
Go BEES!
I will post the class schedule in the next few days. Thank you again to all our wonderful volunteers and attendees. Next year is guaranteed to be even more successful.