Xmas 2018

The year of the Bee

‘Tis the season and for this years gift we had high hopes to give everyone honey. Turns out its hard and takes more than one season. Here, we will document our trials and tribulations with having a honeybee hive and what/how we did what we did to bring you your holiday gift in 2018 🙂

April 2018 – Getting the gear

We decided for this years Christmas we wanted to give friends and family honey from an actual beehive. Like a beehive we managed. This was exciting because not only is honey a great natural sweetener, but bees are crucial to our ecosystem and are incredible little creatures.

Sarah and I did a bunch of research, we planned on where would host it (turns out its my folks because we thought we might move – spoiler alert we moved) and started thinking about what we’d need to host it. While bees can seem a bit daunting, especially because I am allergic, we dove in. Sarah simply made sure we had readily available EpiPens.

We wanted a hive that was easy to manage and get the honey out of so we decided on the Warre hive via the folks at beebuilt.com. They had a great selection and accessories for us to make beekeeping as easy as possible. Fortunately they have a great starter kit and their support has been great. And they are local which is hard to beat.

May 2018 – Setting up the Site

Now that we had our hive assembled and the gear to tend them, we needed to find a spot for them. We setup plot at the house we were living at and realized we’d likely be moving soon so changed the plan. Off to my folks!

Side note: I have asked a lot of my folks in the past but have never said, “You guys game for hosting about 30,000 bees?!” It just doesn’t come up in conversation. As much as I tried. In any case, they agreed and we setup shop there getting things in order for the base of the beehive.

May 2018 – Getting our “SWARM”

We picked up our swarm from the folks over at Bridgetown Bees and they were so wonderful. We dropped off our empty box and they went to it.

A couple of weeks later, we got the call “your hive is ready” and Sarah and I went into action. Well, we showed up. We boxed up our hive and put it in the back of the car and Sarah sat in the back to keep an eye on it just to make sure it didn’t tip over. We’re talking about heading from deep NE to just over the hill close to St. Vincent’s. We had no idea what to expect. Destination; my parents back yard.

When you first start thinking about doing a hive and more importantly when you actually get one there is a bit of anxiety. I mean we’re talking about like several thousand bees you have to get to your house. In your car. On bumpy I-84.  My favorite part of the trip was Sarah telling me on the ride, “Ummm one got out and its in my hair.” I was like, “Sarah, let’s just power through.” Honestly that should be the anthem for our marriage. Ha.

Unlike yellow jackets, honey bees do not want to sting you. The bee that landed on Sarah simply just rode on her all the way home and his objective was to be close to the hive. We got them to my folks and placed and we were like, “This is super easy.” Yeah.

Late May 2018

We started with one box to get our hive going and in May we knew the hive was growing and we needed to add another box to it. When you think about moving around a couple thousand bees its a little nerve racking … We figured it out though. Honestly after we did it we laughed at how easy it was but we did not forget the mantra of other bee keepers; plan for the worst, hope for the best.

We had our whole suits on, extra smoke, tools for split the hive, etc. In all the first addition to the hive took about 30 seconds and the most boring slow-motion video we have ever done. That said, you’re kind of shooting for that. 🙂

June 2018

Our friends Joey and “Karri” Tattersall got married in late October 2017 and they had a fantastic ceremony in Lake Tahoe. One of the gifts was wild flowers which we immediately knew would be perfect for our bees even though we didn’t have them yet.  Joey/Kari: we kinda took as many packets as we could get our hands on because we had a plan. We planted them all right next to our hive. 🙂 Kari and Joey’s love grew beautiful flowers in the garden and those flowers allowed the bees to harvest nectar and bring that nectar back to the hive. Thanks for spreading the love guys, we love you!

Mid-June 2018

We had a great time watching the hive grow and learning about managing bees. What was even cooler was being able to see inside of the hive via the plexiglass windows we had. We could see the hive itself growing at an incredible pace as well as see the troubles hives have with yellow jackets and other predatory insects trying to take out our hive. It was a tough year with yellow jackets but our bees did a great job keeping everybody honest.

At some point we realized we did not want to harvest the honey. We needed to make sure that our bees had enough to survive the winter. Next year, the bees will be able to put more effort towards filling the combs rather than building out the hive. Hopefully, that means that next year there will be an abundance of honey.

September 2018

Well it turns out other animals love honey too. We got lucky though as our hive was only tipped over and in such a way that it didn’t hurt the combs inside the hive. Phew! Still it was yet-another-nerve-racking moment while owning/managing bees.

November 2018

When it gets to the end of the season and the chill is in the air, the hive takes a distinctly different path. There are drones and worker bees in the hive and in their infinite wisdom, the bees kick out the drones for the winter so the hive can sustain through the winter. After all, you don’t need drones to forage if its the middle of winter. So get you get the following:

November 2018 – Plan B

Welp, turns out we did a lot of learning with this gift. So, instead of honey this year, you get some Sayulita Sea Salt. Sayulita is a special place for us because it right next to the small town where we got married, Lo de Marcos. Our wedding cake was made in Sayulita and we love everything about that magical city. As you may know, the quality of produce in Mexico is far superior than in the U.S. and the same goes for the salt. Its a chunkier salt that is great for finishing things like olive oil/balsamic, eggs and other things that need an eclectic salt for your dishes. We hope you enjoy it and consider this your reservation for the 2019 honey that WILL happen. 

Thank you!

We do these gifts because our friends and family are so important to us and we love to share with everyone some of our favorite experiences from the year.

Fantastic year and sorry you don’t get honey this year but consider this Sayulita Salt gift a placeholder for next year 🙂

Merry Christmas and hope you all enjoy! If you have feedback by all means drop us a line at us@kvetut.com!