I am not just a photographer, but also a beekeeper. I’ve been keeping bees for over twelve years. It’s definitely an unusual hobby, but has really gained importance over the last few years. You are probably wondering how I became a beekeeper. I live across the street from a county park. (If you ever have the opportunity to visit Northern Virginia, you must visit Frying Pan Park, which is a working farm.) Every summer they have the 4-H fair at Frying Pan Park, where many young people come together and display their agricultural knowledge and animals or produce they have raised. One of the tables had a demonstration on how to raise honey bees. I was fascinated and convinced my father, who has a background in agriculture, to join the 4-H club named To Be a Bee. My father and I had to take classes on how to raise honeybees before we got our own hives. This is a picture of how the bees come before we put them in the hive.
This is a picture of me when I first started beekeeping. It was taken in 2006.
This is the queen cage. If you look closely you can see she is marked with a blue dot. The other bees with the queen are called Nurse Bees.
There are approximately 10,000 bees in that box. The queen does not socialize with the rest of the bees. She comes in her own box with her helpers. Her box is taped in the middle of the hive so the other bees can let her free. Then she is ready to lead the hive. It's not rocket science to get the rest of the bees out of the box. The beekeeper shakes the box until all the bees make their way home to their new hive.
Here is a picture of me shaking the bees out of the box into their new home.
After the bees are all shaken out, we close the hive and let them be for a week before we check on them again. It's that simple. That's the buzz about bees. If you would like more information on bees, check out my Facebook page, beehappy.