Back in October, my wife Erin and I went to Farm Aid in Milwaukee. It was a great show, with lots of great music and information about sustainable food. One of my favorite songs from the concert was Jason Mraz's Frank D. Fixer (seen here). It got me thinking about what I could do to produce some of my own food. My family has a 5th generation family farm, so I have a lot of farming heritage. Without giving up my day job, I wanted to do something. I'll make that guy be me (listen to song for the reference). After talking to one of the people I work with at the DOT, I decided I would try beekeeping. We have a wonderful location next to badger prairie park, which is a 2000 acre prairie restoration. I think they will also help Erin's garden, the 4 fruit trees we planted last year and the wild plums in our yard.
I did a lot of research on how to get started. My first decision was what kind of hive I wanted to use. I decided to use what is called a top bar hive, which is different from the white boxes most of you think of when you think of bee hives. This hive is like a trough with "slats" that the bees build honeycomb on. They are smaller than Langstroth (white box) hives and are more interactive with the bees. I thought I would learn the most starting with a top bar hive.
I received a garden hive for christmas from my parents. It looks really well done. I began assembling it yesterday, only to discover I am missing some of the connector bolts to attach the bottom to the sides. I went to a couple hardware stores yesterday and couldnt find the bolt I needed, so I am going to try some furniture stores tomorrow. If all else fails, I use a longer screw and just screw the bottom to the sides. But, since I have some time, I'll try to do it the way it was intended to be built. I'll put some pictures here when I get further along.
I also signed up for a beginning beekeeping class thats put on by the Dane County Beekeepers club. Its on February 5th, so I've got plenty of time to think of questions, like "how do I get bees?!"
4 comments:
Yay! I'll "bee" watching closely and taking notes. In a few years I might be coming to you for lessons.
Actually, that song makes me think of Dad. How many times do we have him come over and fix something at our house? Good thing we have him around to help us out. Hopefully someday I'll be able to do that for Walter. Ok, dad will still be around and will be able to help both us and Walter out!
I love it! I was wondering how you get bees too! And the song is great. My grandfather and my father would have loved it too! There are so many things to fix and we start where we can.
To bee or not to bee? You've answered the age old question! Best wishes in your new venture!
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