New Beek and new Hives!

HomeBru · April 25, 2009, 12:06:58 PM

Last fall, my oldest, Ben (13) decided he wanted to raise some extra money by keeping bees. After a winter of reading, research (lots on this site and others!), building and preparing our bees finally arrived yestearday! Ben did GREAT and didn't need a whole lot of help from his old man. The whole time, he kept saying, "This is SO COOL!".

We were both a little nervous at first, but very quickly got comfortable (and excited!) with bees crawling on our hands and gently guiding them out of the way while closing up. We're both hooked!

Here he is by the first installed hive. (SBB, one super, hive top feeder inside second super, ventilated top, our "custom" cover.)

Kathyp · April 25, 2009, 12:09:57 PM

that is very cool. has he gone to the kids section on this site? i think there are a couple of kids about his age.

good work from both of you. another beekeeper is born!!!!

tlynn · April 25, 2009, 12:38:14 PM

Good for you Ben and dad! Great looking hive too. Looking forward to progress posts!

Tracy

slaphead · April 26, 2009, 07:31:20 AM

Awesome, that's one cool looking hive.

Hope the girls flourish and you have some great father-and-son time.

SH

Jim134 · April 26, 2009, 08:13:54 AM

Quote from: kathyp on April 25, 2009, 12:09:57 PM
that is very cool. has he gone to the kids section on this site? i think there are a couple of kids about his age.

good work from both of you. another beekeeper is born!!!!

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/board,80.0.html

BEE HAPPY Jim 134 :)

asprince · April 26, 2009, 11:03:38 AM

Beekeeping is an excellent family project!

good luck, Steve

Hethen57 · April 26, 2009, 12:08:20 PM

Sounds familiar. I'm enjoying the hobby with 13 yo son Hudson. We did the same thing...studied up on the project, built the equipment, and finally installed our bees last weekend. We are having a blast.

chad · April 26, 2009, 12:26:57 PM

Hive looks great.I love the top,how do you vent it on the inside?I'm new to beekeeping,me and my 14 year old son went and removed a hive from under a house.I want to build a top for my hive.Just want to know how to vent one.

Brian D. Bray · April 26, 2009, 11:08:46 PM

One thing of note: If you learn something when young chances are you'll return to it in your dottery. Starting beekeeping as a teenager will mean he will be a beekeeper when he gets older, regardless of where or what he does in between.

Two Bees · April 27, 2009, 02:05:43 PM

That's true, Brian! I first was introduced to beekeeping as a 10 year old boy scout. My assistant scoutmaster was a big-time beek with significant commercial hives but he still liked to work with hobbyists. After earning the Beekeeping Merit Badge, I always thought it was cool.

After almost 50 years, I decided to get into beekeeping and have enjoyed it as much as a 10 year old kid!

Natalie · April 27, 2009, 03:19:44 PM

Congratulations on the new endeavor! I am happy to see other kids getting into beekeeping.
My son has his own hive this year as well and its been great.
The hive looks great, love the design!
Have your son check out the kids forum here, there are a couple of other boys his age trying to get it more active.

HomeBru · April 28, 2009, 03:08:25 PM

Quote from: chad on April 26, 2009, 12:26:57 PM
Hive looks great.I love the top,how do you vent it on the inside?I'm new to beekeeping,me and my 14 year old son went and removed a hive from under a house.I want to build a top for my hive.Just want to know how to vent one.

I built our "inner cover" from plans on honey run apiaries and our top was our interpretation of the Brushy Mtn. garden hive. It will give us enough room for a jar feeder if needed but mostly it just looks cool...

thx, J-