It’s been a while since we’ve given you an update on our bee hives: We’ve been patiently letting them set up their homes and gear up for the coming winter. You see, fall honey production is dedicated to building up a stockpile to survive the cold months, and since our hives are just a few months old, we have to be mindful not to leave the cupboards bare. But when one produced several full sheets of capped honey in one week, we knew it would be okay to quench our curiosity and have a little taste. We took one sheet and scraped off all of the comb, including the honey, and mashed it through a fine filter. The honey we gathered is a rich a dark brown, the result of a fall harvest from lots of oak and chestnut trees near our home. The taste is unbelievable! It has a depth and flavor you just don’t get from mass produced honey. We got three precious bottles: One of our neighbor (whose flowers keep our bees happy), one for the vault and one to eat now! I’m hoping it will help fend off my seasonal allergies, which have been bad lately. Let the good times flow. — Angela M.

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When last we wrote about our three little bee hives, we were excitedly anticipating the honey we thought we’d have in just a couple of weeks. Well, here we are, and alas, are sadly reporting we have no honey to share. All three hives seem to be thriving, but none have moved on up to into the honey “super” on the third level. This is not a cause for concern… yet. In fact, some say that you can’t expect new hives to produce any honey at all during their first season. Still, we’re are somewhat deflated. Oh well… at least this gives us more time to debate our future honey’s name and shop for cool jars. — Angela M.

Big news from the bee corner! As you can see, our hives are growing — and getting more colorful. We have added a second “hive super” to all three hives — a “super” is a layer in the hive. Once one layer is nearly full, the beekeeper adds another level to encourage more bee and honey production. After two levels are full, a third is added — this is a honey super. The honey super has a screen barricade that prevents the queen from entering, which means she can’t lay eggs there. Since the baby bee production is limited to the bottom levels, the top floor becomes filled with pure honey comb. That’s where we can take the honey from. As you can see from the photo, our first hive (on the right) already has grown to three levels. We could have honey from that hive in just a couple of weeks! As for the colors, well, we thought the bees needed a little decorating. Our next big task: coming up with a name for our little honey production. Any suggestions? — Angela M.

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When last we left you, my amateur-beekeeper husband Chad was gleefully exclaiming, “I see larvae!” after peeking in on his hive. Well, that success may have gone to his head, or perhaps he was bitten by some bizarre beekeeping bug, because now we have THREE hives. No, the bees didn’t just multiply like mad. Rather, Chad decided he needed more bees. At first he told me was ordering ONE more hive, but he “mistakenly” messed up the order and we got two. Hmpf. There is some rationale to this: the plan is to make slight variations in each hive, so we can learn which techniques work best. Each one has a different type of “foundation” which allows the bees to build and construct the honeycomb. So now we have three hives and about eighteen thousand bees (and counting!). Hopefully, by the end of fall, we’ll have about a hundred pounds of honey. Stay tuned! — Angela M.

Yippee! The queen is in the house! After a week of wondering if our bees were in danger without royalty to guide them, we are pleased to report that our hive’s queen is indeed in residence. Chad darted up to the cottage the other day to check things out. When he pulled the files out of the hive, not only did he find that our little winged pals had been super busy producing honeycomb, but they’re making more bees. That’s right, he saw some baby bees! I swear the pride in Chad’s voice when he called with the news was comparable to our first Isadora-ultrasound. It is very exciting. In the photo above, you can see the honeycomb they are building — isn’t its shape amazing? And if you click here you can see the latest video of the fun on YouTube. More buzzzzzzzz soon! — Angela M.

Here it is, one week after installing the bees into our new hive. The time had come for us to check on their progress. We needed to see that they were getting to work, building honeycomb, collecting pollen and nectar. Also, we wanted to confirm that queen was still in there, getting lots of attention and laying eggs (sometimes in a new hive, the queen may leave). I must admit it is a little scary approaching a thriving hive in the middle of a sunny day. I stood back a few feet while Chad got up close and personal with the hive. He carefully pulled out each “file” and inspected it. We couldn’t believe how much honeycomb these little guys had produced after just a few days! It’s so amazing. But, unfortunately, we could not spot the queen and don’t think we saw any evidence of eggs. It’s really hard to tell though, with hundreds of bees buzzing around on each file — as the above image shows. If you click here you can see a mega-sized image. Perhaps you can spot the queen? We couldn’t! We’re trying not to panic though. Chad’s going to check again this week, and hopefully he’ll spot her or evidence of eggs. If not, we may have to order another queen — pronto — and hope our hive survives! — Angela M.

We have four thousand new buddies at our River Cottage today. That’s right, the bees have finally arrived, after being delayed a couple of weeks due to weather. These are Italian bees that were shipped from Georgia to Betterbee, where Chad picked them on Saturday morning. The box they came in was about the size of a toaster oven. Because it was cold outside, and they had been traveling for days, the honeybees were really mellow, all huddled together and softly buzzing. Needless to say, I’ve never seen so many bees in one place. And, I never thought I’d say this, but honey bees are damn cute! Nothing like those pesky yellow jackets or chunky bumblebees. Approximately four thousand bees were in that box, along with the queen in her own special container. To get the bees in the hive, you pull out the queen’s box, place it in the hive, and shake all the other bees in. They are dying to be near the queen — whose box has a door made out of candy that bees eat to free her — and follow her immediately. Amazing, huh? Chad got stung only once. Sadly, some bees did die in the transfer. We think the cold temp may have been too much for them. But the next day, the sun came out and we could see the busy workers coming and going from the hive’s entrance. We’ll check on them in a few days to make sure the queen has made her way successfully out of the box. Wanna see more? Click here to watch Chad’s the installation of the bees on YouTube — Angela M.

Our bees are late. They were supposed to arrive last Saturday, but at the last minute we got a call saying they wouldn’t be available until this Saturday… something about the weather still being a touch too cold for them. We used our extra weekend to get our garden ready for our a buzzing friends. When we bought the place, the front garden was a bit of an overgrown mess. A wild vine was consuming the fireplace, and the little patch of dirt was an uneven cluster of flowers and weeds. Chad’s been clearing out the clutter, and this Saturday it was finally ready for some planting. We heard that bees really respond to purple flowers, so we put in some May Night Salvia, Emerald Blue Moss Phlox and my favorite, Provence Lavender. This will keep things pretty and tasty for a month or so. But what we need to do next is plant some autumn blooming flowers, so the bees will be kept busy for months and months. Something yellow, perhaps. Any suggestions? — Angela M.

You know that I’ve been a little quiet on the blog recently because I’ve been falling madly love with our daughter, a little ten-pound three-month-old named Isadora. But what you don’t know is that Chad and I are about to start a new adventure at our Catskill cottage — beekeeping! Well, it’s really more Chad’s thing than mine, but I fully support this new hobby of his. For the past few months, he’s been reading up on beekeeping, learning most of what he needs through a company called Betterbee. The other day, he assembled the hive with the help of a brad gun (many, many nails were required). The bees arrive this Saturday. Chad has been trying to talk me into going with him to pick them at the farm, but my better judgement tells me NOT to be in a tiny Honda Fit with 5,000 bees. I don’t care how they’re crated: Isadora and I will hang at home, thank you very much. It’s exciting, though. I’m sure you’re aware of the serious perils currently facing honeybees. If our little efforts can help — not to mention produce some delicious honey — it will be well worth a few stings. — Angela M.