The hive is done...almost

I've decided I'm going to keep bees. I started thinking about it last year about this time (which was too late, you need to have everything ready by now). My grandpa keeps bees (a ton of them, I don't know how many hives he has), and I thought it would be a good way to show some pioneer spirit. Bees are fascinating creatures. I plan on sharing some bee trivia on every post, we'll see how far that goes. Bees guard the entrance to their hive, but if a stranger bee comes to the entrance, he can bribe the guard with some nectar and get some honey from inside!

I have a hive. It is almost done, all I need is to paint the outside, which I plan on doing this week. My bees are coming May 8th. I'm getting excited! I ordered them a little late, but with the cool weather we're having now, I'm not regretting it at all. I ordered 4 lbs to make up for the late start. It's kind of hard to imagine 4 lbs of bees, how much does a bee weigh? How many bees does that make up? Some of them die in transit (sad). The queen will be shipped separately, and I have to go through this whole process to get the bees acclimated to their new queen. I have the weekend they are coming off, so I should be able to devote all the time I need to them. Fun!