I have been so nervous about the impending arrival of my beehive! so this weekend, I thought I should make good use of all of that nervous energy, and start preparing a spot for the ladies. it's not much, but it'll do. they're going to be on a lower roof of the building (above the first floor, I stay on the fourth floor). I'll have to run down the back stairs to access them, and unfortunately I won't be able to watch them from my "porch" (that's what I call my little spot on the fire escape), but it's solid, there's another tenant's garden on the other side of that fence behind the burlap, and it'll do. the hive will rest on two cinderblocks, on top of a pallet.
I put up the burlap for a few reasons:
shade
wind break
privacy
flight patterns
I'm hoping I won't roast my bees in the hot summer sun, see the whole hive tip over in a gust of wind, freak out my neighbors, or have to worry about the bees flying directly out of the hive and into a group of artists while they're sipping their coffee and sketching and writing in their journals in the morning.
a few of the other tenants are apprehensive about this whole bee thing, so I want to make sure they're comfortable. a few others are excited, and one guy wanted to plant things in his garden that the bees would dig. Wicker Park (the actual park) has a pretty great garden club, so I think the bees will enjoy that, and the garden club will too, and a lot of my neighbors keep nice little gardens in their yards, so hopefully we'll all be benefitting from this.
anyway, the point being... when I get nervous, or worried, it's usually just because I know I have work to do, and I feel a lot better after I do it.
I purchased the live working colony hive from Belmont Feed and Seed, it should be here by the end of the month. I did this because it seemed like a pretty affordable option, and, knowing that first year nuc or package hives don't always produce, in the hope that I would have some honey to speak for by August.
I'm still terrified, and nervous, and worried, but I'm also really excited. I can't wait for the day when I can sit out there and just hear the hive humming, or for my first hive inspection, the first time I really hold a frame full of live bees in my hands. I've felt for months now like an expectant mother, going through all the stages -- excitement, nesting, panic. but the day is soon upon me, so yeah... now I'm getting to work.
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