Assmbling beehives is one of my winter-time beekeeping activities. I purchase unassembled hives to save money and I build them in the basement between January and April… except all of my basement space this year is full of fermenting wine. Realizing that I need to get busy finishing the hives that I had delivered last month, it seemed to be a good idea to clear off the coffee table in the living room and assemble hive bodies. I can stack them on the front deck outside and then plan for a day or two of painting when it is warmer.

It is likely that I need to order a few more hives due to a possible miscalculation of bees that I ordered in this year of expansion. The miscalculation occurred when I placed an order with Barry in NY for four nucs of bees because his bees do very well for me and I enjoy the drive out to his farm. They are so assertive that I cannot do yard work without getting stung, but they are great honey producers and usually successful surviving the winter. I also ordered four nucs of bees from Mike in Ohio… because his bees also have been very successful for me and I enjoy visiting him. Mike’s life is *literally* all about honey bees and butterflies. It is not unusual to see bees flying around inside of his home and his yard contains hundreds of hives. He also raises butterflies on the tree branches in his yard. I also ordered two nucs of bees from Matt this weekend because the one year that I got honey bees from Matt and his father, they were black honey bees. Over the following two years, my own bee population became a mix of regular and black honey bees as new queens mated with all of the different males.

I will know for certain how many additional hives I need to order and build once I have the opportunity to perform a good inspection on all of the hives at the larger apiary.