Bees!

I've gotten a little behind with my plans for this winter.  I had intended to plant lettuce under our grow lights and have not yet.  I intended to take cuttings from the grape vines, and haven't.  My other to-do project this winter was get bees ordered.

photo credit Petitepets.com

That, I actually did, which means my Mister needs to get hopping (as soon as he is healthy again) and build a hive.  We've decided to use a Top Bar Hive instead of the traditional type of hive.  The honey production is slightly lower, but it's much easier to use, cheaper (especially since mr. can build it himself) and produces lots of wax that we can use.  I'm looking into making those wickless candle square refill things....  The harvesting of the honey is also much easier, since we don't need any special equipment.  A potato masher, cheesecloth for straining out the wax, some clean buckets, and the sunshine should take care of the entire process.

The bees will arrive in april, and we're looking forward to adding them to our suburban homestead.