As I sit and type inside by the woodstove for another morning, I would say, ‘it’s been a long winter.’ But honestly, this winter has FLOWN by for me! I think because I’ve been gearing up for so very many spring projects, I didn’t get quite as much quiet time for marinating, reflecting and hibernating as I normally would like. But now that some seeds are going and spring fever has hit…I’m okay with that. :)

In terms of homesteading, I do plan a lot of my life around the weather these days. There are many things I can still get done in the cold and other things that I’m willing to do in the rain, but when it’s cold AND rainy, I surrender. Those are computer work days. We’ve had quite a few days lately that are just not jiving with my plans, but here’s my apiary progress thus far.

I spent a good portion of the winter and early spring months building, priming, designing and hand-painting my hive boxes. It was a lot of work, but such a nice creative outlet for me. I love designing beautiful things.

That said, I am glad I took the advice of a beekeeping friend and only painted the fancy stuff on 3 sides, leaving the back ‘blank’ of flowers. Not only did this save hours upon hours of painting time, but it will also give a reference point to put things back together when the hives are completely disassembled. Now I’ve been working on polyurethane coats to make sure that they’re all good and protected (and also fully cured and safe) before my bees arrive!

I do still have 4 more ‘supers’ to paint (extra more shallow boxes that will sit on the top when the bees are producing lots of honey) that I’m hoping may not be needed this first year. Worst case scenario, I suppose the bees can just suffer and use them sans-flowers if they must, but that seems abusive.

For now at least, I’ve elevated and leveled the hives onto cinder-blocks. I waffled a LOT about what types of hive stands to use, but in the end, these blocks are saving me a lot of time (in delayed shipping of allthethings) and money (because they were already laying back behind my shed!) If you know me at all, you know that I’ll surely plant something small and cute around the hives to camouflage the blocks a bit. Probably Marigolds.

So the next big and necessary part of the apiary that I am working on is the fencing.

Next to the bees, bear-fencing is arguably the most important part of a bee yard.

I’ve read and heard first-hand many awful accounts of bears absolutely decimating apiaries within a matter of hours. Many people think their hives are safe just because they’ve never seen a bear, but in reality, they’re just lucky.

Bears LOVE honey and can detect scents up to 20 miles away.

Plus, we HAVE seen bears on our property. The worst part is that if a bear discovers your bees and has any success, it will be back night after night until it is all gone. Prevention is pretty much the only option to protect all of this hard work.

I’m going to be using metal stakes, 14 gauge wire to make 4 hot lines, a solar charger/battery unit and a top barbed wire. Many seasoned beekeepers have mentioned the ‘bacon’ trick, which is the only real point of the barbed wire. Each spring season or so, drape 1 strip of raw bacon across a hot barbed wire. When the bear approaches to bite it, he will learn and not attempt it again. The barbs are mainly a necessity to prevent the bear from just stealing the bacon. Hopefully it works!

I’ve been learning so much just about setting up the hives and fencing that I feel like there’s not much room left in my brain for continuing to learn about hive management. But a few friends have already invited me to help out with their spring hive inspections, so I’ll be looking forward to that soon!

As for ‘my’ bees, they are apparently ready whenever I am. As soon as the weather cooperates a bit for me to build and secure all of this fencing, I’ll be arranging to pick them up and install them as soon as possible. How exciting!

But as for today, I’m still inside by the woodstove and it’s still snowing. :)