Today, we are to get our new bees from Bees a Bunch here in Yakima.  The owners are a nice couple who have been in the business of bees for a very long time.  I think they are in their mid to late 60's.  They travel up and down the west coast as part of their business.  Their bees pollinate northwest crops as well as southern crops such as the almond  groves in California.

I use honey from our hives to supplement my mead production.  Last year, we were able to pull about a gallon of honey from our one hive and that was a pretty good first year.  Prices are up for market honey and higher for local produced honey.  I have used both market and my honey mixed for my mead, but have hopes to only use my honey in my mead.  This year, I am going to attempt to hit the 45 to 50 gallon mark for mead which will require mostly market honey this year.  The most I have done in a year is 15 gallons so this would be a big year if things go as planned.

I've set up a jig to lay out the wax foundation in the frames for the hive.  Rod Jackman, owner of Bees a Bunch, is a tinkerer extraordinaire and I used his design for this.  I use just wax foundation--there is a couple different alternatives that I do not care to use.  Wax only is more fragile, but it seems more natural to me.

It is now evening and we got our bees.  Rod's shop had a couple pallets of bee packages.

This is not an area for those cautious around bees as there were a lot of bees zipping about the area as well.  Rod had a twinkle in his eye when I came up.  He knows a greenhorn when he sees one but was too much the gentleman to remark on my nervousness.  He walks about in short sleeves and no veil casually brushing away bees from areas he is working.  They seem to know that he is the master of his calling.  He loaded our 4 pounds of bees in the back of our Subaru.  My son was intrepid and rode in the back even though there was about a half dozen or so extra bees flitting about in the car.

We waited until about 4pm to install our bees.  It gave my wife Robin, my son Conor, and I time to ready the yard and fix a few frames.  Once ready, Robin checked with me on the game plan.  A sound choice on her part as it causes me to think instead of making in haste.  I asked her to install the bees this time.  I did it the first time and it is a special feeling to dump out a bunch of bees in a hive.  Here  she is doing the honors:

I had installed the queen in the slight gap you seen in the middle of the pile of bees.  There is a small cage that has a marshmallow plug that the bees will chew out in a couple days.  It will give them time to accept the queen.  We then set the box she is holding in front of the base of the hive to allow the remaining pound or so of bees to meander out and get inside the hive.  It was surprising to see how fast those bees went into their new home.  Our first hive had bees still in that box the next day.  Not a bee remained in the box other that one or two dead bees that did not finish the journey.

New addition: Jim Bach, a friend of ours who used to be a Washington State bee inspector who really knows his stuff, had this advice to share on Robin's Facebook site: "When installing packages you should always remove four frames from one side of the hive so you can shake the bees into the hive, not on top where you will get more bee flight. Hang the queen cage on the next frame. Then set the frames into the opening on top of the bees. They will move in a few minutes allowing the frames to settle down so you can put on the inner cover, feeder, empty super and hive cover." James Bach.  Jim has many years of experience and I trust his knowledge.  I have had advice on what we did.  In the future, I suspect we will follow Jim's advice.  We were fortunate on our installation, but success over time would indicate a more sound approach.  Thank you Jim!

We put in a feeder above this box with about 4 quarts of sugar water which will supplement their diet until they can forage enough for the hive.  They will be busy the next month or so working up the cell structure on the frames and building new bees and storing pollen and honey.

A great first bee day for the household!

I'm sure that it is the process of making the mead that is more interesting than the wanton destruction (drink drink) of it that holds me tightly to its golden nectar.

There was a bubble of curiosity in mead about twenty years ago when I attempted to perk up a batch with a bit of knowledge and an apparent inability to follow simple instructions.  A couple quarts of fine honey was lost because I did not wait for the mix to cool down before pitching in a bit of yeast.  I tossed the lot and promptly forgot about mead until a couple years ago when my wife and I began to talk about hosting a hive of bees on our small one acre property.  Yes, we are bee keepers, although I rather think that they keep us.  They do share some of the finest honey I have tasted, so it is a very sweet relationship.

My second attempt worked beautifully and we still have one split from that batch and it sits on our bookshelf.  A prized possession as the other two dozen or so bottles were shared (very few) or drunk (by me). 

After that run, I began to look into metheglin which is a spiced mead and I only do this type these days.  Mostly for the faint hint of Earl Grey and assorted spices.  No secrets here as it is a mix of nutmeg, coriander, cinnamon, and cloves.  It may be the name metheglin that sounds so cool to me to draw me in its direction.  It reminds me of the river elves in The Hobbit.

My first run of metheglin was exciting for me and at least one batch carried a faint effervescent that would pop corks at odd times.  I would be walking into my living room and wonder if our cats got into my cork stash until I walked over to our metheglin cache to find a few bottles had parted company with their seals.  Not wanting to see more wasted, I did what any sane lover of metheglin would do: I drank them! Not in one sitting, of course, but in an accelerated manner over a couple weeks.  I did add a few bottles to a then current run of metheglin and it shared it's bubbles with the next generation.  I wasn't sure of the protocol of doing that.  Wondering if I was making a generational metheglin mistake.  I had a thought of alcohol incest somewhere in my head and prayed it was not so. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately depending on the spin of the day, I tossed out that batch as a result of a moment of discord with the empress of the household.  I have since regained favor in the court and have again begun runs of metheglin!  Flavored with experience and much more patience, these batches will be my best attempts so far.