I can't help myself

I have a problem. I love to paint things. I can't help myself, nothing is safe from my obsession to  paint things pretty colors. So needless to say, I had to paint the bees boxes. This is how they looked when we got them. How could anyone leave them like this, they are so.....average. (in my mind)

This is how they look now. Don't they make you happy. I smile whenever I see them and I am quite convinced the bees love them too.

And so it begins

So our two Nucs arrived at the end of May last year, our friends had drove down to the coast and picked them up on the way back. The bees arrived in good shape and once set up, they were off to work.
Both hives started off great, they were busy setting up shop in their new houses.
As the weeks went on, we noticed that one hive was not as robust as the other, and as time went on, it was apparent they were certainly the weaker of the two. We opened the hive and checked for the queen and it appeared to my untrained eyes, that it was all in order.
About 10 days later James came in the house and said, you have major dead bees lying outside. I was sick, no one likes to see dead bees, especially that many.
So we tore apart the hive and found there was no queen. The bees now seemed to have no purpose, they had eaten most of the stored nectar and were slowly starving to death. We did find a Queen Cell though...so that was good, at least they were making a new Queen.
I quickly mixed up some syrup and started pumping that to them. When I came in the house I put the plea out for advice. I had found this super Facebook page on beekeeping on Hwy 16 some time ago, so immediately asked for help.
That evening the advice started rolling in. I was instructed to open up the good hive and find some new brood,( new uncapped brood) remove a frame of them out of the hive and place it in the weak hive.. This will give the bees something to do plus they can make a new queen out of one of the cells, if they choose.
So we did that and Viola...it worked. The hive was alive and well again within 24hours. I couldn't believe when there was soooo many dead a couple days before, now they were busy working again.They had a purpose.
Over the past two years I have asked so many (probably mostly dumb) questions to that Facebook site and they are so willing to help out a Newbie. I would be so lost without them. I will continue the saga of the weak hive in my next post.

A little history

Welcome to my blog.
I will be mostly talking about the fun times and the not so fun times raising my bees.
I first got the beekeeping bug years ago. My Grampa and Great Grampa Forrest had a commercial nursery. They worked side by side building up their business after immigrating from Scotland in the early 20's. They mostly grew flowers, so it only made sense that they also kept bees. The bees and greenhouses were gone before I came along but hearing the stories gave me the urge to keep bees one day.
I remember seeing a few tools that he still had left, but mostly it was the 50 year old honey they found when him and Grama were preparing to move from the farmhouse. Poppa gave me some and I ate it. I think right there was when I knew someday I would get bees.
Well some 30 years later, I finally did it. Last year a friend and I bought 2 hives.
I was completely in the dark about beekeeping. But what better way to learn then to dive right in head first. And so I did.
As a nod to my Grampa and his father, I have named my Apiary after their nursery business, Riverside Nursery.
So welcome to Riverside Apiary, I hope you will enjoy it.

Here are a couple of photos. One is of my Great Grampa (Alexander Forrest) this photo is of him and their flower displays at the PNE, where they would display their flowers, honey and bees wax.
The second photo is of my Grampa (John Forrest) and his dad (Alexander Forrest).

                                 Great Grampa                                       Grampa and Great Grampa