Exploratory Passion
For the week in Passion I asked that everyone try to investigate a new or old (and rusty) passion of theirs. I have decided to do both this week as my example of exploratory passions, by investigating an old Passion in a New way.
I Love animals. Gardening is fun and plants are pretty and all. But animals are where it is at. I truly am infatuated with them. All of them. Every type. Big and small, swimming and flying, creepy and crawly. I Love them. But mostly I Love raising animals and breeding them. It makes me so happy to plan breeding programs. To match different coloured parents and wait to see what the babies might look like. I am not a fan of purebreds. I Love the mutts. The weirder the colouration the better. When I was in highschool I used to breed Lovebirds and budgies. I remember buying a pair of orange faced Lovebirds and being so excited. This was a very new and rare mutation, and I was one of 4 breeders in Canada with a pair of Orange Faced Lovebirds. And not only that but my birds were carriers for the Olive (dark) gene, as well. This meant that one in four babies would be an olive green (double dark) with an orange face, and the other babies would be like mommy and daddy and be carriers of the dark gene with an orange face. I found breeding the lovebirds to be so much fun. I was not very good at it, but I was young and inexperienced. I was only 16 at the time.
It has been a long time since I have raised any animals. It has always been a passion of mine, so I have decided to rekindle it with a small animal, to start. I know I have spoken about it before, but my exploratory Passion for this Summer will be my Beehive. I am super excited to say that I installed the bees in the hive this morning and it went very well. No stings! They are almost nice… Here are a few photos to show you how it went!
Me with my gear on.
Grabbing the first comb from the box. They were pretty tightly attached to the walls of the box at first, and the bees were everywhere. Once I figured out that you could just kind brush them aside and there would be no real reaction, it became faster going. They are very docile, even without much smoke.
Once I got it out, it was just a matter of filling the hive.
The next combs came out much easier. The smoker kind of died in the rain, but the rain itself hampered the bees flight, so they really didn’t do much.
Closeup of the hive box.
The final piece of the puzzle.
Finally, shake the last few bees out into the hive, and tada! A brand new colony of bees, ready to be raised. My newest Passion.
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Soo jealous! And you seem to have some really nice and chilled bees…Good luck!
I am pretty excited. Now I am instructed to leave them alone for three weeks and let them build… that will be the hard part…
I think bees have an undeserved reputation as dangerous. Good job!
They did not seem very dangerous today. I even went back to the hive to adjust it and forgot my gloves and veil. I realized my mistake when a bee landed on my eye. But she just flew off without a fuss.
This is exciting! We need more bees in the world. They are under attack by many dark forces and without bees we cease to exist too. Very exciting!
Bees are so cool! And so are the ones who play with them:)
I knew I like you. My husband and I are beekeepers as well. Good luck with the girls 🙂