Bless this Mess!

It feels like a pregnancy. Any day the new 'baby' (bee hives) will be due and just like an expectant parent, I'm racking my brain trying to think if I have everything ready.

I've turned my living room into a construction zone and it's a blessed mess :)

I painted the deep hive boxes, I've put together and painted most of the honey supers.

I've debated over whether I should paint the honey supers yummy yellow, peridot green or hot pink. I still haven't decided on that one yet.

Which colour is someone less likely to steal? Shouldn't that be a consideration as well as trying to choose a fairly light colour?

I've bought Benadryl for stings, notebooks to keep records and I'm making a list for a repair kit/field kit. If anyone out there has experience with beekeeping, I'd appreciate some comments on what items you would recommend to put in a field kit when heading into the bee yard.

I've tried to carefully nail the honey super frames together and added in the permadent foundation.

(Permadent is a plastic foundation imprinted with a cell pattern that bees will follow and build up their honeycomb on).

I've also glued my deep frames together for the brood box and tried to do all the nailing left handed (the broken right arm is healing but I can only managed light duties right handed).

The hammering wasn't going so well because my accuracy wasn't precise enough so I've had to set that one aside for a few days. Then I took it up again because I wanted to get it done.

My success can be summed up in one word: OUCH!

I would have sworn very loudly at the time I caught my finger with the hammer except my mouth was full of nails.

This hurts me because I consider myself to be a good hammerer, using either the left or right hand. Usually I do switch back and forth when nailing, but my left hand/arm has done a double portion of work lately and I think it was a bit of muscle fatigue.

I'm still waiting for delivery of two Varroa Mite traps which are on back order. I hope they arrive this week.

The traps will sit on top of my bottom boards and the stainless steel screening will allow any mites that fall off the bees to fall through the screening and get stuck on the sticky paper below. The screening is too small for a bee to pass through and get stuck.

Once the Varroa Mite traps arrive, I think maybe, just maybe, I might have everything I need to start beekeeping, except of course the bees themselves.

Today I emailed my supplier to advise I'm ready to pick up 2 nucs. So while I wait for my nucs (nucleas bee hives - small starter hives) to arrive I'll be carting my equipment out to the bee yard and getting things prepared there.

This is very exciting! Just think, in a matter of days it will be official: I will be a real beekeeper!