We have bees! (April 11, 2020)

Randy Oakley of Oakley Apiaries in Elm Mott telling us how to set up our hives.

The hive on the right buzzed all the way from Elm Mott to Cornerstone.  A screen in place at the opening kept the bees inside.  The box on the left is for later, when the original box is full of bees and honey and the hive needs room to expand.  The grate is a queen excluder. She's larger than the worker bees and drones and will stay in the original box, the brood box.  The second box, placed on top, will become the honey box.

We used cinder blocks and gravel to create a level spot for the hive.

Bees like a little sun, a little shade, and an east or southeast facing entrance.

We removed the screen blocking the entrance.  A few bees ventured out and seemed to like the last of the bluebonnets.

Packing up to head home.  We took both the car and truck, unsure of how the Zoomer would fare after leaving paved county road for the nearly mile-long bumpy dirt road to Cornerstone.