Bees - Step 2

I'm now several days into my bee-keeping or apiculture.  But there's more to the story of my initiation day.  As Aurel was about to leave that day, he looked around at the field of grapes.  He spotted the plentiful cover crop growing between every-other row of vines--a crimson clover mixture. 

He immediately said, I should have more hives to take advantage of all this clover!  Laughing, I said I'd better concentrate on one hive first!  I told him I'd once stopped at a local honey farm and asked if they needed a place for their hives, and was turned down.  Aurel jumped in and said he'd love to put some hives here.  I said that would be ideal--more hives, but not my responsibility.  I asked when he wanted to do it--he said tonight!  So at about 9:30 that night he dropped off four pallets of four hives each--16 more hives! 

As you can see, there's an obvious difference in my beekeeping aesthetic and traditional hives.  But I hope my 'hobby' hive will prove much more user-friendly and fun during honey harvesting.  In the meantime, it seems to be thriving.  Since it's a new and small colony, it needs a boost.  To keep most the bees inside--attending the brood--as opposed to out foraging, I've added a sugar-water mixture inside the brood box to provide what they need close at hand.  This first week, they should start to make use of the two additional empty frames (7 total) in their brood box.  Next week I'll put half the used frames--alternating with empty ones--in the upper brood box, leaving the same in the bottom.  After another couple weeks, I'll add the honey super (a top box).  

I'm thrilled!  I have no illusion that my property is a nature preserve--with my extensive tree removal, deliberate landscaping and large human use areas.  But I love the idea of the grape cover crop providing nectar for the bees, who in turn will pollinate my fruit trees, and so on.  One third of the worlds' food production depends on bees.  Through tireless pollinating, bees are vital to the health of our ecosystem.  So I'm doing my little bit for the environment by providing a friendly habitat.