Bees!!!

I promised I'd tell, and here it is...  Our new addition to the farm is a beehive!

This is our new Carnation Hive.  It has one deep box (brood/food chamber).  That's the box with the indent.  The light gray-blue box on top of it is the feeding box.  It's two chambers with a slot between for the bees to climb up.  In between the two boxes is a metal slotted panel called a queen excluder.  The size is such that only worker bees can get through.  The queen bee is too large to fit, so there's no chance of her drowning.  The lid is the last thing.  On the bottom of the box is the (clearly lol) bottom board.  Because of where the hive is sitting (on a hill), I've got a 2"x6" board sitting under the front end to keep it at a better level.  The box needs to sit slightly forward, but even side to side.

This is the new Chehalis Hive, the day we brought it home.  What you see are cement blocks that the hive is sitting on, followed by the bottom brood chamber, and the top food chamber, and then a lid.  We have since changed this a bit.  The top lid we have removed, because it is not ideal for a hive.  We have also added the queen excluder, and then added a medium super, which is smaller than a brood box, for honey production.

Stay tuned for a new post about how we extracted honey!