I got bee hives!  I’m 1/3 of the way to being a beekeeper.  Next is actually putting the hives together.  After that (sometime at the beginning of the year) I’ll get honey bees to put in the hives!

First Picture: All the components needed to make two bee hives. This includes the hive stand, screened bottom board, entrance reducer, supers, frames, top cover, and the smoker.

Second Picture: I put this together with no glue or nails just to show you how it will look when it all comes together.  From top to bottom is the smoker, top cover, two supers (more supers will be added later as we begin honey production), entrance reducer (piece of wood with a 4 inch slit), screened bottom board, and the hive stand.  Not pictured are the frames that go inside the supers (the frames are where the bees build their comb).  Also not pictured is the queen excluder (this is a metal piece that sits between the supers. It has slots big enough for worker bees to go through but not the queen.  This ensures she stays in the bottom of the bee hive to lay eggs and that only honey will be stored in the top supers).  

Third picture:  I snapped this picture of an observation hive at the Dadant store near Gainesville, FL. It was so cool to see these bees working away in their hive.