I have my own wonderful apiary in my garden, called The Beemuda Triangle – aptly named, as so many unusual bee related things seem to happen here! Located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
PATRICK’S BEES
My dear friend Patrick wanted bees in his beautiful, amazing garden. I was happy to help him, and then even happier to find that I can do this as part of my Master Beekeeper Certification – I can mentor someone, help them set up their apiary and guide them to become a beekeeper and help them inspect and manage their bees. All this counts as credit for my course! How I was able to do it: I have swarm cones set up all over my garden, so in swarm season, bees move into all of them. I removed two of the swarms and put them into NUC’S (nucleus hives). Because Patrick was traveling extensively I kept the nucs in my apiary for a couple of months, checking on them (they were doing GREAT) – I requeened both of them with amazing Carniolans (Patrick helped install one of the queens!) – and then the big night came. Patrick came to my house, helped me load the nucs into the car, I drove to his house and with our red light flashlights showing the way (bees don’t see red light), we installed them on top of his current bee hives. We let them settle in for a couple of days and then I went to Patrick’s and together, we transferred the frames from the nucs into his hives, and his bees were super happy.
