Submitted by Kaden  

My hive weighs 178.5 pounds.  I now have both boxes on the hive.  The bees have almost filled them both up.  I have been feeding my bee’s sugar water since May.   My mentor, Kevin and I made sugar water by taking hot water and mixing it with regular white sugar.  We would fill each quart Mason jar half full with sugar and then fill with hot water to dissolve.  We waited for the jars to cool before we put them on strips of wood inside a box over the inner cover.  The bees have been eating sugar water until the end of August.  The bees have been eating one and half quart jars of sugar water every two days.  

My queen’s color has changed she is now a darker golden color.  My bees are getting more cranky since it is getting later in the season.  My mentor, Kevin and I go through our hives weekly.  I noticed that the bees are easier to agitate now.  My mentor, Kevin and I extracted honey.  It was fun and cool.  I got to cut the caps off and extract it.  I also got to cut up comb.  I really like extracting the honey, and eating the honey filled comb. 

Last week my mentor and I noticed that my hive has hive beetles.  There are only a few so we set traps to catch them.  I am very glad that I have been able to experience bee keeping.  It is very interesting watching the hive grow and watch the bees do their different jobs.  I am excited to get another hive next season. 

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Kaden Perry



Submitted by Kaden in Q1    

My hive assembly experience, my mentor Kevin McBride and I put together boxes and frames at his house.  I painted the top and the bottom of one of the hive boxes at my house a bright Caribbean blue color.  Kevin set up a scale for my hive box to sit on so we can see the weight as the hive grows.  The hive box and 6 frames weighed 55 lbs. before the bees we released into the hive box.  After the release of frames with bees and some honey it weighed 70 lbs.  When I took out the first frame I was shaking because I was not sure what to expect and did not want to kill any of the bees in the transfer.  We were able to see the Queen on the last frame that was installed.  She is a beautiful shade of orange that reminds me of the sun.  She had several drones following her around the bottom of the frame.  I think that bee keeping is going to be really fun and I am eager to see the hive grow.  Thank you for allowing me to have this opportunity to learn bee keeping.