Busy bees!

I snapped a quick shot of Wyatt and me last weekend. I love it—I just wish it wasn’t so grainy.
  
Last Saturday, while taking a little break from planning Suzi and David’s wedding, Justin pulled out the tractor for a little ride. Wyatt and Liam had a blast; I think Suzi did too!
That evening, we went out to our local beekeeper and bought four packages of bees—that’s workers, drones, and a queen. We got five gallons of honey from our two hives last year and we hope to double our production with four hives this year.

Four packages of bees for our hives.

I am pretty proud of this shot. As bad and grainy that first picture was of Wyatt and me, this one is amazing. iPhone cameras can be awesome if used properly!
I was initiated into the bee sting club after I put my wrist on top of a very mad bee while snapping the picture above.

I doesn’t look as bad anymore but it itched like crazy for a few days.

Wyatt manned the umbrella (safely away from the buzzing bees) while Justin installed our bees and queens and I took pictures.
  

Justin had to secure the queen (in the tiny wooden box) into a frame and dump (literally) workers on top of her. She is secured in the small box with a piece of candy that the bees will take eat away in a few days. She will then be free to lay eggs and do her job.
  
We installed old glass mayo jars into the top of each hive full of sugar water to feed the bees until they get established.
  
In case you were wondering, this is what the inside of a package looks like. That’s about three pounds of bees.