Great news!  My Honey Bees made it through the winter!  Ok, so we still have a few weeks to go, but during this recent tease of warm weather they proved to be taking care of business…potty business.  I never realized how similar Bees are to Dogs.  Unlike Humans and Cats who are disgusting and have designated areas inside their homes to relieve themselves, Bees are clean creatures like Dogs and insist on only going to the bathroom outside of their living space.  Mind blown!  I thought I had excellent bladder and bowel control, but to hold it all winter?  That is amazing!  No wonder the girls were flying around with such exuberance these past few warm days!

However, I couldn’t help but notice there were a lot of dead Honey Bees on the ground, and the worker Bees were busy carrying more out.  Were my Bees fighting with Asa’s Bees?  Was this some sort of hostile takeover?  Luckily Dad assured me that all was fine, and the Bees were just doing a little spring cleaning by removing those who died over the winter.  Apparently Bees have short lifespans depending on when they were born.  Worker Bees who were born in the summer only live four to six weeks.  So those who were still alive when the hive was winterized in the fall would have perished over the winter.  However, Honey Bees born in the fall know that they have an important mission to keep the Queen warm during the winter and in the spring it is up to them to start foraging to feed the hive.  Fall Honey Bees can live anywhere up to four to six months!  So it is these hardy fall Bees who were making that loud buzzing coming from inside the hive all winter, and are also the ones zipping about on these first warm spring days.

Following their example, Dad and I headed to the basement to start preparing for spring as well.  We began by inspecting my empty Chuck BEEly Hive from last year for any damage and cleaned it.  This way it will be ready to welcome my new Bees when Sparky delivers them in a couple months.  Dad ordered two sets, so this means we need to get a third hive ready as well.  Dad’s Bee mentor, who also happens to be his dentist, was kind enough to give him extra empty hives and equipment over the winter.  So Dad got to work cleaning them and painting them for the new arrivals.  I was so excited!  “Was” being the key word here.

Everything was going so smoothly until it was time to name the new third hive.  There I sat pondering what to name it.  Should it be a clever play on my name again?  Do I take a different route and name it honor of a famous beekeeper?  Perhaps I should steer away from a name pun, and go with something to reflect my hopes and dreams for this hive?  YES!  That’s it!  I will name it the “BEElieve Hive.”  But that’s when Dad dashed my hopes.  Claiming since Asa’s Azzza Hive did the best last year and mine had to be combined with his, Asa should name the new third hive.  Without missing a beat, with no thought at all, Asa named the new hive “Dire Wolf Beez!”  Don’t Bee ridiculous!