The Bee Pad

Hello Everyone,

So today's bee acquisition plans fell through. In the morning the weather was overcast, not the greatest of conditions to work with bees. Generally you want to work bees when it's sunny out because bees are very similar to us in that they get grumpy when the weather is bad. The beekeeper I am getting the bees from was taking advantage of this downtime to run some errands into Edmonton. We discussed arranging something for early in the evening, but I had some floor hockey to play and he lives about an hour outside the city. Plus with the advantage that I work split shifts, I am able to go out tomorrow morning after my morning shift.

In lieu of obtaining bees, my wife and I took advantage of the extra day to put some final touches on the area where I'll be putting the hive. Our overall plan has the hives sitting on concrete pads just inside a garden bed. I figured we had better clear out the sod around the pads as doing this with a hive present would make the situation more complicated. Due to delays with our backyard construction plans, we are in the process of trying build a deck, my wife has been unable to start any garden beds. She has been itching to hit up the garden center, so I decided since we were digging the sod up we could also put some plants in. I also hadn't decided in what way I would be providing water to my bees. Water feature products, fountains and bird baths, at the local hardware stores are incredibly expensive and I had thought about using a 5 gallon bucket with wood pieces in it, but that would look extremely tacky in a backyard. Once we picked up all our wonderful goods we came home and set it up. This was the result.

My hive will rest on the cinder blocks to keep it off the ground and limit the amount of bending over I will have to do. My work area will be on the left side and access to that is provided by 2 stepping stones. As for the bird bath, it is constructed of a pot holder and a 15" glazed pot saucer. The stones we just found lying around the yard and they aren't quite right but we'll find new ones soon enough. The stones allow a place for the bees to land and gather water, without them the bees would drown.

For the gardeners out there, these are the plants that we have planted around the pads. Along the fence, at the far left corner, are 3 Delphiniums. To the right of those, starting at about the corner of the left pad, are 12 Sweet Peas. On the right side of the pads are 12 Snapdragons. In the front left corner are 3 Silver Mound. Lastly, directly in front between the Silver Mound and Snapdragons are 3 creeping Thyme. I will be sure to post some pictures later this summer when everything starts to bloom, it should look really nice.

Hopefully, tomorrow I will finally pick up my bees. I will also be interviewed by an Edmonton Journal journalist tomorrow. Patty forwarded on an email last week about a man who was looking for beekeepers within the city limits to interview for an article his is writing. Urban beekeeping has become quite the movement, especially with major cities like Vancouver and New York amending their bylaws to allow it. I will keep everyone posted on how that goes.

Finally, as it is a question that most people have on their mind or ask, "How often do you get stung?" I have added a "Sting Tally" to the right side of my blog. Please feel free to point and laugh as this increases. I will be honest by adding all stings and I will also be trying to keep it as low as possible.