Beekeeping with Jen's Dad

This Spring Jen's dad, Don, took on the new hobby of beekeeping, he set up four hives on their property for a total of 160,000 bees! Levi's dad, Dave also adopted one hive this season and our two dads have bee working and learning together on how to properly raising their hives. On Jen's trip home she was able to tag along with her dad and his many bee adventures. Jen was there to watch Dave and Don catch their first wild swarm - it was quite the operation! The swarm was 25 feet up a tree, Dave hoisted Don up on pallete on a fork lift where he sedated the bees and then shook the cluster straight into an empty bee super. Amazing stuff!

Jen also had the opportunity to put the bee suit on and handle the bees herself. The photos here are of Jen at her dad's hive. Also there's a short video of a hive ready to swarm - it was a cloud of 60,000 bees flying in a vehicle sized cluster. The cute little voice in the background is Jen's two year old nephew, Adrian.