Hive prep

This weekend, we started cleaning up the boxes and frames. Prepping for the bees arriving next month.

Step 1 has been to scrape off the crud; old brittle comb, propilis, dead bees, and other detritus, like wax moth and spider webs. Step 2, shown below, is using a paint stripping heat gun to sterilize the surfaces and joints.

We brought exterior paint from the remnants shelf at Benny Moore's. $5 for a gallon of blue, and $6 for two quarts, one purple and one green. Next, we'll clean the outsides of the boxes and paint them. We'll also clean the frames too. Our cleaning solution will be washing soda (if we can figure out where to buy it).

Cherrywood Bee Farm becomes Borealis Bee Farm

We sold our hive in Austin before we moved in the summer of 2016. Now mostly settled in Seattle we a renaming the blog and starting over. We just ordered a package of bees from Matt at Cascadia Apiary. So excited to start beekeeping again, and to harvesting delicious honey.

Now we need to clean and sterilize our old hive equipment and get the kids suited up. Here is a pic from 2012 of our son in his suit that is now probably too small.