Wish I had thought of this hobby sooner...

Hello from Marietta, Georgia. I installed my first bees April 16th. In preparation I read Beekeeping for Dummies, info on the web, attended a great 'bee school' in February at the Cherokee County Bee Club, and continue to read, watch and learn. My six year old grandson is almost excited as I am as we watch the bees bringing in pollen and doing other cool things. Wish I had started this hobby sooner! Right now I have only one hive, but hope to have a second one next year.


I learned to make wine from a great website several years ago, and hope to have honey next year to make some mead, and give away some ( meadn and honey) to our friends . It took me a few years to make consistently good wine , and with the help of this website I certainly hope to improve my beekeeping skills. Looks like there are a lot of options and opinions for managing a hive, which is my main focus right now.

I made a rookie mistake the second time I opened my hive. How I dropped that frame on the ground is still somewhat of a mystery, except that I know I tripped . Talk about a lot of angry bees! Only got stung once, probably because I had just smoked them, and managed to step away, get a replacment frame, and close the hive. In 30 minutes they appeared to be back to normal, but I still felt pretty dumb. Checked the ground for the queen and did not see here anywhere, so hopefully she is still there. I'll know this weekend, when I plan to check for her and maybe mark her. Seriously considering getting a frame holder!

Thanks for the information you all make available. We newbees need all the help we can get! Jim

I feel the same way - that I missed out by not getting into the hobby earlier. Never can learn enough and that is also something that makes it fun.

Second hive would be nice, then a third, then an observation hive, then a fourth. Well you get the idea. Good to met ya.

Welcome Jim!

Welcome to the form. A lot of great info here.

Unless I have a reason to bring the frame elsewhere, I usually hoold it up right over the open hive to look at it, just in case the queen falls off it she'll fall into the hive. Frame holders are good too though, especially when taking out the outer frame to put to one side.