There are some new girls in town

....and I think I am going to like them a lot!! Two boxes of Italian honeybees!  Talk about something exciting to receive in the mail!!

We go through so much honey around here that  I wondered about the possibilities of raising our own and read a book about it a couple of years ago.  That got me REALLY excited about the whole idea.  Then Caden got really excited about it with me! And THEN I was finally able to get my handy man husband on board!  Here he is getting the foundation ready for the hives:

 

  

Shawn had to leave for some bishopric visits and missed out on the exciting part of installing all the bees in their hives:( 

We really didn't know what to expect, never having done it before, but I was a little bit worried, because some of our bee clothes never had arrived.  We were supposed to have two veils so that Caden and I could both work the bees, but only one came.  SOooo, we dressed in some really light colors, having read that bees are upset by dark ones.  And I opted to be the installer since I have no problem with stings, and Caden tends to be a little bit allergic to them. Noln spraying them with sugar syrup to calm them before installation:

Getting ready to remove the queen bee:

 Turns out that there was no need to worry - they were completely harmless and before long everyone was right up where they could see and help. I didn't even need that bee veil - and actually didn't use it for the second hive.  Which was nice because it helped Isabelle, who was feeling a little wary, to get close up and see the whole process. 

The bee installation helpers - Kami videoed the whole thing:

We aren't supposed to peek at them for a week while they get everything set up and accept the queen bee.  I hope they all survive!