My new bees are living near my driveway and doing well now, their little shiny-roofed white house is always a center of massive activity. I have another hive of bees to arrive here soon, which will give me a second little house to work with.

I don't have any experience working with bees to call upon, in fact, this is my first attempt at raising them. It would seem that they are to be respected and handled carefully, but they are not really dangerous if treated properly.

I have learned several new terms in my studies working up to getting these little guys, words that I recognized in different contexts, like smoker, frame and veil; and other words I'd never seen before, like entrance reducer, hive body, drawn comb, queen-right and extractor. I fear there are many more such terms to learn, but the one I look forward to the least is benadryl. I know that sooner or later I will get stung multiple times. I am too careless a person not to get stung. Right now, I can go up to the side of the hive and change their sugar syrup, which I am feeding them until they get well established here, without wearing any protective gear. Thus far, the bees have never even tried to sting me, or even noticed me particularly, for that matter. But that doesn't mean that they won't.

When I remove the mayonnaise jar filled with sugar water, sometimes bees are hanging all over the bottom of it. I just blow on them and they fly away. Right now, the bees seem like my friends in the yard.

However, I saw one of my friends after he was stung in the corner of his eye by his ‘friends.' A good portion of his face turned purplish and his eye nearly swelled shut. I've had friends like that before, but I didn't keep them for long.

I feel sure that he didn't intend for that to happen or see it coming, any more than I will when I finally get my ‘what's coming.' Even so, I still can't find myself fearful of the bees. They really do seem quite harmless and benign. Sometimes I stand and watch them flying in and out of their house, buzzing this way and that in search of flowers and sap-producing trees that they can drink from and feed the little bees with. Sometimes they stand on the front of the hive and shake their wings at each other, apparently giving directions to some particularly good flower area. Then other bees lift off to find that place while the returning workers go to deposit their load before soaring off again in search of more pollen and nectar. Sometimes there are just a few bees around the front of the hive and other times there seem to be hundreds in the air. I enjoy watching them more when there seems to be a regular flow of ins and outs, rather than a big grouping. I feel a little uncomfortable being so close with large numbers buzzing in the air above the hive.

One popular choice for bee food here seems to be poplar trees. Other choices include cucumber trees (mountain magnolia) and other flowering varieties. Both make dark honey. Light honey is worth more.

I hope they find the foraging rich here, since I need them to make a large surplus of honey. In the past six months, I have already consumed about one-half gallon of the stuff. I have always heard that locally-raised honey helps raise your immunity to diseases and illnesses. It is also nice to drop a tablespoon full into a cup of tea in the evening.

I will need to stack on a new ‘super' for my bees next week, which is a white box full of wooden frames in which the bees make their honey. Right now, I would really like to see how they are doing inside their little house, but I will have to wait another week or so before doing that.

It takes 21 days for little bees to hatch after a new colony is formed. This queen is relatively young, having only been born this spring. Some folks, mainly those who sell bees, claim you should switch out your queen every year. I don't think I will worry about all of that, especially at about $10 each.

In my opinion, there is a point of maximum production in any enterprise. You can take existing technology, techniques and information and push it to the limit and produce the best possible crop.

However, when you add in the factors of time, effort and expense — what you are willing to do and how much you can afford — things change. I personally try to get a reasonable amount of production from any enterprise I attempt without sacrificing excessively of my money and time. I don't have a lot of either.

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