We have bees!!

On Friday, I received a phone call letting me know that our beehive had arrived. Fran from Buster's Bees told me I could come and pick the bees up on Saturday at 8:15 pm or Sunday at 8:15 pm--sharp.

I chose Saturday which turned out to be a better day because of all the rain that had threatened all day. We were given instructions to bring the hive home, take off the screen keeping them in and feed them with sugar water. They then loaded the bees onto our truck and thanked us for taking care of the bees.

As we rode home from Jonesboro, Ga., home of Margaret Mitchell's Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind and crossed Tara Blvd. with our precious cargo, we hoped the bees would like the ride and would like their new home next to our garden.

When we arrived home, we used a flashlight and pliers to take off the screen, turned off the flashlight and walked away leaving the bees in their new surroundings. The next morning, we added the sugar water that didn't fit in the entrance space quite like we thought it would so we had to improvise with some pieces of wood. We will change that later.

Not too many bees were out to get the sugar water and they must have known that the day would bring a steady deluge of rain. They kept to themselves and didn't venture out.

Today was better for them and they were out scouting their new home. We put them on a concrete pad next to my sis's old swimming pool up on a couple of blocks. If you ask me if we know what we are doing I would have to say, "Not exactly." But we took a beekeeping class and have a certificate saying we did. I am sure we will learn all the rest, in time. We turned the bees southeast towards the lake right next to our garden. I can't wait to see the results of their work.