Kathryn writes to our Yahoo group:
I got bees a couple of months ago from Bill Lewis to inhabit my brand-spanking new 8 frame hive. Along with my sparkling white veil and gloves, shiny chrome smoker and happy buzzing family, I hit the ground running. I read books, watched videos and inspected the hives every few weeks.
As I looked into the bustling hive I realized -- I had no idea what I was looking at. Were they growing at a healthy rate? Were they making enough honey? So I called up Kirk and asked him to come out and tell me what I was seeing and was it good news.
So Kirk comes out and assesses my newbee status by the cleanliness of my gear. Wow, I was that obvious? ;-) You got me! My husband peers around the corner of the house from a safe distance shaking his head, "You're crazy!" He won't be saying that when he's getting that honey next year.
We crack open the hive and he points out the good brood pattern, the nice store of honey and the calmness of the bees in general. They were outside fanning, bringing in pollen -- doing all those things a happy healthy hive will do.
I get the seal of approval from an expert Backwards Beekeeper!
So, I'm on my way in this adventure with a clean bill of bee health and relief that I'm getting this thing right so far.
Looking forward to meeting everyone at the Oct 31 meet up! Thank you, Kirk!
