Due to a delay in the delivery of the bees from Georgia, they arrived on the first day of my Bahamas vacation. Luckily, my good friend and fellow aspiring beekeeper Pete volunteered to pick up the bees and drive them upstate to install them into their new homes. All of this went down under the watchful eye of our new friend Dick Johnson. At 82 years old Dick (who drove about 4 miles to the house on his riding lawnmower), is the head of the Catskill Mountain Beekeepers Club http://www.catskillbees.org/. Pete and I met him by chance when we spotted some hives in a driveway upstate and decided to knock on the door. I think he has unofficially taken me under his wing. I also think that he thinks Pete and I are a couple, as he sent out an update to all of the area beekeepers declaring "...new beekeepers Peter Zessos and Bryan Wetzel have set up a bee yard with two hives at rental property at 5282 Rt 20 in West Durham. Peter and Bryan are weekenders from the city." Oh boy.
Anywho... The bees made it succesfully into their hives, and after a week and a half seem to be doing fine. I will be heading up tonight to meet my bees for the first time and do a full hive inspection with Dick. Lots of new photos will be posted next week, so stay tuned, but in the meantime here's a few that Pete was able to snap with his iPhone:
