A Bee Keeping Interview

I thought it would be a great idea to ask our "Master Beekeeper" a few questions regarding apiary skills:

ME: "What first interested you in beekeeping?

ANDRE: "Well, my grandfather said we are going to buy a couple of hives...are you interested? We bought the hives and went for it."

ME; "What is your favorite thing or things about beekeeping?"

ANDRE: "Probably watching the colony get larger and extracting honey."

ME: "How many hours per week do you think you put into beekeeping including care and research."

ANDRE: "Two hours of reading and around a half hour of beekeeping. Also, everyday I enjoy going down to the hives just watch them."

ME: "Would you say the initial set up was more involved and what did you have to do?"

ANDRE: "I think it was pretty involved. First, we had to set up cinder blocks and level them to put the hives on so that they were above ground level. Then, we had to paint the hives and spray the frames with sugarwater so that the bees would accept the frames and build comb on them. Next, we had to hive the bees, put the sugarwater feeders in, and refill them every other day."

ME: "What do you mean by hiving the bees? I mean, how do you do it?"

ANDRE: " Hiving the bees means that you take an empty hive and put the worker bees in and introduce the queen."

ME: "How did you know how to do this?"

ANDRE: "Grampy originally showed me how to hive the bees and then I really got into researching it."

ME: "What were your resources?"

ANDRE: "Calling Grampy:), calling Better Bee, calling a local beekeeper, and reading The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture, Practical Beekeeper, and, of course, the internet."

ME: "Tell me a little bit about the book The ABC & XYZ of Bee Culture."

ANDRE: "I love the photographs and it is easy to find information quickly. It is THICK, so it tells you about everything you need to know. It is about 900 pages thick so it should!

ME: "How does beekeeping make you feel?"

ANDRE: 'Beekeeping is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you gonna get."