Why did I name my blog "The Bumbling Beekeeper"

     After creating this blog and doing a google search to see if I could find it, I soon discovered that I was light-years away from being original.  I found one person in the U.K. that has been running his blog a year longer than my-self.  And I don't even want to consider how many blogs by the same name have faded into obscurity.  Even with all of the company I still feel that the title is very appropriate for this blog.  No matter how much experience we acquire, we will always be bumbling beekeepers in comparison to the real experts (the bees themselves).  From all of the reading I have done, I have learned that the bees pretty much take care of themselves.  All of the effort of inspecting hives and manipulating the comb is generally for the benefit of the beekeeper.  Much of it is to satisfy our curiosity of what is going on in the hive.  Some is to make harvesting honey easier.  Occasionally, we may come across a situation where we can actually assist the colony.  I am not sure when that is right now.  But, I will keep telling my self that in order to justify the frequent inspections.  It is an absolute rush being in the middle of a bunch of bees during an inspection.  I still haven't lost my apprehension for being stung.  It hasn't happened yet.  But, I know it is coming.  I predict that it will happen while inspecting the new nuc.

Since I think it is necessary to have a few pictures or videos in each blog, I figure I would post a couple pictures of my hives.  Also I will post my blueprint for my follower board which also acts as the internal cross-section of the hives.  My main hives are only 33 inches long on the inside.  And I built the hive bodies out of 2x6's.

I made the plans for the end-boards to be cut from a single 1 x 8  that is 6 feet long.  On the lower right, I had to record measurements of where my skill saw would actually cut when using my guides.  And yes< I could get my cuts almost to a 64th of an inch in precision.  I don't know why I bother.  The wood will shrink and swell by more than 16th of an inch.  I think that is the OCD kicking in.

I don't recommend building a hive with these dimensions, until my bees successfully overwinter.  These dimensions are an experiment.