Beekeeper All on My Own!

At the beginning of the year.  I decided I wanted to have bees of my own.  I had been a beekeeper at work for about a year and wanted the benefit of my own honey each year for my family and food storage.  So I finally convinced my grandparents to put a hive out in the corner of their property.  It is in a horse pasture by the secondary water pump.  My grandpa decided to build a fence around it so that the horses would not disturb the bees. 
I ordered my A-Z beekeeping kit from Havest Lane Honey where I found it to be the cheapest place around.  I actually got the Jail to start buying all their products because they were so cheap, and the owner is  retired cop, so he gives us an even bigger discount.  I'm not complaining.  Yes it is a good 1 hour and 20 minute drive one way, but was worth the savings from all the supplies I got.
My grandparents actually got me a full set of boxes for Christmas, so all I really needed was the bees, the suit and tools.  That all came in the kit I bought from Harvest Lane Honey, even the bees!

So on the 2nd Saturday of April, I set out on a journey to Tooele, UT to pic up my package of bees.  I drove 1.5 hours with a couple thousand bees in my car.

 They sure were pissed after that long bumpy car ride.  It was a cold and dreary day.  So I had a lot of bees not figure out where to go that ended up dying outside.  But they are fine and dandy now. 

 A couple weeks later, the sun finally decided to warm up Utah a little bit, and that made the bees extra happy!

Here is a cool shot with their pollen baskets full of bright orange/red pollen.  Love these little creatures.