Fate is what brought us together.

Getting into beekeeping almost never happened; at least it not like it is now.  Last year when we were in the discussion stages of building our farmstead, bees were talked about very infrequently, and when Nicole and I did get on the topic of bees it was our agreement that we would get a hive or two so we would have some honey as well as some on site pollinators for our raised bed gardens.

With absolutely zero knowledge of anything related to bees (except for the fact that they sting), I started looking on the internet for bees. This was in July.

Now if anyone out there that knows anything about buying bees will know that you cannot find ANYONE with bees for sale in July.  So now we wait… and start looking for bees to buy in February of this year.  Now if anyone out there that know anything about buying bees will know that you cannot find ANYONE with bees for sale.  But know it’s because their orders are already filled and all of their bees have been spoken for.

Frustrated and desperate, we start scouring the internet for people with bees for sale; craigslist, bee farm websites, bee magazines… everywhere.  We find a site who still has bees for sale, and he had a deal going on that if you purchase his bees, the hives and bee suit from him then he will give you a free class on raising bees.  Holy cow, he lives 20 minutes from our house and we will even get a free class on raising bees.  This was wonderful!

I called the number he had on the website; answering machine.  Called the next day; nothing.  Again I called the next day; nothing.  I did this for weeks and only got an answering machine or a voice telling me that the answering machine was full.  I needed to get a hold of his guy.  I wanted bees, and the free class.  I then got the bright idea to text him…. Maybe the number on the site was a cell number, and then he would get my desperate text.  A text telling him that I was willing to give him money for the bees and hives and suits…..nothing.  Then, I called one last time… and got nothing.  I was just about to give up on him when I decided to call him right back.  And I get “Hello”.  I almost hung up on him, thinking it was his answering machine.  Holy crap I got a hold of him!  I quickly told him my situation and asked if he still had bees for sale and he said he did.  I almost peed myself.  Then I proceeded to tell him that I was willing to buy bees, suits, hives, tools…. Everything from him.  I was trying to throw all of my money at him.  He then told me that he was up in the mountains and that I needed to call him tomorrow after 1:00p.m. to set up a time to come pick up everything.  I thanked him about 10 times and told him I will call at 1:15 sharp and was willing to drive to his house that day to some and talk to him. 

1:15p.m. the next day.  No answer.  2:00, no answer.  3:00, no answer.  I QUIT!

A few days later Nicole gets the most brilliant idea.  Post a wanted ad on craigslist for bees.

Within a couple of days a fellow named Stacy emails, or calls us telling us that if we are interested in bees that we need to call a guy he has been dealing with and he will be more than happy to sell us bees.

So I call Don Kuchenmeister.  I give him my sad story about how I have not been able to get bees and been wanting bees for our farm.  He stops me and tells me that he is willing to sell me bees and to be at his house Saturday.  I called him on a Tuesday.

I called again on Thursday to be sure that the bees are going to be ready and he said that they would be there on Saturday.  We talked for about half an hour. We talked about why I wanted bees, and what I wanted to do with them.  Then he springs on me that I should sign up for his classes.  They were individual weekend classes or a commercial bee class.  I didn’t want to go into the commercial bee business but it was more economically smart to buy the commercial class then multiple individual classes.  So Nicole and I signed up for commercial bee keeping classes.

Now Saturday comes and it is raining.  I mean it was coming down in buckets.  But we get to his house and he is in his garage putzing around.  We introduce ourselves and we start talking about bees and hives and honey and wax and queens and nucs and everything you can think of.  We went into his classroom and talked more about nucs and packages and queens.  The rain stopped and we got a tour of the place and continued talking about hives and pest control and the next thing we knew, we spent 4 hours there doing nothing but soaking in all that he had to say. 

Nicole and I thanked him and paid his wife for two commercial classes.  And we drove away without any bees.  Not that there wasn’t any available, but we had just ran into a huge turning point in our thinking of the farm.

We talked all the way home about maybe we should get into the bee business as well.  We were at Don’s house the next day... no rain.  And we started our commercial bee course.  We learned hive building…..and for the next 8 weeks Nicole and I were at his doorstep every Saturday to learn and learn and learn.

So I guess this is a thank you blog to the bee guy who wouldn’t call me back. 

Thank you for not taking my call.  I really have learned a lot about bees because of you.