Another successful, educational and always enjoyable, trip to Georgia.

Lately, we traveled the old familiar route through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, through North Carolina down to Lula Ga. This is our fifth year visiting with and being taught by The Fat Bee Man, Don Kutchenmiester. We have taken his organic beekeeping class yearly and as much as we can get the opportunity, we visit for a dose of his bee knowledge.
This trip we picked up ten 3 lb packages of honey bees. A couple for us and the rest for local folks we have meet and begun to network with recently. We have met and continue to meet and learn from so many wonderful people on this journey as well as seen some pretty beautiful things along the way.

Part 2

Just after Aaron had shook the majority of them into to a hive they started to fan and follow a trail into the box. It was unbelievable to sit and watch this communication happen.

Early swarm at the new place. Part 1

Sunday Aaron noticed one of our hives had swarmed to land in our neighbors young apple tree. Aaron grabbed an empty box and hived them up. I always watch closely, help when I can, and gladly document these breathtaking happenings. We love these surprise beekeeping adventures.

Here is a few links to our recent publicity stunts.


WBIR Live at 5 at Four News Show in Knoxville. Our 15 mins of fame...well more like 2 minutes.

Our first newspaper article. Maryville Times LIFE

Bee Tree at the Zoo!

Well,  we got a call from our old employers, the Knoxville Zoo. They are contracting with a tree company to remove a bunch of old dead oak trees. As it turns out, one of them has had a honeybee colony in it for years and we have been asked to remove them. (We like to call it rescue.)

They are going to put me up the tree with a bucket truck. That's exciting in itself! Then I will be able to staple screen over the entrance and drill holes to determine where and how big this colony is. The tree company will then put the tree on the ground for me. Then I hope to use a sky lift to put the bee section into the back of my truck then its off to Narrow Ridge to cut out the comb and bees!

I can't wait to get into these bees!  They have been surviving up there for years according to zoo staff. From the traffic at the entrance on March 1st,  you can tell that this is a very large, strong colony. There will probably be lots of honey in there, too bad it will probably taste like slush puppies! This will defiantly be a great experience!

Swarm at the Fat Bee Mans house!

  Don wanted me to e-mail this video to him for his website. It was too large to send I posted it here. Here it is Don, hopefully you can copy it from this site.

  We had some extra time one day while at the Fat Bee Mans home in Lula GA. As we walked the property and counted his 320 bee hives, we noticed a swarm landing right beside us! We eventually hived it for him...321 honey bee hives now.

Road Trip!

  We had a successful  trip to GA last weekend to visit the Fat Bee Man and pay for more packaged bees! We got stuck in the snow in NC on the way back but ended up staying at the nicest hotel in Murphy and having a wonderful dinner too. So it was a surprise treat for us.

  Now we really can't wait to go back down and pickup all those bees for us as well as all the folks who has purchased them here in TN.

  To prepare, we are working with the family on the land this weekend, cutting down a couple of really big dead walnut trees to use for making more hive stands. Our scheduled move for the bees is March 10th!