Class has started and big surprises coming!

Welcome back friends and followers.  Yesterday was a big day for me.  I got home from work and found this waiting for me.

It is all my hive components and equipment.  I will be doing an unboxing this Friday and posting it to my YouTube Channel.  It is killing me to just see it sitting in my living room waiting to be opened.  I also got some equipment for Christmas and I will go over that too.  It will be my first foray into an actual video for my VLOG.  I will let you know when it posts, so please check it out and comment so I can make it a worthwhile endeavor. 
 

Last night also saw the family attending the first day of our beginning beekeeper class.  It was nice to see some of the folks from the Carroll County Beekeepers Association.  I had been attending the monthly meetings, but missed January.  The class was huge.  There were over 100 students.  I think they said there were 55 registrations.  My family had 4 people there.  If everyone starts beekeeping this year, that is a lot of new pollinators in Carroll County.  
 

The class was informative.  There were a lot of questions asked and it caused us to run late.  We had to push off one of the lessons until next week.  I would rather have that happen then just sit in the classroom and have someone lecture to us.  This first week was about equipment and protective gear.  I had already done a lot of research and had some hands on experience.  It was mostly review for me, but my wife and kids got something out of it.  Jennifer said that she actually knew some of the stuff they were discussing just from having listened to me over the last few months. 
 

The class was focused on Langstroth hives and discussed some of the differences between 8 and 20 frame hives; the differences between deep, medium, and shallow bodies; and the different types of frames and foundations.  I had already bought my equipment and will discuss my reasoning in my VLOG.  The last lesson of the night was about site location and a little about honeybees themselves. 
 

After class we talked with Bill and Terri from Finksburg Fields Apiary.  They lost over half their colonies this year so I going to look into what may have caused that.  Then we reviewed some of what my sons had learned and got their thoughts on the class.  They both seemed to learn some interesting facts and look forward to next week’s class.  
 

Every day is a new beginning.