We've talked about honeybees before, I'll tell you the more I read and talk to bee keepers, unless you know exactly what you're doing, you're doomed from the get go.

I can think of 5 local bee keepers that have lost every single hive.

I found a man that's a professional, looking for a place for his bees. I had him put them on the King's property, as far as I know he's planning on putting 24 hives on the place. He built that little "bear fence". Not sure, 8 hives might be all he could haul on his truck?

Yesterday was the first time I'd seen them, they were busy and seem to be "gentle". Which is good. Hopefully his bees do good for him, and I'll get to watch him work them one day. He has 200 hives.

Bear fence -- probably a necessity in that local.

We do have a lot of bear in this area. Honestly, I thought his fence looks kind of wimpy for a bear fence. Some of those fence chargers are pretty hot, hopefully it'll work.

Just found out the other day, the DNR issued a guy a permit to kill a bear, just outside of town. The bear got into his chicken coop and ate a bunch of them, then it came back and got the rest. I know the man, he's out of the chicken business now, so I'm not sure if he'll kill it now or not? His permit is good for 30 days.

I guess it's been about 3 weeks ago now, a man wrecked his motorcycle trying to avoid hitting a bear in the road. I think he was airlifted and the last I heard he was "stable". I've not heard anything since. Bear are everywhere.

I checked the camera at the King's place today, at first I thought it was a big dog. It's less than 1,000 yards from the man's beehives. His bees are good to go, as of 3 pm today. The bees were very active, not sure what they're working on now? It's too late for locust bloom, but there is a good bit of clover in the area.

Last year I had trouble with my squash and melons not setting fruit. I think it was lack of bees. This year I see quite a few honey bees on the plants. We don't have anyone keeping bees nearby so I'm guessing it's a wild colony. I glad to see them.

I agree, bees are a good thing.

This bee box is one that I bought 5 years ago or so? I just bought a man's boxes and all of his bee equipment, veils and gloves, smokers and all. I baited it up with lemongrass oil, which is supposed to smell similar to a queen bee when she and the hive would swarm.

This box is in the front yard of the King's house, about a half mile from the bee hives in the pictures above. The plan is, if the man's bees would swarm, they'd find this box and move in. I'll be optimistic and place the odds on that at about 2 percent. Hopefully, I'm wrong!

I'll tell you this, if a swarm would happen to find this box, I'm going to give them back to the man that owns the purple colored hives. I know a little bit about honeybees, I'm also realistic enough to know that I'd never be able to keep a hive alive. No need to get into stuff over your head.

But I wanted to tell you how I got hooked up with the beekeeper with the purple hives. I guess purple paint was on sale? The folks that own the apiary where I buy honey, set me up with him. Bill that owns the big apiary and I were talking, and he told me about Michael. Michael works for Bill 40 hours per week and also owns 200 honeybee hives of his own. I'd say Michael is in his late 30's or so? Bill and his family own over 1,000 hives. So Michael should have some experience.

Think about it, if you can keep 200 bee hives healthy after working 40 hours a week, you're doing something right! Bees are livestock, if you neglect them, you're going to lose them.

Honeybees work a radius of about 2 miles. Michael told me the other day that his next batch of hives were on up the road 20 miles. Not sure if he's afraid to knock on doors or what? But if we ever get the chance, I'd be glad to introduce him to the landowners, that's my territory. We'll stop every 3 or 4 miles and get him a new spot. Just like on the King's property, he's got a little area fenced in, about 15 feet by 20 feet. I checked his bees the other day, it's just fun watching them do their thing.

Checked on the bees the other day, they're working on these flowers now.