We tried to start our bees in 2006, but with no success. At the time we were also planning our wedding and after two attempts to get viable queens we decided to hold off until 2007. We now belong to a club and were able to get some nucs (nucleous hives) so were much more successful this year. We also decided to go with two hives instead of one just in case one failed. We are happy to report that as of July 2007 both hives are thriving.

Our two hives before we added the second boxes.

When we decided to do a second hive we also decided to try out a foam hive. This hive is made of thick styrafoam, requires no nails, and is lighter to handle than the wood ones. Since we do not transport our hives from place to place we were not concerned with the fact that they require a bit more care in handling than the wood hives. What we were interested in was the statement that they insulate against the cold in winter and the heat in summer. We live in zone 6 in southern Oregon, an unusual area as we not only get some snow in the winter, but some VERY hot weeks in the summer. The hive on the left is our foam hive, the one on the right is the wood hive. Note the bees clustering on the outside of the wood hive. The heat hit hard, and these bees are desperately trying to keep the hive cool, while the other hive is much more comfortable. There are more pictures below which show the closeups of what we are talking about.