I wear a special suit when I work with the bees. It has a hood with a protective veil over my face, thick fabric and very thick gloves. The bees are usually very gentle and know that I would not hurt them. I can sit near the hive and watch them without wearing the suit, but when we open the hive I wear it just in case.

We use a smoker to make the bees very calm.

GrandDaddy lights a fire in the smoker.

Then he blows smoke on the hive.

We open the hive lid and gently remove the frames, one by one, where the bees have built their honeycomb. Today we are looking for the Queen bee. This is a new hive with a new queen and we want to make sure she is doing okay.

The Queen lays eggs inside the tiny cells of the honeycomb and then the worker bees feed the growing larvae. This area of the hive is called the brood chamber. This is where the baby bees are hatched.

We found the Queen. She is much bigger than the workers and has a long abdomen. It looks like she is doing a good job laying eggs, so we are happy to have a healthy hive.

When our bees fill up the comb in the brood chamber, we will stack more boxes, called supers, to the top of the hive. This will give the bees room to store the nectar that they collect and turn it into honey.

We will use a wire frame called an excluder to keep the Queen in her brood chamber. She is too big to fit through the excluder. This will prevent her from laying her eggs in the supers.

I can hear the bees talking. It's a buzzing hum and they sound very contented. They are glad to have a beekeeper to take care of them.

We help to keep harmful insects from invading the hive, we give them extra food when the nectar is not flowing and we keep the hives safe from robbers such as bears. I can sit near the hive and talk to my bees, they like that!

In return, our bees share a lot of their left over honey with us. It's yummy!