All the buzz fit to sting

[Snarl]

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Posticides sound plausible to me. Luckily, we try to use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I like to eat straight out of the garden, so spraying poison on the plants is a bad thing.

Crazily enough, sounds like, from what I am reading, that good old pine is one of the best woods to use. I had already swapped some oak out for poplar, but it looks like I'll be using that for cabinet drawers in my shop. I'm keeping an eye open on FB Marketplace for some wide 1x pine boards for the hives. Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

TheRedneck

One of the neighbors uses a cropdusting service. An old bi-plane spraying just like in the movies. I don't know what pesticide is being used, but it doesn't seem to bother my bees. I do wonder if GMO crops ... with the built-in Bug killer ... are harmful. To my knowledge nobody plants with that stuff around here.

I don't normally eat much honey at all. My wife'll put it in a mug of hot tea just every now and then. So, I can't say first-hand, but I've heard other people say that eating local honey builds you up a tolerance to local allergens. Am not worried by allergies either (knock wood).

This year the fields have been sown with all manner of flowers. There's even a couple rows of lavender. Will likely sample some of that pretty soon. Took a look this morning and I've gotta lotta work staring me in the face. Probably would have just left 'em alone out there if not for this thread. Loaded the pickup before it got hot and will take the new hives out for splits tomorrow. If I had been a planning man, I would've carried some sugar water out with me.

Anyway, if a dummy like me can do it, I know you can. It's not too late in the year to get started yet either. I know you're a little hampered physically, but when do you think you'll have your first full hive finished?