Help save the bees!

Last year I followed in the footsteps of both my late father, and late father-in-law, and took up beekeeping.

We purchased one NUC and the tools and clothing that we needed to start into the lifestyle. All but one of my children is excited about keeping bees, and we take them out in their very own bee veil every opportunity we get to check on "the girls".

My 7 year olds love helping look for the queen and a experts in identifying the various areas of a typical comb: capped honey, uncapped honey, nectar, pollen, and brood. They're really good at finding where the queen as been laying eggs (eggs are so small, it's hard for us "grown ups" to see them!).

 We've had a great year learning the ins and outs of this dying art, and want to take it to the next level!

We'd like to be part of the solution to the decreasing bee population!

~ This year we're moving our hive to our rural property.
~ With your help, we plan to double the number of hives that we had last year!
~ We've ordered two new NUCs (that's a "nucleus" that includes a queen, 5 frames, and thousands of bees, already living together in a little hive) - we'll take delivery around mid-April.
~ We are willing to do the work necessary to keep our hives healthy for the long-run.

What's next? We don't have enough boxes to get two healthy hives running - but we do have enough to get started.

Budget
NUCs:  2 @ $150 each (ordered, taking delivery mid-April)
Blocks: 16 @ $1 each (used to raise the hives so the bees can defend against "critters" easier)
Bottom: 1 @ $20(provides ventilation and protection on the bottom of the hive)
Deep Super:  2 @ $29 each(I will have 2 deep supers for the brood box, then honey supers on top of those)
Shallow Super: 1 @ $23 each (this is where the bees put their excess honey - the good stuff that we'll harvest)
Inner Cover: 1 @$12 (essential for ventilation, insulation, and managing humidity)
Telescoping Top: 1 @ $22 (keeps the rain off the colony, allows for adding more boxes as the colony grows)
Queen Excluder: 1 @ $11 (keeps the Queen from laying in the honey supers)
Entrance Reducer: 1 @ $1 (reduces the entrance during early months so the bees don't have as big an opening to guard)

I already own the suits, veils, gloves, hive tools, brushes, smoker, beetle traps, and harvesting system, and components for one hive.

Please consider helping us "bee" part of the solution!