This started in 2010
Before there were any hives to pick up, there was a stack of library books and a kid who would not shut up about bees.
It was 2010, and I was finishing high school in Cache Valley. Somewhere that spring I fell hard down the beekeeping rabbit hole — Langstroth dimensions, the math on a winter cluster, swarm biology, queen pheromone, the works. I spent a few months reading everything I could get my hands on and just about talked myself into ordering a package. Then the obvious problem caught up with me: I was about to graduate and move out, and starting a colony I'd have to walk away from by late summer made no sense.
So I did the next best thing. I kept telling my dad — not in passing, more or less relentlessly — that he should look into bees. He had the yard for it, he wasn't going anywhere, and Cache Valley is honestly a solid place to keep bees as long as you respect the winters and the summer dearth. I didn't really expect it to take. It did. Somewhere in there the seed went in, and a few years later there were boxes out behind the house, and a few years after that there was a shop with his name on it.
So when I say the 2026 hives are "splits off Dad's yard," that's the two-word version of a sixteen-year story. This is me, finally, with my own bees — pulled straight off the colony I talked him into in the first place. Felt like the right place to start the journal.
What we're running
The 2026 hives are splits off Dad's yard. We'll fill in the exact numbers and dates on the next entry, once everything is set up and we've done a real first inspection.
All standard Langstroth equipment. Nothing fancy. The point of the series isn't the gear — it's what happens with bees in this valley once you put them in a box and walk away.
What we'll write down each time
- Date and weather. Time of day, temperature, wind, what's blooming.
- What the bees were doing at the entrance before we opened anything.
- Frame-by-frame notes: brood pattern, queen sightings (or lack thereof), stores, any pests.
- What we did about it. Feeding, treatment, splits, supering — with the specific product or technique.
- What we'd do differently. The honest part.
- Photos. Real ones, not stock images.
Why we're publishing this
Two reasons.
One, beekeeping content online is overwhelmingly written from a national "average" perspective — advice that works in Georgia in May and falls apart in northern Utah at 4,500 feet. A real season journal from Cache Valley is the thing I couldn't find back when I was reading everything in 2010, so we're writing the one I wish I'd had.
Two, our gear recommendations get more useful when you can see how the gear actually performs in our hives. If we tell you a feeder is good, you should be able to scroll back and watch us using it.
Where to follow along
- The full series lives on the First Season 2026 hub page. New entries appear there as they're published.
- The big-picture timing for our region is in Best Time to Start Beekeeping in Cache Valley.
- If you're getting your own hives this year, start with the How to Start Beekeeping in Cache Valley guide.
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