Thank you for the warm welcome. I am actually planning for 3-5 hives by the end of the 2014 season, but only have one ready to go at the moment thanks to my hubby giving me exactly what I wanted for Christmas. At some point I hope to expand significantly to 15 or more, but that won't be for a while. You know what they say about "baby steps."
I have a package of Italians ordered for the first hive. However, for the last 8 years or so we've had a minimum of 2 swarms come through and land in the same tree every year. Usually we just let them be and they take off in a day or two, but since we're now starting our own hives we hope to collect them for ourselves. With the help of my bee club, and a mentor who will assist me when the time comes, I feel pretty confident that we'll get at least one of them in a trap this year.
