Bees? In Minneapolis?

Beekeeping? In Minneapolis? You may be wondering how and why would we get into bees? Well, it turns out that the older I get, the more I find that I'm like my dad in more ways than I thought. When I was very young, my dad kept bees in our yard. I was too little to be involved much, but I remember him going out in his suit to tend to the hives.
As an aside, my dad also got chickens around the same time. He was going to the farm store to get a "couple of chicks" for my sister and I for Easter. He came home with 100 of them. Dad also go a horse one year while my mom was on vacation. What can I say? Farming and animal husbandry is just in our blood (much to the chagrin of our spouses sometimes).
That being said, it is actually with the enthusiasm, encouragement and complete support from Paul that we begin our bee adventure. For my birthday this year, he got me a bee hive. It's beautiful! It's called a Garden Hive and it has a shiny, peaked, copper roof. We're taking a class at Gale Woods Farm in a couple of weekends on Beekeeping, we've been reading a great book: The Backyard Beekeeper by Kim Flottum and then we're on our way! The hive and book are from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm.