Last spring I began keeping honey bees. I built a stout set of hive boxes, ordered a colony of italian honey bees, and waited anxiously for their arrival. Clad in a beekeeper's veil and gloves, I installed them into the waiting hive boxes, and watched excitedly throughout the spring and summer as the colony thrived and expanded. I added another hive box, then topped the stack off with two "supers" -- shallow boxes which the bees filled with honeycomb -- honeycomb filled wi