The BeeHiveCastle is a Flow Hive 2 that I spent weeks hand painting before the bees even arrived. The golden honeycomb design with honey dripping down the sides, the little painted bees, the blue roof, every detail was painted by hand in our garage. I wanted it to feel special, like a real home for the colony.

The hive sits in our backyard in Hayward, California, watched over by two bee gnome figurines that guard the entrance. You can see them on the live cam! The Reolink 4K camera is mounted right at the entrance, capturing every bee coming and going 24 hours a day.

My husband and I started this beekeeping journey in Spring 2026. We had been curious about bees for a while, the Flow Hive design caught our eye back in 2015 and now we decided to go all in. I spent weeks researching, watching videos, reading forums, and painting the hive before our colony even arrived.

On April 27, 2026, we transferred a 5-frame NUC into the BeeHiveCastle. The moment those first bees flew out and started exploring their new home, within 3 hours they had found pollen! I knew this was going to be one of the most rewarding things I'd ever done.

The live cam idea came naturally — why not share this with the world? We set up the Reolink 4K camera at the entrance so anyone, anywhere, can watch our colony grow in real time. BeeCam.live was born! 🐝

Beekeeping is truly a learning journey. Every inspection teaches me something new. I document everything in my Hive Journal — including all the mistakes — so other new beekeepers can learn from my experience too.

We first spotted our queen on May 24th, 2026 — Day 27 of the colony. She is on Frame 4, center right, surrounded by her retinue of attendant bees. Longer abdomen, calm and purposeful. She spotted again on May 29th on Frame 2, laying on the new frames we moved to center. What a queen!