Friday, May 8, 2015

Bizzy Buzzy Bee Day

The pkg bees arrived early.  I wasn't ready.  I got it done anyway.  I hived the two pkgs using the no-shake method (modified Lorge - no drawn comb, just foundation).  We'll see if they are out of the boxes tomorrow.  I would check tonight, but it started pouring just as I was finishing up.  Now it is thundering and I'm not going out there.  Anyway,  I also split the original hive-that-was-new last year.  The queen went with the split (and she was HUGE), so I gave the deep that stayed in place a new Italian queen.  I checked the split I did earlier in the week and found no queen and no eggs, so they got the new Carniolan queen.  I'm assuming the old queen is still in place in the old deep, but I'll check for eggs in a few days to be sure.  This equals six hives.  I still have to put together ten more frames for the two nucs I use as swarm traps, and get one of them up on top of the duck coop (mmm roast duck with honey... look!  a chicken!) and find a location for the other one that is upwind of all the hives, just in case any of the splits are still of a mind to throw a swarm.  Or I get lucky and catch someone elses.  Oh, and did I mention hauled 12 concrete blocks up to the apiary to build three hive stands because there was no way to get three wood ones built in the time I had.  S'okay with me - we had the blocks on hand, so this was free.  And all three went together in five minutes.  It would have taken me at least five hours to build wood ones, if you include the time wasted going to the store to buy the 2x4s and 1x6s.

Then the Pirate and I made dandelion fritters for supper.  (Her idea - I came into the kitchen and she was getting everything ready).  Dandelions are plants.  So we will call that a nice healthy salad... NOT!

3 comments:

  1. I didn't know you were back to blogging. Gratz on the bees too!!!

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    1. I'm loving the bees. And the blogging is fun again. I figure you shouldn't have ALL the fun!

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