Sunday I went and picked up our second attempt at bees and as stated waited till Monday to put them in. Well, this was a mistake! Monday was rainy and chilly as a cold front moved in our way. Dan got home later than expected, so at 6pm we are out in the yard throwing all caution to the wind trying to get the bees into their new home. We didn't use any protective clothing, no smoke, and we didn't feed them first to calm them. Needless to say we both got a sting. Not too bad when considering how we put them in.
The bad part came with the shift of weather. I woke up at 4am Tuesday to an inch of snow! Oh no! Most of the bees hadn't had the time to make it into the hive (or figure out that they wanted to get into the hive) and here they are about half of them, cold, un-moving covered in snow. I got home at 2pm and scooped some back into the shipping container and brought them in. There were maybe a dozen moving. Low and behold within an hour 100 were moving. By this morning all but 100 were moving. Apparently bees are pretty resilient little buggers!
I put them back out today, not wanting to have them away from the queen any more than needed. Hopefully we do not loose them all!
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Sunday, April 13, 2014
A New Year
2014 is looking to be an amazing year. After such a cold winter, the bugs have all but disappeared for this gorgeous spring.
The daffodil are blooming in full force in the front yard right now, it is still amazing that I covered my whole front garden with them by breaking up two clumps when we bought the house. There are more clumps that I need to break up this fall.
The apple trees are both getting leaves which is good news. I was worried they may have been harmed in the hard winter. The raspberrys are spreading and after this year I will begin the process of keeping them thinned.
Two things stand out the most about this spring though. We got bees again, and a dozen new chicks. The chicks are two months old already, it's hard to believe. To my best guess it is 7 boys and 5 girls. We will be taking the boys to get done up for dinner in another month or two. I'm down to just two of my original 6 hens. Pat and Betty keep on trucking and they are being real troopers about the new chicks. Pat has started laying again, and fingers crossed it keeps up!
The bees I picked up today from Spille in Ky, but they are going to have to wait to go into their new home till Monday evening when Dan gets home from work. Hopefully we have more luck all around!
The daffodil are blooming in full force in the front yard right now, it is still amazing that I covered my whole front garden with them by breaking up two clumps when we bought the house. There are more clumps that I need to break up this fall.
The apple trees are both getting leaves which is good news. I was worried they may have been harmed in the hard winter. The raspberrys are spreading and after this year I will begin the process of keeping them thinned.
Two things stand out the most about this spring though. We got bees again, and a dozen new chicks. The chicks are two months old already, it's hard to believe. To my best guess it is 7 boys and 5 girls. We will be taking the boys to get done up for dinner in another month or two. I'm down to just two of my original 6 hens. Pat and Betty keep on trucking and they are being real troopers about the new chicks. Pat has started laying again, and fingers crossed it keeps up!
The bees I picked up today from Spille in Ky, but they are going to have to wait to go into their new home till Monday evening when Dan gets home from work. Hopefully we have more luck all around!
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| 4 of the new chicks! |
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