Happy Harvest Blog
Seriously. Not again!?
Pansy swarmed AGAIN. This time I got pictures. I heard the roaring sound again and looked out. Pansy?!! What's it been, five days? Since a giant contingent of the bees just departed from Pansy, I had a hard time even believing what I was seeing, although, a swarm is pretty unmistakable. Not possible. There aren't enough bees left to split again. There were. I was completely expecting Violet to swarm. The Violet hive is huge and strong.
MY FIRST SWARM!
It seemed to go pretty well. I was getting bees into the box. Only thing, they seemed to want to come out of the box. It was like a really slow boil over. I'd dump bees in, they'd flow back over the top of the box. I'd scoop them back in with my hands.
Move-in day for the bees
Time for the new bees to go from their nuc boxes (temporary housing) to their forever homes. Sheltered from the rain with a hive lid. These bees were also midnight bees. They came from a great distance, and with the aid of caffeine and chatting on the phone, I did very well on the drive back, until I was 10km from home and the black dogs struck. At midnight there was no one else on the road so I crept, 40kph the last few klicks. My theory was if I fall asleep and go in the ditch, I'll go in slow.
Unwrapping the bees
I had been marveling at the towers of styrofoam prefab hives, but when she said that, I realized how now wood is the exception. That´s why they have to drag it out of the back. Everything is plastic. Plastic frames, plastic foundation, plastic hive parts now.
Bees! Day 2
One bee led a crowd walk around up and around the front of the hive, and then they started using it like they’d always lived there. The airborne crowd dispersed.Until I reduced the entrance with a stick.
Instagram.
I may not make a blog post every day, but at least I Insta.
Bite size.
