At noon today I was home doing a little maintenance. When I was driving off I noticed that the bee hives didn't look right. So I walked over to check. Of the two hives, the buck fast hive was all over the bee yard. Parts scattered everywhere. This was a surprise. I had strapped the whole thing together through the cinder blocks that make up the support underneath.
Last night there was prodigious wind.
Yep.
Destroyed frames. Bees scattered. Varrora trap dented. Queen excluder bent outta shape. Short super sugar feeder twisted and tossed aside and empty with sugar juice dryed all over the place.
Pandaemonium. Bee Pandaemonium.
SO.... into the house I went. And like any good man, safe in his manhood, secure in his presence of self....
I put on my wifes bee coat and my gloves and went back outside. :D
I re-assembled the hive as softy and gently as I could, making sure to not squash any bees. They were predictably upset.
Both hive bodies went back on the stand, on top of the reworked varrora trap. Then the queen excluder followed by the sugar super, the top cover and the lid. It went well. No stings. Then I strapped it together again and went back to work.
Tonight I installed 6 screw in anchors. Then I started strapping everything together.
Yep. bee in shirt. Sting. Ouch. This was after Crys* went to look at them with me and picked up the very first bee sting of her whole life. My shirt sting was followed by the complete and sure knowledge that there was a bee up by pants, somewhere around my thigh.
No.
I did not panic.
I did vacate the premises, strip and let the bee loose. She landed next on my nuts.
OK, now I did freak a little bit. :D
But it turned out OK. Mostly by shooing her off my scrotum and then running pel-mel down the drive way like a lunatic until I had outdistanced her. :D
In the morning we'll feed them some sugar water and put the last strap on.
Hee hee.... strap on........
For now it's dinner time, and I'm a little weary. Vacation starts Saturday.
Should be fun.
Hope it was the wind and not a bear.......
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
The long Memorial Day weekend. We're prepping the RV for our big trip. The roof vents are all in and nice and tight and dry. We've ensured that it'll run (funny story with starting fluid and backfires and actual fires and then finding out that it was outta gas) :D . The water system needs a bit of work yet and that'll happen this week. (Or some of it will happen on vacation which is OK because I do so like to tinker.) Today we'll put most of it together, finish a bit of fit and finish work here and there, load up most everything, finalize our list, and have our traveling companions out to sort their stuff into appropriate boxes as well.
This should be a whole whopping lot of good fun!
This should be a whole whopping lot of good fun!
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Sunday, May 13, 2012
No pics to post today. :D I don't feel like climbing to pole to send.
Yesterday we got a LOT of brush clearing done, and it looks beautiful down by the creek now. We also fed the bees their "getting started sugar syrup" meal and we're hoping that's about all they'll need and can get to foraging soon.
We got a LOT of nice rain Friday night and Saturday (all day). A new shelf for all the cookbooks is up above the desk in the stove room, I built it so it's...... rustic ..... but functional. Crys is getting the place all shined up for Summer.
Today I'm hoping to get the final repair on the exterior of the 77 RV we just bought and are taking on a canyons trip in June.
We've loved having some company this week. We got to see Dave and Tonya, Christie and Autum, and Alina. It's always nice having folks out. So if you've been thinking about it? Pop out, just txt first to make sure we're home.
Yesterday we got a LOT of brush clearing done, and it looks beautiful down by the creek now. We also fed the bees their "getting started sugar syrup" meal and we're hoping that's about all they'll need and can get to foraging soon.
We got a LOT of nice rain Friday night and Saturday (all day). A new shelf for all the cookbooks is up above the desk in the stove room, I built it so it's...... rustic ..... but functional. Crys is getting the place all shined up for Summer.
Today I'm hoping to get the final repair on the exterior of the 77 RV we just bought and are taking on a canyons trip in June.
We've loved having some company this week. We got to see Dave and Tonya, Christie and Autum, and Alina. It's always nice having folks out. So if you've been thinking about it? Pop out, just txt first to make sure we're home.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The bees are home. And in their new home.
Yesterday was one of those completely wonderful days. Get up slowly with coffee and internets and kitties. Make a delicious asparagus and parm cheese with poached eggs breakfast. Do a little laundry and a little cleaning with some music playing in the background. Swap stuff from the old '76 RV, to the new '78 RV in prep for our canyons trip in June. Move 2 nucleus colonies of bees to their new hive homes.
That was fun. :D And like the shearing last weekend we set up the video camera and captured it. One of these days we'll sit down and process the raw footage to take out all the butt views and center in on what we're really trying to get done.
The wind kept jacking with us, and the Buckfast queen tried to camp out on the lid so we had to keep a careful eye on her while we got new frames set. Was satisfying to see her slide back into her hive, it really looked like she was going home. Never saw the Carniolian queen, but I reckon she was on one of the frames and we didn't see her out of the hive. We just didn't take too long with the rehiving because of the wind.
Then we did a workout, P90X2 Base and Back with AbRipper. Our shiny new pull up bar works quite well. I set it up last week, the prep had been done for a long time. Last year when we built the deck around the house I set two 4X4 posts really tall. (Bought 12 footers) so all I had to do was drill a 1 1/4 inch hole through the tops and slide an inch and a quarter pipe through the holes. :D The new pull up assist devices that Crys* got work really well too. We worked our backs off then we did our abs. One of these days I'll see the results. Mostly I just notice that I've lost some weight and that's good even if I don't look like Arnold.
Then we fed the bees. A sugar water mixture with a feeding stimulant that is also good for their health, just to get them started. Our Bee Dude, Brent from Hafeli's gave me some advice.... we'll probably have to do a little feeding in June and then they'll just take off. I still have to buy a couple more deep hive bodies and maybe a couple more honey supers, but we're just about done with the outlay on that.
Then we drove the old RV over to Uncle Dave and Aunt Tonya's. They're gonna drive it around for the exposure and maybe we can sell the old beast. We really love it, the newer one just has a much better layout. :D We hung out with those guys for a while, they're really nice to visit with, then hit the store and came home to get to bed. L o n g day. And very good. Today looks much the same.
We love Sundays.
Yesterday was one of those completely wonderful days. Get up slowly with coffee and internets and kitties. Make a delicious asparagus and parm cheese with poached eggs breakfast. Do a little laundry and a little cleaning with some music playing in the background. Swap stuff from the old '76 RV, to the new '78 RV in prep for our canyons trip in June. Move 2 nucleus colonies of bees to their new hive homes.
That was fun. :D And like the shearing last weekend we set up the video camera and captured it. One of these days we'll sit down and process the raw footage to take out all the butt views and center in on what we're really trying to get done.
The wind kept jacking with us, and the Buckfast queen tried to camp out on the lid so we had to keep a careful eye on her while we got new frames set. Was satisfying to see her slide back into her hive, it really looked like she was going home. Never saw the Carniolian queen, but I reckon she was on one of the frames and we didn't see her out of the hive. We just didn't take too long with the rehiving because of the wind.
Then we did a workout, P90X2 Base and Back with AbRipper. Our shiny new pull up bar works quite well. I set it up last week, the prep had been done for a long time. Last year when we built the deck around the house I set two 4X4 posts really tall. (Bought 12 footers) so all I had to do was drill a 1 1/4 inch hole through the tops and slide an inch and a quarter pipe through the holes. :D The new pull up assist devices that Crys* got work really well too. We worked our backs off then we did our abs. One of these days I'll see the results. Mostly I just notice that I've lost some weight and that's good even if I don't look like Arnold.
Then we fed the bees. A sugar water mixture with a feeding stimulant that is also good for their health, just to get them started. Our Bee Dude, Brent from Hafeli's gave me some advice.... we'll probably have to do a little feeding in June and then they'll just take off. I still have to buy a couple more deep hive bodies and maybe a couple more honey supers, but we're just about done with the outlay on that.
Then we drove the old RV over to Uncle Dave and Aunt Tonya's. They're gonna drive it around for the exposure and maybe we can sell the old beast. We really love it, the newer one just has a much better layout. :D We hung out with those guys for a while, they're really nice to visit with, then hit the store and came home to get to bed. L o n g day. And very good. Today looks much the same.
We love Sundays.
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