Day #355 Bye-bye Bees

Yesterday morning, Rob and Tommy came by to take my bees to their new home.

I cried.

I also tried to give Rob the bee box brander I’d bought from Brand New, “because,” I said, “I’m not a beekeeper anymore.”

“Yes, you are,” he told me. “You still have the bees; they’re just going to be living somewhere else.”

The transfer was easy (except for my crying) in part because the weather has turned quite cool. At 10:30 in the morning, it was only about 48 degrees Fahrenheit / 9 degrees Celsius, so almost every single bee was inside the hive.

In fact, when Rob and Tommy each picked up a hive, they were both surprised at how heavy they were. That’s good news. It means the bees have been making good use of the supplemental feed I’ve been giving them, and they should have enough honey to get them through the winter, particularly since their new home will be in the middle of fifty acres that right now are filled with goldenrod, and my bees will have several weeks for harvesting. Goldenrod honey is good honey.

I still won’t get any honey until next spring, but that’s okay. My bees got off to such a slow start, I’m just glad they survived. Rob kept reassuring me yesterday that the hives were strong now and should make it through the winter just fine.

Here the hives are, loaded on the back of the truck. They guys stapled screening over the entrance holes.

And the photo on the right was my last view of the hives, as Rob backed the tuck out of my driveway.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ve seen lots of pictures of the hives, taken through my bay window. The scene looks awfully empty now, with that slash of dark shadow from the deck railing looking like a slash across the whole enterprise.

There are about a dozen bees flying around the concrete blocks where their hives used to be. Rob said they’d figure out another place to go, possibly find a wild hive they could join. With their little gifts of pollen-filled corbiculae, I imagine they’d be welcome anywhere.

As I try to type this Saturday afternoon, through my tears I see an enormous Pileated Woodpecker land on one of the nearby trees in my back yard. Life goes on.

BEEattitude for Day # 355:

       Blessed are those who keep their eyes open, for they shall see wonders the rest of the world misses.

Fran’s p.s. The WAG raffle is over now. Once I contact the winner, I’ll let you know who it was and what kind of dog will be in Violet as an Amethyst.

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Day #162 A Pretty Good Life

I heard from H & L Bee Farm, saying that the pick-up date for the bees probably won’t be until April 10^th. Part of me says phooey because I want to get them sooner, but another part of me is relieved. There’s still so much to do before they get here.

We’ve had so much rain I haven’t finished staining the deck yet. I don’t want to be slapping a paintbrush around while my bees are getting used to their new location.

Meanwhile, all those seeds my grandchildren and I started inside are outgrowing their little pots, but it’s still a bit too early to transplant them outside.

I don’t have my boxes branded yet, although my branding iron from Brand New is waiting patiently in what used to be the family room but is steadily being transferred into the Bee Equipment Launching Pad.

On top of work (5 doctoral dissertations and 2 novels to edit, plus my own book to write, a seminar presentation to prepare, and some book clubs to speak to), I agreed last week to serve as the treasurer for the Gwinnett Choral Guild. It’s a community 501(c)(3) choir, and I know I really should do my part, which is why I agreed to take on the position. Everybody’s busy, so the simple fact that I’m busy is not an excuse.

Still, I’m drawing a line here and now:

I’m not volunteering for ANYTHING ELSE!!!!!

I’ll work. I’ll do what’s necessary around the house. I’ll connect with my family and friends. I’ll give blood every other month. I’ll knit and sing. I’ll walk and garden and read. I’ll uphold my volunteer commitments, care for my cats, take care of myself, and play at beekeeping.

Come to think of it, that sounds like a pretty good life, doesn’t it?

BEEattitude for Day # 162:

       Blessed are those who know what they want to do in life, for they shall be infinitely satisfied.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       My comfy old sweatpants    

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #139 Didn't Work

My son, Eli, had told me he’d stop by Sunday afternoon with a propane torch so we could brand the bee hives (see my blog for February 22^nd), but then he ended up doing something else much more fun—building sixteen pairs of stilts.



This is what my branding iron looks like.
(Ignore the sample brand above it)

I didn’t want to wait, though, so on the warmest day of Spring so far, I built a fire in the fireplace and waited for a nice bed of coals. While the wood was burning down, I hauled the hive boxes out onto the deck and lined them up so I’d be sure and get the brand right-side up instead of upside down.

Once the fire was settled in, I stuck the brand in the coals and let it sit there long enough to get really hot. Brand in hand, feeling very cowboyish, I strode to the deck and planted the branding iron on the first box.

It didn’t work. It wasn't the fault of http://www.brandnew.net/. They told me to use a propane torch. They are not responsible for my impatience.

I put the branding iron back in the coals and tried again. And again. And again. Then I gave up. I’ll wait for my son and the propane torch. Four weeks to go till the bees will be ready, so there’s plenty of time. Meanwhile, I've opened all the windows to let out the heat from the fireplace.

BEEattitude for Day # 139:

       Blessed are those who try, for (sometimes) they shall succeed

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The squirrels who’ve cleaned up the suet that melted onto the rocks beneath the feeder.

                 I tried to make my own suet. 

                 It, like the branding, didn’t work.

http://www.franstewart.com

Day #133 Branding

With a title like "Branding," you probably thought I was going to talk about marketing, right? Isn’t everyone into branding nowadays – making sure their public image is packaged tidily?

Forget it. I’m talking about real BRANDING. My branding iron arrived yesterday.

No! I’m not going to apply a hot branding iron to my bees!

But I am going to brand the hives. It all came about when I was reading one of those dire doom-and-gloom articles about people who steal hives. Lousy thought. Of course, the large commercial outfits are much more likely to see thieves lurking about than the teeny back-yard beekeepers, so I didn’t really have to mark my hives.

And I certainly didn’t want to use magic markers to write PROPERTY OF FRAN STEWART. IF FOUND PLEASE RETURN TO . . . Ugly, ugly.

So, I checked out http://www.brandnew.net/. I found them because their advertisement has shown up several times in the ad column to the left of this blog. I’m not allowed to click on those links, but I did note the URL and went to their website.

I sent them a rather stark design that showed what I wanted, bemoaning the fact that I didn’t know how to put a bee in the middle of it. Lo and behold, a very nice person emailed me back and said he could put a bee in there.

Within the next week or so, my son's going to drive out here with his propane torch (to heat the iron), and after he leaves, each one of my hive boxes will sport the following logo (but you'll have to imagine the cute little bee in between the two lines, since I can't figure out how to reproduce it):

Bees Knees

Beekeeping

Now I get to join that illustrious list of BrandNew customers . . .

The White House

Ghiradelli Chocolate

Mayo Clinic

Disney World

BeesKnees . . . !

 

BEEattitude for Day # 133:

       Blessed are the businesses that give good value, for they shall receive accolades from their clients.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The possum who cleans up the excess birdseed that falls under my porch    

http://www.franstewart.com