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