Monday, April 25, 2011

Mark's Trip to Moultrie

We got so busy with swarms I forgot to share this picture of Mark's truck loaded with stuff he bought at Rossman Apiaries in Moultrie, GA. The entire back seat was full too.



Mark's dad Bert (Hi Pop!) went with him, which was a good thing, because he bought me this fabulous mug. It makes my coffee taste very good. Mark was so distracted with trivial things like extractors that he didn't get me a present.


I'm so glad my father-in-law loves me. ;-)

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Saturday's Bee Work

On Saturday morning we looked at all of our hives in some form or fashion.


At Bee Hill we were 100% on finding queens in the hives we inspected (1, 3, 4). We saw eggs and/or larvae in all of them, but Hive 3 is going to have to be requeened.  The brood is spotty, there isn't much of it, and without a good queen, a colony will not survive.  Hive 4 the queen had come in with the captured swarm.  Hive 1 had successfully requeened themselves. The queen is in almost in the center of the photo, just a bit lower. Her head is pointed to about 5 o'clock.


What was amazing to me was that Hive 4 had eaten through and removed the entire sheet of newspaper.


At Mrs. Beatty's, they were using the hive box some, but many were still hanging out on the screen.


We also went to Barhams' and Harley's, but at the latter there were so many things to see I'll have to do another post.  Preview: vintage, restored Volkswagen Beetle.

Indiana Beekeepers Keep it all in The Family

My friend Margaret sent me a link months ago to an article about some fourth generation Indiana beekeepers. (Thanks, Margaret!)  They have a great story, an amazing line of products, and they're both school teachers so *obviously* they are part of my tribe and I need to go meet them!  I want to go to Indiana and learn everything I can from these seasoned experts.  You can also get a recipe for honey pecan pie from them here.

It's only a 9.5 hour drive.  Plus we'd go right through Louisville, KY and could see Heather & Ben . . .I'll keep you posted!