Three hives for Prairie Wildlife

Remember Hattie?

Mark has been working with her bees to get them ready to move. On Friday night, 5/26, Mark and I went out to eat at Pop's BBQ in Columbus, sold 3 jars of honey while we were there, then went to Hattie's to move the bees. In the near dark, Mark stapled screens to the front entrance to keep the bees from flying out, and carried them to the truck. Lightning bugs kept me entertained while he dealt with the work!

Saturday morning we got up early and were on the road before 6 a.m. We drove to Prairie Wildlife, where Mark set out 2 hives, and newspaper-combined a third because it was queenless. (Well, Mark had killed the queen because these were some seriously aggressive bees.) It was a lovely sunrise, with mist rising off of the pond, ducks waddling in the road, and morning glories blushing in the early light. It was also lovely because we stopped at Hoover's Bakery afterward and got apple fritters.

Photo highlights:

Sunrise from the truck.

The pond in the morning mist.

This is the row of hives after Mark got done adding the new colonies.

This is a slatted bottom board before the oil trap slides in below. It gives the bees more room and air circulation during the hot summer.

We made the local paper!

Birney Imes wrote about us in today's editorial of The Commercial Dispatch. He included the blog URL, so if you're here as a result of the editorial, thanks for stopping by and welcome!

Here is a picture of Mark holding a frame with some capped honey -- we hope to harvest in May or early June, leaving the frames with brood and honey for the bees.