%$&*#@ Wind

My wife thinks it's just my imagination but the damned wind this Spring seems to be worse than I ever remember it. I admit the Small-Hold lies at a particularly high point around the area and is rather exposed so we get wind much worse than other places around us but I never remember it being this bad.

It rained off and on most of the morning but once it let up the wind picked back up with gusts that almost knocked me off my feet a couple of times. I tried working on the fence line but after a few minutes of chasing my hat or holding on I just gave up and went to work on swarm traps.

I am sure it is at least a month too early yet but I went ahead and placed a couple of traps this afternoon. I got a call this morning asking if I would remove a bee swarm in someone's yard which made me think perhaps the season was starting early this year. However when I arrived at the scene what I found was an old Maple tree that had snapped off in the wind exposing a full hive of honey bees.

Normally I would try and save the bees but the guy who owns the tree was being such an Ass about the whole thing I declined the offer this time. He was ranting and raving about there being honey everywhere. It wasn't honey it was simply bees wax that had fallen out of the hive. Then he went on about how his wife was deathly allergic and they needed to be moved NOW. I tried to explain to the old coot that these bees considered this place home and it would take a bit of effort to get them into a new box. It can be done but if I just scoop out everything in that tree there was no way I was going to get all the bees since so many are out foraging during the day and more importantly I would stir up the hive that is already upset that half it's home is gone.

This guy wasn't gonna listen to squat and had no time for any of it so screw em. I hate to see bees get killed but I am not taking the risk of pissing off these bees even more and then someone getting stung and coming after me for it. Not to mention they are a good 20 foot up in that tree so I can't just scoop the old comb into a box and leave it there for the returning foragers to go into as a new home. Ideally that's what I would do. Take the old comb and put in foundationless frames and then just set the new hive next to the broken tree. I could even strap it to the current tree. Then as the bees came home they would just go into the new box especially if I got the queen in there but it takes a day or two to do it. He wanted me to just take all the bees right now, which I could do but there is probably thousands of them that live there that are not there right now and they would return and then be lost and pissy.

It just isn't worth the risk in my opinion and the guy would just scream I didn't get em all.

About the time I was ready to just call it a day of little progress and surrender to the wind I noticed a couple of sheets of barn roofing had pulled their nails out and were flapping dangerously. I was afraid if I left it be I would loose a couple sheets off the roof and it would be more a pain to fix later. Not to mention it doesn't seem this wind is going to let up anytime soon either.

So I had to climb up there and fix it in the high winds. It is amazing how much steeper those roof pitches look from the top while standing on em than they do from the ground. Not to mention I bashed my thumb a few times....

This year I hate Wind more than rain or cold. Of course give me a few days since they are calling for rain like everyday this week I am sure I will be back to complaining about the rain again soon. I can say this though the rain typically doesn't end up costing me money or a bashed thumb however.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!