Tuesday, June 3, 2014

A Day Around the Small - Hold in Pictures (Updated)





I hi the road about 8:30 this morning. It was hard getting out from under those blankets with the AC going... except the AC wasn't going and it got HOT because the Mrs. shut off the AC this morning because she was cold. Got me out of bed anyway I guess.




It was so hot and humid already in the morning the camera fogged up when I tried to take a picture of this turtle who was hanging out behind my truck. Luckily I saw him or he would have been flat. I moved him off into the yard.

First stop was the North Apiary.




No swarms I could see and everything looked fine. Not too hot yet. Then over to the West Apiary.




All was well there and I checked on the swarm trap you see at the very top while over that way as well. You can see my special migratory type tops I use on the larger hives. They are made to be flush with the boxes and have an entrance in them the bees can use to go in the top and then down through the inner cover hole. I have some that are going on five years of use now and still functional and I have never seen the bees try and make comb up there. I also put hooks on these top entrances to hang pollen traps on if I decide to collect some.




Next stop was the newly opened Orchard Apiary with the newest swarm trap full of bees on the right of the picture. I put the leaves in front of them so the bees will know they have been moved and will re-orient. Tomorrow I will move them from the trap to  a new hive box. I can't wait to see how many are in there, if you look close you can see bees on the front of the trap already.

I then went to check the trap location where these girls came from the other morning. I put a new box up when I took this one down and guess what?




There were bees all over the entrance. Hmmmm now are they stragglers I missed? Perhaps they started foraging before dawn the other day. Or is this a new swarm? I need to check into this.

Here are a few pictures of the woods around where I grew up and cut wood now adays. You can clearly see why I don't cut during the Summer months I think.




And




Even now all those trunks are pretty much connected in a tangled web of wild grape vine. You have to chop your way through with a machete to even get to most of the tree down in there. Not fun this time of year but the ticks and chiggers always hope you will try.

I then went into town and mowed the grass at the house we have in there and then had lunch with the lovely wife. When I got home I had a visitor.




This little girl had come by with her grandma to see the baby lambs, except they were all gone now. They called my mother and she brought her bottle baby up for the girl to play with but when I pulled into the drive the girl was all excited and yelling that there was something wrong with my bees.




Yep it's that hot. The bees in Plymouth colony I keep near the garden apiary were bearding. I assured the girl they were alright and would go back inside once it cooled off a bit. She was greatly relieved. We then went down and fed one of the rams some grass we picked because she was bored and the old women wouldn't stop talking :)

Her words not mine BTW.

After the visitors left it was time to go plant my pumpkin patch.




This is half the patch it goes over that hill and if you look close you can see where it ends going up the next hill. We decided to try this under the powerline easement and hope the guys don't need to get back there this Summer. They shouldn't as they cut through last year. I swear those damned power lines use up so much space. Not so bad when they have cut through a wooded area we would have cleared anyway I guess but the fields they take do kinda suck.




Here are all the seeds I planted. I am now praying for a bit of rain tonight or tomorrow. There is a mixture of different orange pumpkins and the little cigar box was full of seeds from a giant green variety. Of course if we don't get some rain soon the field and seeds might not produce at all. This little section is within about 500 yards of the North Apiary so if they do produce I bet the bees will be going crazy in here.

Pumpkin Honey anyone?

I got back home by 4:00 and took a break to write this post and now I am heading out to once again continue on with the weeding.

June is gonna kill me I swear.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!

Update at 7:30 PM

As luck would have it the Garden hive did swarm this afternoon or at least I think it did. It's the only hive old enough and big enough to swarm and when I went out to start weeding there was a huge basketball size swarm in one of the trees. I captured it and put it in a new hive now we will see if it stays there.

If I go out now I can maybe weed for another hour or so.


6 comments:

  1. Busy day, you have a handle on the bee thing, I hope they don't start dying off like they do here. You must not have as many drive by farmers as we do. They are spray crazy and seem to hate bees from the way they farm. Those pumpkins should come up, they don't take a whole lot of water if they can get a start.

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    Replies
    1. Sf - I really don't think the bees around here hit the ag fields that much to be honest. I think it is mostly trees then the smaller clovers until the Asters and Goldenrod blooms in the pastures and roadsides. I know when I walk out into the bean fields I see some honey bees but not a lot compared to what I see on the clover.

      Corn and wheat are not something bees hit much either so I think they avoid most spraying around here.

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  2. The humidity is going to kill me. And it's not even the "official" Month of Sweaty; July and August.
    Don't melt.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carolyn - It's been bad here humidity wise anyway. A lot of slight drizzly rains too, not enough to help the soil but enough to make your clothes wet.

      Delete
  3. Love your bee posts. I can't wait to have my own so I'm not soo jealous ;)

    ReplyDelete

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