A Week Away!

I can't believe the day is almost here. A week from tomorrow I'll jump out of bed before the alarm, throw on my Saturday yoga pants and run out the door to pick up my Uncle Steven on the way to pick up my bees.

Uncle Steven was beekeeper back in the '60s when he was a teenager. He kept them on the garage roof. He also had a pet alligator, but we're not here to talk about alligators, we're here to talk about bees. He earned a Boy Scout merit badge for beekeeping.  The Scouts have since discontinued it, but I have to wonder if they shouldn't bring it back. Grandma and Granddad had to sell his bees when he got shipped off to Vietnam, but he kept all of his books, which he recently gave to me. They're absolute treasures!

Treasures from the 1950s

A couple weeks ago, I went to an equipment build at the farm of one of the bee club members. Newbs like me brought their pieces and parts to get help from the old timers. One thing I learned...I need a frame jig! There were power staplers and plenty of bottles of glue, and a frame wiring thingy that I didn't use.  I used bobby pins instead, since all my frames are mediums.  The larger frames need the reinforcement of a horizontal wire to help support the beeswax foundation, but my smaller ones would hold up just fine with $.99 bobby pins. The old timers showed us how to put things together, then helped us out when we inevitably overshot the staple.

Bobby pins hold the foundation in place.

Frame jigs are a must have.

It was a nice way to spend a morning, and I even managed to get my pretty spring coat all covered in glue.  I didn't mind though, it makes me feel that much more of a beekeeper. I didn't manage to get a picture of the farmer's dog, Phoebe, but I did snap one of our other helper...

Nice day for a rooster!

This Sunday is bee school again, and for the first time, we're actually going to get to play with some bees! I'm super excited and have a dozen questions about how to set up my boxes next weekend, and whether I should spray my girls with sugar water or dust them with powdered sugar. I know not to do both, lest I end up with candied bees. It's supposed to be warm next weekend, but there's also a chance of thunderstorms. I just hope I get a good window to hive them. They'll have been in tiny screened boxes for days, the sooner they can move into their new houses, the better. 

Seven more days!

Oh, geeze, I almost forgot! (Which would be shameful, since I'm sitting right next to them on my deck) I finished painting the hives!

Nice and girly, waiting for the girls.