Ouch

We had a little wind the other night and lost some limbs. I'm not sure I can buff the dent out of that panel. 

Finally, ready to go to work

We set the hives out on the edge of a canola field and the girls are ready to go to work making honey.  Actually, because these are new hives, they will have to build a lot of wax before they start putting up honey.  We have found that canola is a great crop to start bees out on.  They really seem to make wax fast and the queen lays a lot of eggs.  Usually, when we take them off canola these hives will have 2 boxes each and most of the frames covered with new wax and full of bees.

On the road again

I gave them a couple of days to get used to their new home and now they are loaded and ready to go to a field of canola.

Welcome home

The Queen is in a queen cage and is between 2 frames.  I have cut a hole in the black screen, see it on the package behind me, so the bees can get out of the package.

Almost ready

It takes some prep before the bees can go into the hives.  I have to get the frames in the boxes before I put the bees in.  I should have had this done before the packages arrived.  It is amazing how "I need to get that done" becomes "OH NO they are here and I'm not ready".

New Bees

I finally got some replacement bees.  These are 3 lb packages of Italian bees ready to be put into hives.

I have to lay how many?

 

Only 497 to go.  Believe it or not I have done this before but it was 20-25 years ago.  Funny thing though, they seem to be twice as heavy and the ground seems to be farther away.  I'm not sure I fully thought this through. Hmmmmmm.

When is the best time to find a leaking hydrant

Before this happens.

Seriously, is this winter ever going to go away.  No more ice, no more snow no more cold.

Here comes the mud

 

After a longgggg break since the rebar went into the footers, we were able to get back to the new building.  It feels great to see the cement trucks rolling onto the property.

Let there be mud.

 

The first cement goes into the footers.  I'm almost giddy seeing the footers finally fill up with cement.