Cold Weather

It's been rainy and cold the past couple of days - I'm glad I've got food for the nucs. They may not be using much but every little bit helps in making them into strong hives.

I'll open them this weekend. I want to see what's happening inside.

You can see a bee on the front of the Nuc #2 - it was late afternoon when I took this photo.

One of Many

Happy Mother's Day

Plants Delights Nursery

Today I went to the Open House and Plant Sale at Plants Delights Nursery on Sauls Road in Wake County. If you have the opportunity to visit their gardens, it is a "delight". The gardens are beautiful and you can see the plants in the ground in a real yard/garden setting.
The visual is so much better than looking in the catalog. Lots of great ideas and new plants to see.
Tony Avent is a gracious host and the staff are most helpful.
I wanted agave plants - the common term is century plants. Found more than one!

http://www.plantdelights.com/

Nucs

On Saturday with Steve's help, I made two nucs from the three hives. We took frames from all three hives, making sure the queen was not on any of the frames.

From Hive #6, we took 3 brood frames and 2 frames from a super - the bees will probably make a mess with the frames from the supers but they had several queen cells on them. I'll deal with that situation later.


From Hive #4, we took 2 brood frames and 2 brood frames from Hive #1 and used a frame I had from last year.

Shook bees from super frames in both nucs - want to give them all the help I can. Also, I'm feeding both nucs - it's not necessary at this time of year but it makes me feel better. And in checking today, they have taken some sugar syrup.

They're working and I see activity in and out. I'll look over the weekend.

VOTER #49

I was Voter #49 in my small town this morning.

Please VOTE today - this is your right and privilege.

Every vote counts!

A Swarm or A Hive

My next door neighbor thought she had a swarm of bees. She said they always came back about the same time each year and always went to the same place. She's seen them for several years. And she has seen one swarm and had taken a photo - last year I think.

Well, it could be a swarm except after looking and checking - it seems she has a hive of bees inside her house. Now she has checked in the attic several times and no bees so they're somewhere between the bricks and the attic wall.


This is a large hive of bees, lots and lots of bees. In checking in the late afternoon and early morning, you can see where they're going in and out. There's a small crack between the brickwork and it looks like they have a route all set up. They seem pretty happy up there. Even had Steve, the neighbor beekeeper, come over and take a look. We really thought it was a swarm and he'd get a free hive - that's what you want - free. But this one isn't free and wouldn't be easy - whew! Don't know what she'll do - getting bees out of a house can be really, really expensive.


So, if you see this on the side of your house - it could be a swarm (that's what you'd hope for) and a beekeeper would come right over to pick those girls up or it could be a hive and now you have a dilemma. I'll keep you posted.

Oh and if they swarm, you can believe I'll be right over.

New Kids on the Block

This photo was taken several weeks ago - there are babies now - fuzzy little things - about four I think. The Mother Bluebird is very protective of her chicks . I have only looked once since seeing the eggs and they now have fuzzy feathers.

Check out the website http://www.ncbluebird.com/