There and back again

It’s been another long but productive weekend. We got a late start on Saturday (what a shock) because we o to make a screen for the hive before we went down. We didn’t get a chance to get to the bee store during the week and they aren’t open on Saturdays. It didn’t take C long to throw one together.

We hit the road at about noon making our eta about 3. It was a pretty smooth ride except the baby kept crying. He is either growing or starting to teeth. Whatever it is he is miserabe. I feel so bad for the kid. Also there is something quite horrific about this scenario:

C: something smells like poop. Baby girl did you poop?

We both turn to look at her

BG: Poopoo!! (As the shows us two handfuls of it.)

We immediately pull over to the shoulder where I wipe her down, sanitize her, and put a new diaper on. Needless to say it was not the best moment of te trip.

Once it get dark we screwed the screen onto the hive and filled in any holes where they could get out. Then his mom watched the kids and let us go on a date (which consisted of driving around the woods listening to folk and bluegrass). It was so nice and peaceful and really took me back to when we first started dating.

The next day we got up at sunrise. Then fixed the plumbing and the toilet (so yay for full running water in their house again!!!), put ratchet straps around the hive, and moved it into the truck. We had some pretty upset bees. There were about 20 bees that were super mad they couldn’t get back in the hive. Apparently if they have to fly too far from to get back in time they will spend the night out and come back to the hive in the morning. These bees had done that. They were completely saddled with pollen (which is the coolest thing to see, big chunks of yellow on their thighs). Once the bees were in the truck his mom and I took the cages I had brought and wrangled up some chickens. She sent me with 3 roosters, which are getting slaughtered tomorrow, and about 15 or 20 mid size chicks to split between me and A. It was slightly entertaining to watch Cs mom trying to grab these baby chicks. She’s pretty freaking good at it too! We packed the rest of our gear in the truck, lined the truck bed then put the chicken cages on top Of the lining. Once the kids were back we were on our way home!

The three hour long drive home was entertaining to say the least. We left the side of the topper open so the chickens didn’t suffocate. We also stopped about every 45 minutes to check on the bees, which was good because at the second stop we noticed there was a small hole they were getting out of so we plugged it back up.

Once we were back we dropped the bees off at the property, and realized there were a lot more bees in the box than we originally thought which is really good! The bees seem to like their new home. They were very active. We also picked the massive amounts of squash and zucchini from the garden (because we now have to pick them everday). We dropped off the chickens when we got back to the cabin. The roosters are staying in the cage until I slaughter them tomorrow and the babies went in my coop that is no longer being used by my hens because they are agrivating adolescent female chickens who won’t stay in the nice coop I made for them. We will deal with the babies when they get a little older and we can tell what sex they are.

C is so excited about having the bees. He’s like a small child about it. It’s so cute to watch. I guess it’s like me with my chickens. He even had a dream that on the way home our chickens ate all the bees. You know something is really on your mind when you dream about it! Hopefully they will do better here than at his parents where they were competing with 2 other hives. I guess only time will tell.