So many updates need to be made, not so much for the house but LOTS for the farm. Our beehive survived the winter spectacularly well. We have a very strong hive. Now we need to make sure it doesn’t swarm. Talking about swarms, we are looking to increase our hives to 4 this year. We would prefer to find swarms so we have been on the lookout.
Today was a crazy day. On top of my son having therapy for a large chunk of the day, and ukulele lessons, we also had plans to get the 3 garden plots plowed with the tractor we just fixed (which will be a later post), and also had our first date night EVER planned and half payed for. We were going to see a movie screening my friend was hosting and going to dinner afterwards. We even had a sitter scheduled.
But as always life happens.
As we were coming down our driveway, we noticed a large moving growth on one of the trees. We moved closer and realized it was a honey bee swarm!! We turned around, went back up our driveway, got a bucket, drilled holes in it, grabbed the bee suit, and headed back down the driveway. Thirty minutes later, and about 5 tries, and we had what we hoped was a swarm with the queen in our bucket.
The problem? We have no spare hive. Off we went to the bee store 30 minutes away to buy a new hive (just the brood box with frames and a top and bottom), and a feeder to help coax them to stay in the hive. After spending $125 we really didn’t have we had a bunch of wood to put together, that hopefully by the end of the evening would be a hive.
This is us putting it together:
We had to forgo not only my sons ukulele lessons but also our date night. The one I had been planning for two months. I was very dissapointed, and I cried a little, but in the end we will hopefully have a new hive.
The bees seem to be taking to their new hive very well. We will know in about 3 weeks if they approve and stay.
Meanwhile we learned an important lesson. We need to invest in a second bee suit, after taking 4 bee stings to the face.
Glad to know you go the bees okay! If the bees had left, you’d never get another chance at them, but hopefully you can plan another date night š
Ouch! Hope your feeling better today.