BRRRRRR

RIP Summer

The Last Swarm??

On the corner of 13th and Champa

By the Light of the Moon

Forget the new car smell....freshly vacated nuc box is heavenly

I can't quite remember the last time I could see the mat in the back end of my car. You see the back end has become the vortex for all things bee in the universe. The back seat well, it has a few dead gals but with Johnny Cash belting out Folsom Prison Blues it's all good.

The powder that you see right above the words "last time""on the edge, see it? It's a shade of tan. It's Mega Bee and it seems to be helping them build up after that drippy month.

" I hear the train a comin it's rolling down the track"

"Z" Very Good Day

Z's vignette brings back fond memories to all of us that installed our first packages alone!
Thanks for sharing
Welcome!


6/17- Bee Day. I wasn't quite ready to have my bees at home but if I didn't take this opportunity I don't think I would have gotten any bees this year.
So on the morning of the 17th I busted my butt to paint my hive and get it into place were it would stay, of course all done with a little help from Dan, my boyfriend.
In the afternoon Dan and I went to Kentre Farms and picked up the package. The anxiety slowly began to rise. You could hear quite the hum coming from the back seat as we drove home. When we got home I suited up and took all the tools necessary to hive the bees. I walked back to the hive with the girls and made Dan take pictures from a little ways away. I sprayed the bees with a little sugar water and then I was off. I tried to get the feeder can out and I couldn't get a hold of it with my gloved hands.I was freaking out a bit so Dan came over and helped me pull it up part way and then walked away. I pulled the can out and the queen and then covered the top of the box again. I was shaking by this time. A lot of bees came out with her on her cage. I brushed them off and they were flying all around me. She was alive and moving around her little cage. I pushed the two bent nails into her little cage with my shaking hands, grabbed the pliers and pulled out the cork to put in the candy plug, and hung her. While I was doing this I think some bees were escaping from the box because I had only put a piece of card board over the hole. A fare amount of bees were flying around me at this point. I finally got her hanging though and grabbed the bee box and started shaking them over their queen and into the space where the frames had been removed. I gently spread them out with my hand and replaced the missing frames. I put the inner cover on, the food chamber, added the feeder and closed it up with the outer cover. My heart was pounding hard.
Finally I left the box with the bees that didn't come out in front of the hive and walked away.
For the hour after I was still really jumpy from having so much anxiety while hiving them but I couldn't stop looking at them and wondering if they liked their new home. I kept walking out to the hive to see if they were going into the hive and to make sure they were still there.
Today I have found myself just as curious with a lot less anxiety. I went and sat by the hive this morning and watched them come and go. I think they like there new home. I am going to be a good bee momma once I can stop shaking when dealing with them, I guess that will come with time.
Z

Happy Birthday x 2

It's been a year since I received the Cease and Desist notice from the city of Denver. It was June 12Th ,Peter's birthday and the bee-gining of work that would eventually bring to fruition an ordinance allow beekeeping in the mile high city. As I read the notice anger and fear coerced through my veins.

At first, it was just about keeping bees. With all that had been written concerning their decline it seemed the least I could do. Host a box of bugs.
It quickly turned into something much deeper for me.

Marduke had arrived at our door step like so many other animals. He had been relinquished as a sickly eight week old pup at, our local veterinarian, Planned Pethood.
He was all legs and had enormously sad eyes that enveloped me. He took over my heart and would become a very dear friend.
It was near the end of my beekeeping course that I had Marduke put to sleep.
The decision, his absence, all of it left me feeling as though I had been hit by shrapnel and I couldn't, just couldn't determine the size of the wound.
I lumbered through spring half-heartedly awaiting my packages of bees.

Following an installation hives must be checked frequently. Is the queen in there? Is she doing what a queen does? Are the workers drawing out comb?

Trepidation does not a beekeeper make and I had very little in my initial encounters. In Marduke's absences I was numb and found it difficult to summons any; joy, excitement or even fear concerning the bees.
Each time I was working with the girls, and I was thinking about Marduke which was all the time, they would sting me. I was caught in an eddy of thought and emotion. Had I made the right decision about Marduke? The fact that it was my decision was eviscerating.
With each trip to the hive they painfully nudged me back to present. After numerous stings, which gave way to swollen body parts, I realized that they were offering me a respite from my grief. The peripheries of our worlds afford a place for me to leave my torment, sorrow and sadness.
When I was able to quiet my thoughts they declared a ceasefire and let me work among them.

When we lose a being of precious nature it's first physical and then we scramble to hold them in our thoughts. Our grief is about reconstructing a place for them in our memories.
My fear was letting go of Marduke, however each time I participated consciously with them I came away with another small piece of building material in the form of acceptance.
The bees are and will always be a place for me to take myself. I had to let go of a buddy and they consoled me.
The energy of a hive is exurbanite and nourishing.
The hive is an organism that seems to embrace life and takes death in stride.