Good Girl!

The Buckfast girls are going great guns, (how's that for alliteration?) and Her Majesty is laying in a nice tight brood pattern. Lots and lots of pollen in the cells and a nice mixture of eggs, larvae, and capped brood.

Italian Hiving Hysteria

Monday morning, ugh. Responsible for presenting to a group of visiting teachers at work. Uptight. All went well, but during my presentation I felt my phone vibrate. After I saw the visitors out I checked my voice mail and discovered to my consternation that although my Italian bees had arrived, "the package is open." Not only that, the good people at the South Milwaukee Post Office wanted them off of the loading dock. When I arrived, I saw a few dozen bees flying about the dock. The workers (postal, not bee) had placed the package in a rolling hamper and covered it with a plastic sheet. I pulled off the sheet and another dozen or so bees flew out, but I saw a still rather large cluster in the cage so I put the whole works in a cardboard box, taped it shut, and drove home.

Since I didn't want to lose any more bees, I hosed them down with sugar water, hived them, and went back to work. Since then they seem to be making themselves at home so I'm hoping for the best.

Her Majesty is out and about

Well, the little Buckfast babes have released the queen and are rapidly drawing new comb where I cut out the moldy comb from the dead hive. They also tackled an extra project (see photo) so I put the other deep body on top. They may as well get busy collecting their winter stores. I have high hopes I can add the honey supers in time for the basswood nectar flow. Last year's basswood honey was light and slightly minty. What a treat!

Buckfast Package Hived

My package of Buckfast bees arrived on Friday, May 7. Unfortunately, the weather was cold, windy and rainy so I waited until today (Sunday the 9th--Mother's Day) to hive the little buggers. Buggers was right as I was stung twice shaking the bees into the empty hive. Seriously? I thought they were so docile when being hived. Oh well, I admire their spunk. Let's just hope they do as well as their predecessors did in that hive.

The second package for the new hive should ship in two weeks. I couldn't get more Buckfast bees so I ordered Italians.