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Saturday, June 15, 2013

The Big Move!

This week I spent most evenings after work at the farm.  Between mowing, fixing the mower, and painting bottom boards, I have been moving bees.  I had been setting up the captured swarms around the farm house area, and it had been getting a bit congested.  Not the mention, the neighbor who helps with some mowing really doesn't like mowing that close to the hives!

I had 14 hives around the house including 1 on the old tree stump by the house, 3 on the picnic table, a swarm trap that now has a swarm in it also on the picnic table, 4 on a long stand against the old car shed, one on a bee log, 2 stacked upon each other, a mating nuc behind the car shed, and 1 on log by the machine shed entrance....that's a lot of bees.  Not all were 2013 swarms, as some were nucs from last fall and a couple of splits. 

This week I mowed around the primary bee yard and decided to set these hives on the south side of the yard facing the others.  I also plan to add a few to the east edge of the yard to make a horseshoe shape.  Our neighbor at the farm, Matt Figgins, suited up Thursday night to help with the move...I think he had an interesting experience and a good time!

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Yet Another Swarm

This afternoon, while painting bottom boards and working around the machine shed at the farm, I received a message from Dawn to call Ken Wolf regarding yet another swarm.  Ken reported that another hive had swarmed (about 1 1/2 gallon size) and went up into an apple tree.  I quickly found a stopping point on my painting, called for the boys (Aaron, Elijah, and Arpon) to wrap up their fishing and boating on the pond, and headed over to Ken's farmstead.  I was a good size swarm, but the backhoe wasn't an option this time.  I carefully placed the medium ladder up into the apple tree, balanced the bee vac on a board sticking out of a step ladder, and ventured up to capture the swarm.  Everything worked well, and within a few minutes I had a box of bees ready to be hived at the farm.  Now, to get more bottom boards finished!!!