Bee Updates

Lots of bee activities over the past few days...let's see if I can remember everything!

• I have been working on building six more hives up at the farm for expanding the operation next year.  So far I have all the wood bought, have built 5 bottom boards, built and painted 5 brood boxes, and have cut out the parts for 7 more brood boxes. 
• I also spent some time getting into their hives this past weekend, and the Queens are still going strong.
• While up at the farm (we were camping with the extended family) I drove around the conservation acreage and saw lots and lots of Golden Rod!  Probably 50 acres of Golden Rod!  It was thick and ready to start blooming.  I'm hoping that this will finish off the honey box on the East hive.  Also, the West hive has been very active with a lot of bees (only two brood boxes with no honey super), so I decided to throw the honey super that I spun out the other day on top of the hive to see what the bees do with all the Golden Rod.
• On Saturday and Sunday I met up with my cousins from Texas who came for the Baker Reunion: Woodward, Woody, and Tim Baker.  Woody is a beekeeper and brought up a jar of East Texas Wildflower Honey to swap for some of my clover/wildflower honey.  His honey had a full and complicated flavor...very unique and good!
• I also met up with Dick Loy last night to check out his bees and to look at a super of bees left over from an extraction.  It was rather amazing...as I pulled out a few of the frames all I saw were Drones!  Hundreds and hundreds of drones with only a few worker bees mixed in.  We were wondering if the hive this box came from had a False Queen, a Worker who takes on the role of a Queen but since she is not fertalized she can only have Drones.
• Finally, I received a phone call last night from Lance Faulk, an old friend from Altamont, who told me that I beat him to the punch.  He apparently was getting ready to start a bee club and was even going to name it Crossroads Beekeepers, but hadn't started it yet.  While reading the news on WXEF he read about our club and decided to give me a call....he hopes to be at the next meeting.
• Oh, I almost forgot, but I have bottled and labled 48 8oz bottles of honey.  I gave one bottle to Mom and Dad, and sold 2 bottles to Pastor Wallace.  I guess now it is time for some financial returns on the investment!