Bee Kind To Your Six-Footed Friends
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| (photo by Mr. C) |
Aren't they pretty?!
And aren't my three whole flowers pretty?!
I installed the bees yesterday evening, as Bee and Mr. C documented me from the safety of the porch: safe not only because the bees didn't notice them there, but because I couldn't hear them giggling about how ridiculous I looked in the bee suit.
Unfortunately, I was in a terrible mood, as the bee club guy who picked up my bees for me was an hour late to our rendezvous, and -- since he is A TALKER -- I had to be sort of rude and hurry out of there with my bees before he could reel me into yet another hour-long conversation . As such, I didn't really get to ask all the questions I would have liked to have asked about installing the bees. However, I think I only smushed about 10, so I ought to have about 990 still in there.
You might be able to see in the top photo that I'm holding a frame of bees. The little transportation box at my feet came with four frames, and I had to (carefully! don't smush the bees!) transfer each frame into the box hive Bee and I built. Getting that first frame out of the little box while wearing bulky gloves and trying not to smush bees was quite a challenge: it took me at least five minutes to get a grip on the frame and wiggle it out of the box while attempting to ignore Bee's repeated questions from the (safety of the) porch about what was going on and what I was doing and why wasn't I just getting the frame moved already? Oh, and did I notice how I'd let the smoker go out and didn't I need any of the other supplies at my feet?
Despite my terrible mood and my distractions, I channeled a Zen-like sense of calm and did my best not to freak just because I still feel like I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with these 990 girls (and a couple of male drones who are -- apparently -- good for nothing but sex). And, in my Zen-like state of calm, as I transferred the frames from their little box to the big hive, I studied each one AND . . . I think I actually saw the queen! (Again, insert exclamation point to prove excitement!)
Well, maybe it was one of the drones.
Or a bee with a mutation.
Be(e) that as it may, I'm going to pretend it was the queen so that I can feel better about my bee identifying- (and therefore keeping-) skills.
The girls slept in this morning, refusing to start really buzzing around until about an hour ago. But they are buzzing, so I guess the transfer to their new hive was successful (and, by "successful', I just mean that I obviously didn't kill them all. Although the week's not out yet). If all goes well, within about a month they will have filled all the frames in that bottom box with eggs, pollen and honey, and we'll add another box on top of that. Once they've filled all those frames, we'll add boxes that they will hopefully just fill with honey and that we can then harvest this summer. That would be exciting (!).
Unfortunately for our girls, they live in the ghetto: Bee and I (as I'm sure I've mentioned before) really aren't good builders, so -- despite our best efforts -- the bee boxes are a little off-kilter, and so they stack a little oddly. Hopefully they'll still do the trick, though.
Oh, don't you worry: I'll keep you updated on the progress of the hive as the summer progresses.
And, in case you're only here to see if your suggestion won for the First Ever Toxic Housewife Contest!!, you'll just have to check back in a few days for the big reveal. Because by then I just might also have a super-awesome, professional-style logo to go along with it, done by actual, professional-style graphic designers who may or may not be related to me and who may or may not be doing the design out of the goodness of their hearts / pity / family-pressure.
Theoretically speaking, of course.
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