May Excitement

-posted by Isaac

A lot going on and much more still to come on the bee farm. Ah, Spring...
First, a bait hive update: we now have 26 hives in our yard that came from swarms.
19 of these were caught using the swarm traps. Unbelievable!
I'll be moving many of these to out-yards this week. Better forage elsewhere.

The days are numbered for our broilers.

This week we'll be taking them to be processed and making a day of it with the whole family. What a great excuse for a mini vacation (and celebration). No more broilers to worry about! As much as I drag my feet and grumble about Jayne's projects, I really do admire her ambition. She's got a willingness to try new things all the time and quite the pioneer spirit.

We've got the pollen traps on. 29 total for now. The stronger hives are really bringing it in, and after only ten days there are already two full buckets in the freezer ready to be cleaned. We'll have it at market this Saturday for you pollen lovers.

The kids really like to go on "pollen runs." Every other day we go in the morning or evening when not many bees are flying, and collect what amounts to about 3/4ths of a five gallon bucket. Sampling seems to be a must.

Mason can't hide his guilty pollen face

"You're eating the profits, Maizy and Mason!"

Of course we always take time for playing on the hay bales after the work is done.

On May 22nd, I had a chance to share some bee stories with the kids at Walnut Elementary near Ashville. It was a fun day. First through Fifth grade, a new group coming into my little shelter house every 20 minutes.

By the end the kids had me pretty worn out. It really brought back that old end-of-the-day feeling from my teaching past. What a hard job teachers have-- a continual performance all day long. They certainly deserve their summers off, and in my opinion, a raise!

Lots of interest at the honey sampling table

Looking for that elusive queen bee

"I found her!"

Isaac shows a piece of naturally drawn honeycomb to the students.

The latest honey house project has been a total revamp of the extractor room.  I've knocked a couple walls out and moved a door or two in able to fit the bigger equipment we'll need for extracting honey. I also added a drying room with a fan, dehumidifiers, and a heat source. Much more permanent than what we've been working with in other years.

Some of the extracting equipment going in is pictured here on the trailer. Jayne and I bought this stuff years ago before we even had a honey house. It was kind of a spontaneous purchase from the widow of a commercial beekeeper in Ross County. Now I'm sorting through it, not able to make heads or tails out of a lot of it. What fun.

On a final note, our old long-lost Montana friend, Scott Howard (green shirt) paid us a surprise visit. He brought his band with him-- The Dodgy Mountain Men.

These guys are on tour from Missoula and landed here by way of New York City and Columbus. We're just now recovering from two days and nights of music and Montana stories. The lead singer, Jed (white hat) spent yesterday helping me in the bee yards. It was his first close-up look at bee hives and I'm happy to report he didn't take a single sting. What a natural!