-Posted by Isaac

Yes, it has been a while. Months almost. And I'm truly sorry. I used this confusing new blog layout as an excuse. For maybe a week or two. But you can only milk computer illiteracy for so long. (It took Jayne five whole minutes to explain how to use Squarespace!) At some point I took a vacation out west, and returning home, forgot all about the habit of weekly blogging. Pleasant in some ways... One less thing, you know? But in other ways, I did actually miss it. Although I harbor grand delusions of you hanging on every word, anticipating every weekly report from the bee farm, I think the truth is that I get much more from this than you.

A sad truth or a happy truth? Hmmm.

It's healthy to journal and I think it's healthy to blog. I'll leave it at that.

So not much has changed since I quit blogging. (Aside from a slight increase in honey sales.) (And the sharp decline in hate mail.) We're still plugging along. Bees and projects and kids. And that's what you're getting today. A little catch-up from the last two months.

In the bee department, I'm happy to report that we have so far had the best winter survival ever. The bees are looking great and if we can weather the next month, we should come out with less than 10% loss.

Although most hives went into winter pretty heavy, by now the bees are making their way up through the stored honey and need some food directly above them to push through these March cold snaps.

So getting around, yard to yard, hive to hive, has been the number one priority. In a month, we'll be splitting the strong ones. Making increase.

But feeding bees is a pretty quick process. we can be in and out of a yard in 15 minutes. What to do with the rest of the day? Projects, of course.

This winter I got around to storage issues.

Barrel storage:

How to stack 700 lb honey barrels? Build a ramp... ahh ha!

For Bridger, this was less barrel ramp and more roller coaster.

And then I tackled the problem of container storage. For the longest time we've been walking cases of honey bottles from the barn. Not any more.

A large hanging platform did the trick.

Bridger volunteered to test carrying capacity.

Shelving and wall space really make things convenient.

And the more barn space we have available, the better.

We've been able to add another 400 supers and 600 hive bodies to the arsenal.  We're ready for those April splits.

The busyness continues. Building, painting, feeding and so on. But don't let me fool you into thinking it's all work. Last month Jayne let me mingle for a bit with an old love-- The West. A week in the Rockies. My next post I'm going to share a few cool photos. But no selfies!

Outside my window the wind howls and the leafless maples try to hold on to their swelling buds. March is coming in like a lion.

Hold on to your hats, Spring is only three weeks away!