-Posted by Isaac

Spring officially arrived this week and right on cue, look what happened.

March 20th was nice. Chilly, but nice. We went to bed, woke up on the 21st and peeked out to find this marvelous Ohio surprise. It came in the dark. Like a midnight train with a big load of cold.

I put that picture on the commercial beekeepers page, saying something like, "Spring has arrived! Hurray!" 

I don't think they got my sarcasm. 

But I know you do. And I also know you're tired of hearing me bitch about the weather. Are we going on four weeks now? Let me tell you, it can get worse. Just ask Jayne.

I had the pleasure of working with my lovely wife this week. (No sarcasm there.) Katie, who does all the work around here, was out with the flu. After about three days, it occurred to us that we'd better knock out some of those online orders that were piling up. So, much like in the good ol' days, we put on our favorite music and got busy.

No, not that. We were working.

Honey house work very appropriately flies by with The Honeycutters. You can just savor every line...

We made a day of it.

A bit of bottling,

a bit of labeling,

and a lot of packing and shipping.

As fun as it was, I was ready to get back to the bees the next day.

On one trip, I had some help.

And once again, the help got the good bee suit. Dad as always, gets the raggedy old scraps.

But some had to go without. I guess if you're using the smoker like a fire extinguisher, you really don't need a suit.

Maizy started off as my photographer. Below is a five second "photo."

Wow, five seconds! Instagram worthy. 

Although it was only a blip of time, Maizy was still able to capture the essence of what we were doing in the bee yard.

1. Messing around without proper sting protection.

2. Screwing with Dad's phone.

3. Letting Dad fill his usual role as Mr. Beast of Burden. 

This is the way it goes with good help. On my many other alone trips this week, I was mostly just making one last check. Checking for food, and checking for split potential. If the hive is left with a brick on edge, it will be split sooner than later. If the brick stays flat, the split comes later than sooner. Or not at all. That simple. 

Now you know my March brick language. But you're not yet fluent... it changes in April.

In this strong yard, 12 of 16 will be split by the middle of next month. Not bad!

These bees happened to be only two miles away from the Mt. Sterling Dairy Freeze.

And you have to keep the help happy. 

We filled ourselves with sugar and grease, but you can see I had the presence of mind to grab some good literature. I thought at the very least I could talk bees and entertain my young captive audience.

Nope, foiled again. The bee talk would have to wait.

Not even ice cream can compete with a train.