The Swinging life

-Posted by Isaac

No, not that kind of swinging.

We capped off our week with some sunshine swinging.

Let me tell you how we got there.

About a week ago we once again plugged away at the bee work despite the miserable weather.

 I even had the bright idea of bringing a tent along.

We had to make up the first 150 nucs. Weather be damned. 

And just when I thought it couldn't get any worse... when I thought I'd cursed the very last of my nasty weather complaints...

It snowed.

At this point, I don't know why I was even surprised.

But I was. How could it happen? Again? Our poor poor babies... out there in the cold cold wind. On April 19th!

I realized I simply needed to make a habit of checking the forecast.

Looking at my favorite Facebook page, I also realized it could be worse. This guy in Minnesota had to install package bees this week.

No one will argue that it's been a tough winter/spring for midwestern honey bees.

Then, finally, things turned around. Late in the day on Thursday the sun actually showed itself. And by Friday we were kissing the sixties again. Things didn't feel quite so futile.

It was a joyful moment. Rare sunshine!

To build up some of the weaker nucs, I simply steal brood. We have a lot of big hives that will soon be going into the apple orchards. Some of those can spare a frame. I mark the weak nucs, then it's about a two minute walk across the yard to the big hives.

Between the two bee yards, I came across Maizy doing some rope swinging. Her first of the spring. It was finally warm enough and sunny enough.... Oh be joyful!

She insisted on being filmed. As I accommodated her request, I thought, well that looks kinda fun. And I was feeling kinda happy. With the sun, you know?

So Maizy returned the favor, capturing this rare footage of a happy beekeeper.