Pandora's Box

-Posted by Isaac

I had no less than three people compliment last week's blog. Completely unexpected. And let me tell you, it makes a person feel pretty good to be the catcher of such surprising compliments. Really brightens your day, you know? And it occurs to me that I should try to occasionally be the pitcher.

Young Jaydyn Rapp knows how this is done:

Jayne and I laughed through a pile of these during one of our Netflix evenings. We find the same truths every year-- Fifth graders know something about mental health that many adults tend to forget. It's simple: say nice things. Even if they're barely true, even if you have to make them up. Say nice things.

I'm keeping Jaydyn's letter as my "good guy" card. Next time the world's got me down, I'll brandish it like a sword. Back you critics! Back you naysayers! Look what I've got!

So I'm feeling pretty confident. Feeling pretty good. 

Now what are we getting into today? What big bright news from the bee farm?

For one, this week marked the last of our babies leaving their nursery.

And man, has it been one busy month. This year I've learned some (hard) lessons about wholesaling. Namely, that you can't back out of it. Even if nothing is going right- with the weather, with the bees. 

You still have to get these girls where they're going.

I'm a people pleaser. And it stresses me out. Next year I think I'll be more cautious with my numbers and my timing.

One thing that did go right this year was the queens.  

150 gorgeous fat beauties came right on time each week. And our queen acceptance was around 95%. Great strong pheromones on those girls. 

90% went out with the nucs, so I haven't had the chance to really evaluate them. But the few that went into our own hives are looking awesome. Check out this brood pattern!

Before pulling that frame, I glanced at the date on the lid. I had put her in exactly thee weeks previous. 

When the weather cooperates, beekeeping is easy.

We jumped directly into summer this year. I'm not the only one to notice this. Just a month ago we were shivering and hoping the dandelions would hang around. Now we're sweating. And the blooms are rapid fire. This week Jayne's peonies popped.

Back when it was cold, before the bee work became nonstop, we found a little time for some arrowhead hunting. No arrowheads, but Eden found a nice fossil.

It's hot now, and the bee work has slowed a bit. With the corn growing fast, we once again find time for arrowheads.

But once again, no arrowheads to be found. Only rocks.

Which is just fine. Rocks are thrilling in their own right. I know I sound like a madman, but I repeat this to my kids every time we go out-- when you know rocks, you know the secrets of the earth. (And the secrets of life, come to think of it.) Hopefully someday they'll understand.

No arrowheads, but we did find something kinda cool. 

We debated without consensus. Is this a monarch? I'm thinking not. The antennas are the wrong color.

The caterpillar didn't really sound like a pirate.

That was me.

Sorry about the narration.

The center of the universe

-Posted by Isaac

You know, this ain't so bad.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, it appears that God still loves the Bible Belt. At least right now. Whereas I spend about 50 weeks a year pining for the Rocky Mountains, we have now come to this, the blissful two weeks here in central Ohio where I can breath deep and just enjoy the place. It's wonderful to be living. And for 1/20th of the year, it's wonderful to be living right here! Smack dab in the center of the universe.

The honeysuckle has bloomed! The black locust has bloomed! The heat is here to stay! The honey flow is on!

The nucs are sold! (Almost.) The bees are home from the apples!

A few days ago Maizy helped me go get the last load.

And it doesn't hurt to treat your free help to some awesome gas station junk food.

No sooner did we set those bees down, we looked around and had to start supering. My favorite honey maker was reaching bloom.

I'm in love with this tree. Is it possible to love a tree? If it is, the black locust would have my heart. It's both a honey maker and a thing of beauty. I've fallen so head over heels that I've planted some 700 saplings over the last decade.

We're starting to see a lot of bloom off the oldest.

And it only gets better. When they reach 30, 40, 50 years old, they don't even bother with leaves. Their spring foliage is nothing but white tumbling flowers. 

Tell me that's not a thing of beauty?? Especially if you're a bee. 

I love them up close and I love them from afar.

If you happen to be on I71 heading down to Cincinnati, take a look around. The forested countryside is glowing with pockets of black locust. It's a two week wonderland.

And you can almost set you watch to it-- swarm season has commenced. With the one-two nectar punch of locust and honeysuckle, the bees are plugging their brood nest and running out of space. This means swarming in short order.

I caught a couple this week... from my own hives. 

One of them decided to be cocky and hang around the farmstand a while.

Then it decided to hang on the farmstand.

Easy pickins.

Luckily that happened the day before all the kids came over. This was the week for the annual kindergarten and fifth grade Honeyrun Farm field trips.

A thrilling time for all. (Except me. Some of the time.) Jayne, as you may have expected, does all the coordinating, set-up and leg work. 

And the animals provide many time killing distractions. We start with the dog. Then the cats. Then the goats, the chickens, the ducks...

and finally make it to the marquee event: the bees.

The bees and the trees. I tend to let my excitement show when diving into this wonderful universe, but I realize in the end I'll never compete with Lucky Dog. Or even the ducks.

The school is only a half mile away, so it's a walking field trip. At the end of the day I can only hope my excitement over locust trees fell on a few receptive ears. Maybe somebody will look up any see those big white flowers waving goodbye. 

Maybe they'll look back one day and recall a time when the world was perfect.

Queen-- Revisited

-Posted by Isaac

For Mother's Day:

We're going to try this and see how it goes. First click on the song below:

Then click here to take yourself back four years and listen along as you meet some lovely fat bottomed mothers. 

I see the audio file on the original post no longer works. And I also see that I used to put much more energy into these posts. 

Enjoy! Whether you're a lucky fat bottomed girl or not, Happy Mother's Day!

Fruits

-Posted by Isaac

Good evening bees.

Good morning bees!

There is a lot of shifting this time of year. Day and night, bees going everywhere. 

This week we saw the first of our babies leave their nursery. Pictured above, Laura Urban puts the finishing touches on the first of two big loads. She texted me later in the day. They made it to their new (temporary) home safe and sound.

150 down, 300 to go.

And maybe there will be a few stragglers becoming Honeyrun bees.

There is a story behind this. I just got 100 new queens on Tuesday, opened the box, set it on the AC unit then started in on something else, forgetting all about it. Several hours later we had a small tornado of bees surrounding that box. Taking the box away, the tornado remained. For the next hour. I guess the queen pheromone was that strong. At that point I thought I'd just gather the bees by putting a queenright nuc there. I think it worked!

The nucs become the fruits of our spring.

But others are thinking about the fruits of summer and fall. So this week, by day we worried over the nucs, by night we moved our pollinators into the orchards.

If it's cool enough in the evening, you can use the last of the light to load, but mostly this work is done in the dark.

Yesterday I took the last load to the Lynd Fruit Farm above Pataskala. 

This is always a fun one. We drop the hives on baling wagons, then pull the wagons into the orchard. And after that, it never fails, Lester Lynd fills me with apple knowledge. Honeycrisp, Evercrisp, Autumn Crisp, Pixie Crunch, Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji, Jonathan... and about 10 others. The man is a fountain. He can ramble about apples the way a beekeeper rambles about bees. 

We tour through the orchards and watch other people work. 

Then I drive home bleary eyed, and think about all the research, technology, chemistry, physics, hard labor and plain old blind luck that goes into producing a quality fruit.

And I can't wait for summertime!

Pollen time!

-Posted by Isaac

See those cells filled with orange and yellow?

That's pollen.

The bees bring it in on their legs.

Then they stuff it into the cells by ramming it with their heads. 

And there's been a lot of pollen ramming this week. In fact, this is the week that turned the corner. The cold is gone and the world has come alive!

If you're a central Ohio beehive, clinging to life through the last of winter, this is the week you must think you've died and gone to heaven. Or if you're a jihadist bee, martyred and gone to paradise.

Tell me that's not paradise??

I'm not sure where the 72 virgins fit in, but we're too busy to worry about the details. There's pollen out there! 

I was out working on our apple pollinators yesterday and decided to take a little stroll. The air was so alive with bees, and the multicolored pollen was coming in so fast. I just had to see for myself.  Within about 100 feet of the hives, I found the cause of the ruckus. Or I should make that plural-- causes. Not only the fields covered with dandelion and purple deadnettle (pictured above), in the garden I found the bees roaring about the henbit:

And this white ground cover... don't even know the name.

Then walking under the willows, I noticed that they're still kicking out the pollen.

And look who just decided to bloom-- our pear tree!

The bees found it almost the minute the blooms opened.

Then there was another nearby tree I hadn't noticed on other years. Out giant cottonwood was vibrant with noise.

I'm sure there was much more. This was all noticed during about a two minute walk. It's a wonderland! 

It all leads to what a commercial beekeeper calls 'pollen porn':

The pollen leads to feeding the next generation.

And the next generation leads to more workers to gather more pollen.

Leading to bigger and bigger hives.

Which is a good thing because we like to take big hives into the apples. The apple boys don't like to pay for dinks. We're moving the girls in tomorrow night.

And not a minute too soon.

Apple pollen on the menu for next week!