Busy Little Bees!

First, we didn’t get as much rain as we had hoped, maybe a total of a ½ to 1”.  I’ll take what we can get, but when we were watching the radar, it seemed like we got hammered.  It did save me the time of watering the garden, and the mushrooms have started popping up all throughout the garden, which is a sign the mulch is composting as it should.

I picked another basket full of veggies.  Nothing better than home grown!  We also have tiny watermelons and cantaloupe on the vine.  I planted some more lettuce, squash, melons and strawberry popcorn.  We’ll see how they do, now that we are moving into the hot summer months.

We saddled up another hen this past week; Apple Brown “Betty”.  She was looking very rough, with a patch of red skin showing.  The other hens we took care of a few weeks back, are finally growing some feathers back.

The Hooligan’s Class of 2012 are really growing, and it seems all in the legs.  They are so excited to see the Moose and I.  Of course we bring them cold watermelon and red grapes!  Spoiled!

Finally, the bees are amazing!  We just started them this past Wednesday afternoon, and by Saturday morning, they have almost one full bar of comb built.  I forgot my camera, and didn’t want to bother them again later, so sorry, no pictures of this little miracle.  Who would have thought they’d take less than 2 days?  Busy little bees!  I did get this simple video. 

I spent some time watching them, come and go.  When they leave they actually circle around the hive a couple of times, and then head off in a random direction.  Random for me, but I’m sure they knew where they were going.  The guard bees do come out and see what you’re up to.  I am still a bit intimidated around them, especially when you hear the loud buzzing from the hive, or one circling around your head! 

I gave them a small container with watered down honey on Wed., just to get them started.  It was completely dry!  Not even sticky.  I gave them some more, but will let them source their own pollen and nectar for honey making in the future.  I need to move the wall divider back to the end of the hive, this week, and then take a look and see if the Queen is laying eggs, and if so, how well she's doing.  If not, or poorly, then a new Queen needs to be ordered.

Have a good week!  Thanks for following along!