We have bees............................... YES Really.

Reminder next day is Saturday 31st March at 2pm , bring bee suitable clothes , light colors, long sleeves and pants, closed shoes

On the 31st we will be moving this swarm into its permanent hive box too, as the catch box has to go back to Mr Wally.

Mr Wally and I caught a LARGE swarm this afternoon.

Up on the gutter of a 3 story apartment building at the Cardinal.

This pic was after we boxed them, click to make larger....and see the box on the upper railing

Very obvious Nazinov behavior, bums in the air and fanning madly..... this is a way to spread their hive scent out , so other bees can find where the majority are and where the queen

Lots of bearding as they settle onto the Nuc (5 frames) , didn't take long to realize there were far too many bees and we needed a full 10 Frame Deep box










Wally scraping the bees off the gutter, and then he sprayed Fischer's B Quik , which is an Almond scent bees dont like, so they wont settle back there.

Bridge between the Nuc and the 10 Frame boxes, and we could see the bees walking across from the small to the large 10 Frame Box

Last stragglers walking into the hive on the floor of the Balcony

The hive in its new location on the Hops farm around 9pm last night.

New hive in the field this morning, some bearding , but they are gathered over the old comb we used as an entrance block, feeder on top in case they need some food. New swarm should not need food , but helping keep them in same place.

March - Spring has sprung early

Next bee project day : Saturday March 31st   2pm or later if sport is an issue and you all agree to start later - PLEASE give feedback-
It will be a hands on bees day - LIGHT colored clothes, covered up including feet, jeans are fine but have socks you can tuck in...if very hot dress with shorts and bring the other covering clothes with you. We have 6 veils , so no-one will be without head covering when working bees

80 degs today, Mr. Wally and I, with help from Fire Bob worked my hives to see how well the Swarm Hive has grown.

Some may ask why Swarm Hive ? Well I name my hives, and this was the swarm caught across the road from my house last year, that I dropped onto Mr Wally and I, we both had bees all over us and did not get stung.

Parents , please print out the Spring Management page and ask your scout to read before next lesson... I will be asking questions from it. While all have done a great job working with the woodenware parts so far, we need to keep up the momentum and complete the education.

There is a very very good chance we will have bees by the next meeting, I would like to divide up all the Scouts / and leaders into two teams, and we will start working the hives by team, the second hive will be a Package, which will arrive mid April, and we will make a good day of installing them as a group.

Our Bee books are almost ready to go to the printer, I hope to finish editing in next week, have to bring it down by about 4 pages so the printer can give us a 50 page booklet in the end.

Please vote on Hive decorations - PARENTS - again get your boys involved in this.... the poll is top right of front page of the Blog.

The bees are working the Maples hard - work day

We will meet this Sunday 11th at 2pm

We Have a bunch of wax foundation to put into frames.

If the weather is co-operative , well try to work one of my hives, so bring bee suitable clothes.

No more painting..........

I was able to get into my hives yesterday, all are booming, with great laying patterns, good honey stores ( very very sweet tasty too)

We will also go onto the farm to see the location too.

Give some thought about making our hives art works too.

See u Sunday.