We stocked the bee hives this afternoon. Went at the end of the day yesterday to pick them up from Jon Anthnoy’s Bees in Lennon. The place was crazy; thousands of bees flying in the air, people all over to pick up their hives, the barn stocked 15′ high with many thousand boxes of bees and the noise…sounded like a high-pitched chain saw. The Anthony men and family were trying to keep order but it was chaos with the people and bees. Those working there totally ignore the bees being so accustomed to them. At one point one of the women handling the orders ruffled the neck of her shirt and a dozen bees flew out or her neckline, another woman brushed her hand carelessly over her hair and bees flew out of her bun. It was like a Twighlight Zone episode. At one point I had to walk in the barn to sign my order form and me (who swells up like crazy when I get stung) stepped gingerly, trying to act calm made a quick gesture in disguise of a signature.
After working all day, hoping for the sun to come out when the bees might be calmer we stocked the hives. Our friend/farm worker Leah manned the camera (thanks Leah!) Pics below.
One bee box , one queen and many thousand bees. The queen is in her own little box. The workers won’t leave the hive as long as the queen is in there.
All dressed up and safe we open the box and find the queen. We uncork her little box and make sure that she gets in the hive then dump the box full of bees in the hive and the air fills with bees.
We try to work quickly but calmly which can be difficult with bees buzzing all around you.
We put up support for the first planting of peas.
The Kale plants in the field of dreams over wintered but quickly flowered. They are beautiful. We hope to collect the seeds.
Have a great day everyone.
Good writing, Pooh! Blogging becomes you…
And I like the self-portrait. It would be fun to see the same shot again with your eye wide open, adding some blue over on that side.
Happy May Day to the Farm!