Fickle Spring

This is what it looked like Monday night as 48 packages of bees, about 3 pounds of bees each with a queen, arrived in Star Valley at 6pm. 

I waited my turn.  I had ordered two packages of bees, each costing $140.  When one considers their journey, this amount really does not seem that bad.  BeeMan Mike was gathering the bees in California last Wednesday.  Over the river and through the woods - as well as up and over a couple of mountain passes!  These bees did some traveling.  

I walked up to the back of the trailer with my old ochre colored blanket and swaddled my bees lovingly, protecting them from the cold as I traversed my way to the back of the car where they remained wrapped and I drove to Freedom. 

Recently, I confessed to a group of wanna-be beekeepers that I obsess more over my bees than my husband or my dogs.  It is true.  We all saw the weather forecast and we all starting planning.  I brought my hives into the garage in Freedom.  Stacked them up with frames of honey and open drawn frames for their new home.  The garage is cool, but warmer than outside.  All entry and exit sites on the hives were covered with screen to prevent escape while allowing for ventilation.  Sugar water was put in place.  I had a plan. 

My friend Beth put her packages in hives inside her greenhouse.  She thought they were contained.  One box had an undiscovered hole and she found a zillion bees flying around inside her greenhouse.  They got out.  They got lost.  They will most likely die.  Bees use the sun to orient themselves to where their home is located.  A greenhouse if very confusing to a bee.  The colony will most likely be okay. 

As I pulled into the garage, I lit the smoker and went to work.  Three pounds of bees is a lot of bees.  I held their white plastic container open and gave a good shake.  The pile of bees plopped atop the boxed queen.  They landed in their new home.  Everything got closed up and they remain there, in the garage.  

This is why.  View out our back door in Hoback last night. 

Six new inches of snow and a low of 9 degrees.  

Retirement creeps closer.  I'm taking a vacation day or two and less than a dozen days are left.  It's a new chapter, a new beginning.  Exciting and terrifying - more the former than the latter!!  

We are thinking of Linda and her broken knee.  Heal well, heal strong.