Old man Winter please go Away!!!!
This has been a crazy winter here in coastal North Carolina. ...two ice storms back to back and with the possibility more winter weather next week, so the warmer temps this week was a godsend!. Yesterday we had awesome warm weather....almost record breaking. ..which made it a perfect day to explore a bee yard. A BIG THANK YOU to local New Hanover County BeeKeeper Association members Nicole, Brian and David for an awesome experience!
With the upcoming NC State Beekeeper's Association convention here in Wilmington NC on March 6-8th 2014, and with the New Hanover County Bee Keepers Association as the host group...some of the local bee keepers wanted to bring some media coverage to the Bee Buddies program which will be presented to local 4th and 5th graders at the State Convention, so my oldest daughter Caroline held a frame of nurse bees without any equipment on with a little help.....that's will be another posting....
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Caroline "holding" the frame of bees with a little help :)
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The frame of brood and nurse bees
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Despite the bees buzzing around - the experience was thrilling and relaxing at the same time. The bees were curious at what we were doing in their house and they were so beautiful too. I hope the photos below show just an inkling how regal these amazing creatures are. Plus I got a little field experience too....I was able to identify a drone bee and the workers were pretty easy but we weren't able to find the queen - she was hiding somewhere.
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| Nosy little things aren't they? |
What really surprised me was how heavy just 1 frame of bees, pollen, honey and brood can be and not to mention a 10 frame hive box which can weigh 50 lbs....ooomph! Not good if one has a bad back like me. So......After exploring these hives yesterday and seeing how heavy they can be--- it influenced me tremendously to lean towards the 8 frame hive boxes instead just because they would weigh less.
By exploring a mentor's/local bee keepers "bee yard" - it gave me ideas on how to create my own "bee yard." Our host has a backyard similar to mine and she also has kids. Kids, pets and bees - do they mix? Yes they do in this case. I was curious how she had her "bee yard" in proximity to her children's play areas, (ie., swingsets, or sandboxes) and the rule was when someone was in the "bee yard" the kids had to stay on the porch or suit up. So in the back of my mind I was thinking - this is going to work out after all -- fingers crossed. Hopefully winter will be going away soon - not only so we can start working on creating our bee yard but also so we can get our 2 Nucs in April! -
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| The bees enjoying the warmer temps |
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| Our gracious host explaining a few things to us |
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| The bees checking us out |
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| What a wonderful sight.... |
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| Lots and Lots of Pollen |
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