Another Broody Hen

Had another hen go broody so I put her and six eggs in the pen Ken Burke and I built a few weeks ago. Eggs should hatch out on June 17th.

Hive Inspections

Inspected hives two and four today. Hive two is still the weakest one of all of them. Added a gallon of feed for them. Hive four's queen is laying a nice brood pattern added a super to this hive and one gallon of feed. Just to keep my experiment going I made two bees sting me today. This time I squeezed all the venom into the sting sites.  I am starting to believe that my resistance to bee venom is increasing each time I get stung.

5th and Final Hive for this Year

Started another colony of bees. Bought a complete hive from Wally on Monday of this past week. I placed this hive next to a hive that Bill Hansen has at Clarence Brown's house. We inspected the hive yesterday and found they are strong. This is a two deep hive with the bottom box full of honey. Added two gallons of feed.
Bill and I requeened one of his hives today.  I would estimate we had 10-12,000 bees flying or on the ground during this process. We both managed to not get stung.

Hoop House

The hoop house has proved to be a good investment. I was questioning my choice of covering but so far I think it was good one.

Broccoli is doing great we have started harvesting it last week. Terry made a great stir fry with it tonight. Tomatoes in the center are starting to bloom. Set out the pumpkin plant last week. Not sure what's going in after the broccoli is done.

New Hive

Quickly checked the new hive today. Queen was released. Will check again in 7 days to verify queen is laying eggs.

Argos at 19 Weeks

Argos is still growing at a fast pace.  Looks small next to Eric but he bigger than this picture shows.

He was able to catch one of the chicks the other day due to fact they wander in and out of the chain link pen. He did not kill it just held it gently in his mouth as a good lab will do. The chick, mother hen and rooster were all very upset by this but the chick is doing just fine. Chicks will be too big soon to get beyond the chain link coop.

Fourth Hive

Installed a new package yesterday. Placed a frame of honey from hive one and a frame of brood and  honey into the new hive. Hive 3 is producing a lot of honey so added a second medium super on it. Will check for queen release on Wednesday.

Trees

Spent the day taking down four more of the giant leaning pines that were going to come down on their own sooner or later. Hired a pro to help as these trees were way too big for me to tackle by myself and were close to other trees and buildings that one wrong cut would have led to certain damage. Three of the trees were in the 70-80 foot tall range. Tree man topped out the trees and left the really hard work for Eric and I, that being the clean-up. We got two of the trees done or at least ready for burning this fall.

Great Weekend

Busy weekend. Picked up two packages of bees for the Warrens yesterday morning. Harold Marshall helped me install one yesterday. I installed the other today. Was going to wait till tomorrow to install them with Kelly Warren but the bees were under a lot of stress due to the hot weather. Hive inspections on Friday revealed 3 strong hives with lots of brood. Added supers to the first and third hives. Might even be able to harvest some honey off these two hives.

Yesterday was Lily’s first birthday. She is already walking and is such a sweet child. Anytime I get too spent with Abby and Lily is time well spent. Laura and Chris finished most of their move to the new house.