Found out today that my Boss and AFP are dating! Well, knock me over with a feather! Who knew???? Darn good thing for the internet, no one tells me anything...

Ok,ok I'll stop. Short version, so I can get onto the real news of the day, this has made me very happy. Very happy indeed.

(Edited to add: Attempt at humor there..Of course I knew, I'm like, the PA and all. Not a lot of secrets, we just KEEP them well...)

Today was, among other things, a Bee Checking Day. The Russians are not coming for another week and a half, which is GREAT news, as both the Boss and the Birdchick will be back for it. We could have done it, hiving the four new hives, but it is a lot of work, and I am feeling better that I am not in charge of it now.



That's our new Bee Shed that Hans build, so the Bee Basics could be down with the bees. Much handier.

We went with new Feeder Buckets, and new Brood Boxes in hopes that the hives would need more room, which didn't turn out to be the case, but they are VERY close, three of them anyway, early next week, I am thinking.

The hive we have been calling the Stoner Hive as it has been REALLY laid back, is Yellow Hive Hannah. She was not at all ready for even her second box. and everyone else is nearing their third. I saw still two empty frames on one side, and one on the other, but then looked and said "Well, Hans, just look at all this capped honey!!!!"

Oh. They aren't MEANT to be making huge things of only capped honey. We need babies. They do both, but these frames were really heavy. So we checked all the frames, and sure enough, no baby bees.



(Look, when the Birdchick is back, you get the technical posts with all the right names for things, and really cool pics of the bees, here, I'll tell the story my way.)

Which means, no Queen. And they hadn't exactly gotten around, being kind of laid back sorts of bees, to making a new one.

We aren't going to try and re-Queen, (That trick NEVER works, at least in our experience) but instead, use the honey to start off the very late arriving Russians, and help them get a leg up on things.

RIP Hannah.

We next went onto Purple Yvaine, who had plenty of baby bees, and was nearly ready for another box, but not quite, I thought, but she did need a new feeder pail, so Hans went to tip it in and...Well, SOMEONE, perhaps myself, had not fastened the top tightly enough so all the sugar water came out INTO and around the hive. Me, Hans, and the Bees were as one at that moment.

ACK WHAT!!!! Was sort of how it felt. None of us could believe it. TIme froze. Not sure how the bees felt after that, we lost communion, but they must have thought it was some sort of manna from the Bee Gods, and have no doubt spent the intervening hours licking eachother clean of sugar.

Ah-hem. Right. The other two hives went fine, which was good as I was starting to feel a little inadequate. The Red Juliet hive is the serious in your face hive, and wants none of you, and the Green Wendy Hive, as ever, the kinder gentler, it's all good, sort of hive were both doing well, babies, comb all of it.

Birdchick comes home next week, and Boss the week after, which is GOOD, says the Former Bee Phobia Girl who initially wanted none of bees, as she was SURE the point would come when Boss was out of town and would say "Now just nip on out there and...."

One more small story for you today, by the time 6 rolled around I was beyond tired, e-mail never stopped, phones, just the day, but I was at the END, so I decided to get some groceries and some drugstore thingies for a break. While standing in the drugstore looking at Cell Phone wondering why I had brought IT instead of Wallet, a nice young girl asked could she help me find anything.

I was about to express my thought of the world in general in no nice terms, so I took a deep breath to mellow the heck out, looked up and noticed....

Well, yes, I said. You might well be able to help me.

Do you know anything about Hair Product...???

Love, Romance, Bees and Hair,
Lorraine