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Thursday, July 28, 2011

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

the bees teach me so many things

For those of you "not from here". It's been HOT (well - I guess it's been hot elsewhere too)...but us "polar bears" are melting.

The bees are so active into the evening hours - hanging out (bearding) on the hives. I find that the best time for beekeeping is RIGHT AWAY in the MORNING. I can catch them before they really "wakeup" for the day.

A couple weeks ago - I checked the progress of that NUC we started at the beeclub meeting - mid July. I FOUND NOTHING - no sign of queen, no eggs, no larvae (though I realized it was probably too soon for that)....NO QUEEN CELL. I went through all 5 frames - twice/thrice through.... I THOUGHT IT WAS A DUD.

I went out this morning to DISMANTLE it. I was just going to pull the frames out and let those bees migrate into the other hives.

EGGS, LARVAE, BROOD!

I moved them to a 10 frame box. You go girl!

lesson learned. DON'T GIVE UP TOO SOON - LET NATURE do it's thing - IN IT'S TIME.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Native bees

Tiny...maybe a half an inch long...aren't the cute


Friday, July 15, 2011

Just a short message to the East Central Wisconsin Beekeepers:

At the last meeting, July 9th, we decided to put out a request for ideas regarding T-shirts and sweatshirts. Andy Krueger has a T-shirt printing vendor to work with for getting T-shirts. What we are looking for is ideas about what to put on the T-shirts. So, if you have ideas about a logo or motto for the T-shirts that would represent the organization well, please forward those ideas to myself or Andy. With logo and/or motto ideas, the organization can decide whether or not to go ahead with the purchase at the September meeting. Andy can be contacted by e-mail at ericandandy@gmail.com - or - you can contact me at jeff.champeau@yahoo.com

There are other opportunities as well. An unofficial committee was created to initiate planning a beekeeping class for the new year. Every one is invited to join the committee or provide their input. Also, don't forget the September meeting is the products bazaar. If you bring in a beekeeping related product, please be ready to give a brief explanation about your product.

A newsletter with more details will be forth coming.

Sincerely,
Jeff.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Bees bearding

This is normal on a hot, humid day...they're hanging out on the porch.

Storms are rumbling all around us...but it looks as if it's going to miss us again....I'm forced to drag the hose to the garden....