Working on Memorial day

For it being a day off I was still busy, but then I'm always busy. With the shop closed I could get some personal machine time and made some more gadgets. Been steadily selling nearly every day. Did not get in the bees in my yard but I did watch them for 5 mins. Steady stream of bees and pollen so that looked pretty good. I wanted to check the colony that was queen-less at the club yard, where we added the mated queen last Sunday. The first frame I pulled was fully laid up on both sides so I closed that back up. Checked the queen finisher at mom's house, I now have 6 caged cells which should emerge Friday. And finally checked the walk off split we did last Sunday that's at my son's house. There are 11 capped cells on three frames. I'll just leave them bee and let things take the natural course. I plan to make up mating nucs Sunday for the virgins that hatch Friday. I will need to borrow at least two nucs, maybe three. Does anyone have some 2 frame mating nucs? Oh and no stings today. A very good day!

Just life events

Sometimes it seems that we can go about our lives on an even keel and then suddenly everything just happens at once.  That's what's been going on for the past month.  I do a lot of things, my regular day job which takes 10 hours Mon-Thu and 4-6 on Fri.  I lead a fitness class Mon-Wed-Fri for an hour and still try to work bees. I am also a lead facilitator in a high ropes challenge course about 100 miles from home. I have T shirts that read; "On weekends I jump out of windows". So I stay busy. Last month things were pretty calm, I sent some of my gadgets out to some people whose Youtube channels I watch and appreciate. I'll be honest, I was hoping that they'd like them and do a video.  Well Ian Steppler up in Canada did a video where he simply showed the stuff and made some comments. Then people started asking about them. But then he did another video where he actually used it. That to me is so cool. There is no higher praise to an inventor than to see someone actually using their stuff.  I really appreciate Ian's Youtube plug as it certainly has generated sales.  During this same time frame, my truck (93 ford ranger) started acting up. Long story short, what I thought would be about a $45 dollar fix and about two hours turned into $550 and two weeks.  But it's running again now and this weekend I got to train some youth on the ropes so life is somewhat back to normal. Except that I get daily e-mails and requests for the queen disk gadget.  That's very cool!

I still choose to bee!

Sometimes these little bugs we keep in boxes drive me nuts. Jamie Ellis says to bee or not to bee. When we either want to or do not want to work bees. Sunday in the club yard was overcast but not raining. Nearly all of the bees were angry but we needed to work them and all in all it was a good day. In contrast I wanted to graft some larvae and in both of my yards the bees were peaceful. (My yards consist of two hives at my house and a nuc split, and one hive at my mother-in-laws house, big yards eh?) Couldn't check the grafts yesterday but today of 10 taken, one cup had fallen off and I found 6 with royal jelly. The cell starter box was pretty calm but when I opened the finishing colony they were downright mean. Even with a lot of smoke I still took stings through my shirt and pants. What a difference in this box since Sunday. I had to put on my hoodie to finish but on the positive side there are 6 cups with royal jelly! I'll cage them next Monday and find boxes the following Sunday. Took about 20 stings today, but I have 6 cells with royal jelly! LOL

Work schedule and sales orders

I sent some of my gadgets to a beekeeper in Canada who did a youtube video and now I have a lot of requests.  Unfortunately my work schedule has me tied up for a few days.  I have about 100 of each item in stock, will make more as soon as possible but I'll ship out whatever I have next week (May 21).  I'll try to keep this page current on stock conditions.

My first blog post

I have beehives in three locations right now.  Just doing this for a year and a half but having a lot of fun.  Teaching myself how to breed queens and having mixed success. I caged four queen cells today and put 10 grafts in a box that I believe is queenless. Looked for the queen and could not locate her but I've been fooled before.  I'll know tomorrow if they cleaned out the cups.