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A Honeybee Swarm

Ken has six active bee hives this year and yesterday one of them swarmed. Honeybee swarms are a natural occurrence and can be expected if hives are really busy and growing in population. The bees force the queen to slim down by not feeding her and she makes new queen cells so the bees left behind will have a new leader once the old one has swarmed. One of his hives from last year was thriving and constantly had bees ‘bearding’ on the front of it and Ken expected it to swarm.

In yesterday’s case, they didn’t go far – maybe ten or fifteen meters to a young ponderosa pine tree and fortunately Ken spotted the giant bee cluster before they moved on to what would be their new home.  The tree is on a hillside just below our backyard and the swarm was high enough that it required a ladder to remove it.

Ken had promised a swarm to our friend Mary for her birthday, since her bees did not survive last winter. Of course, she and her husband were out walking the dog and without their phones so it was a while before they called and said they would be right up. In the meantime, Ken started setting up a ladder and other equipment to get started on it by himself. I was not in favor of him doing it alone and was relieved when they said they were coming.

With three of them it was much safer and easier. They all moved slowly in their bee suits, keeping the bees calm, while they gently began cutting branches away from the pack of bees. Little clusters of bees were placed in an empty hive with the branches. Gradually they got to the main part of the festooning bees and very carefully cut out the two big branches holding it all together. They got just about all the bees into the hive and put the top on. The stragglers joined the others around their queen and in a short while all was quiet. Mary got her bees early this morning when it was cool and will get them set up in her bee yard and then remove the branches from the hive and replace them with frames so the bees can build orderly comb and fill it with brood and honey.

The swarm
Ken carefully considers his first move
We watched honeybees while we waited for our friends
It takes a team
Mary steadied Don on that downhill facing ladder
That’s a lot of bees!
Job well done!
We think they came out of this hive.
These two were kept away from the action

Remnants from Other Seasons

Getting Out

We got out for a couple of days and it was marvelous! Friends took their RV up the Chewuch on Thursday and I managed to find them in a large dispersed site later on Friday. All the campgrounds remain closed. It was a long ways up the river before they were able to find a site and I was beginning to have my doubts. I knew that I was near the end of the pavement and they would not go any farther than that. And then, I found their sign! Whoo hoo! The girls and I made it! Ken was recording and joined us at dinner time.

We enjoyed socially distanced visiting, dogs playing, campfires and campfire cooking, hikes, wildflowers, the sound of the Chewuch and Andrews Creek at high water levels, birds and just being out. It rained a little but that gave me time to read in the afternoon while Ken napped and our friends made jewelry. We were offline and that’s a good thing. Hopefully we will get to go camping again soon.

Big RV, little RV
Arnica
Andrews Creek
paintbrush
serviceberry
Lewisia
I love this pond
More Lewisia
So much penstemon
Penstemon and knapweed
Arnica
There should have been a bridge
Thirty Mile Fire burned twenty years ago
wild clematis
Wyatt Ann looks good in arnica

Evening Light

The weather has been most unsettled recently. Big wind (today for sure), thunder and lightning, unpredictable rains and sometimes a rainbow. All these seem to lead to wonderful sunsets.

Luna leads the way to the best sunset watching
Ken enjoys a glass of wine while watching the sunset after hauling rock for our garden border.

Nothing but Time

Nothing but time to get things done at home, read books, walk the dogs, plant a garden, learn new stuff, cook, eat, sleep. Remember the stuff I miss – hanging out with friends, eating out, lingering in town, photographing weddings and other events, travel. Travel is the number one thing for me. I missed a trip to Florida last month and right now, right now, I ought to be in Utah. Hiking and exploring with the dogs, photographing the night sky, learning new stuff. I miss going places.

We – Ken and me and our dogs – and our closest friends, are doing as much as we can to shelter in place. We feel that’s best for the overall good for everyone. The dogs don’t understand it for sure.

So I dug out the hard drive from 2018 and revisited images from the last time I was in Utah. Such a wonderful place to visit. I have re-scheduled my trip for next year but it seems so far away. I am hoping for a healthy future for all of us and a return to something like normal.

With all this time, I also reworked my website. So far it’s drawn a little bit of attention. Hopefully I will learn more about online marketing and be able to generate income in the future.