and it starts now....

early saturday morning saw me out in the garden, roto-tilling the beds.  2 bags of chicken poo per bed  and 10 minutes with the mantis tiller and these beds are ready to grow.  11 of the 12 beds were raked smooth and ready for planting.

the twelfth was a little too close to the bee hives and the ladies werent in the proper disposition to allow me at the bed to finish it up. ah - another task for an early morning visit to the garden this week.

picture #1 - garden in flight, weeds piled up, beds roto-tilled but in disarray.

picture #2 - ready for seeds.

tomatoes go in - starting tonight.

#7 - picked up in rescue

got the call from a friend in rescue and was able to grab this swarm before i went out on a date with my wife.  nice swarm, i have the perfect spot for it.

and yet a couple more

picked up a swarm last friday in folsom and another yesterday in diamond springs.  they arent not big, but they were added to the inventory.

this should just about do it for the year.  i am plum out of swarm boxes and i havent had time to combine them.

i wonder if there is anyone out there that has room for a swarm to adopt? 

bill?

a couple more swarms

my hives let loose with a couple more swarms this weekend.  fortunately, they landed in a pine tree on my hill - not too high, so they were reachable.

the top picture is actually the smaller of the two - the bottom one was a nice fattie that dropped easily into the nuc hive.  these are text book swarms, which make hiving up real easy.

first you squirt them up with sugar water - this gets thier attention directed to cleaning themsleves up and being wet  - there are fewer flyers to contend with.  place the hive directly under the branch, a quick shake and usually the swarm drops right into the box.

i gathered a third swarm late sunday   - yes, they were from my hives also and my neighbor called to report the wayward girls partying on our common fence.  they were hived up too - but i failed to get a picture of that one.

i am about done for swarms in 2012.

2012 swarm season has started

received a few calls - picked up a swarm in shingle last weekend and this one in my backyard the same day.  i know of two other swarms issued from my hives - didnt see them take off, but saw the aftermath.  both - they were fatties - 30 feet up in my neighbors pine trees.

hoping he didnt see them before they took off to thier new home.

always a challenge, but for some reason i like the bugs; stingers and all....