C'mon Man Give Me Break!

I have been too lazy at getting this blog rolling but now I have a lot more time on my hands (school is out and the first few weeks of decompressing and going on a camping trip and soccer is running well are behind me.

Updates:

I am sick of the doomer information about peak oil. I am too positive a person to get wrapped up in that stuff constantly. Although I have followed a progression of stages that most people follow when confronted by challenges to the normalcy bias, I am not sure where I am now? Acceptance? Denial? Frustration? I think that I am beyond that and into the area of to hell with it I've got to prepare! Check here for an interesting article on the stages of grief and how they relate to peak oil.

The bees have had a set back. The nuc I ordered from Dancing Bee Apiary has done wonders and is taking off like crazy! My wild hive has gone queenless and also had a drone layer. I think the drone layer even gave up because I was unable to find any eggs at all last week - July 15. My original hive - from David VanderDusen has finally succumbed to the dreaded varroa mites. The picture here is of a worker bee with a varroa mite attached to its back. I was also worried about my original hive having an old weak queen. So I ordered two new queens from Tibor Szabo and they arrived in a package in the mail. My mail lady is allergic to bees and had them in the back seat of her van.

Now the morning before I ordered the queens I was in the apiary and I spotted the queen in my original hive. She was lovely. Plump and HUGE. For a second I thought that I had to destroy her (as she was the old, worn out queen) so that the new queen would be accepted. I reached down and using technique that I had practiced on my Drones, I grasped her with just enough force and had her in my fingertips, ready to deliver the crushing blow. I looked at her and hesitated - she promptly gave a mighty buzz and fell back into the hive. I couldn't do it - I could not just squish her!

After reflecting on this for a while, I realized that I had witnessed a new queen that was mated and ready to lay in that hive. The old one must have left in a swarm. The evidence was there - new eggs in a good pattern, some brood and her lovely body - very plump and full looking. In fact when I got Tibor's queens I realized how lucky I might have been. My home grown girl was much larger than the ones that were shipped to me.

Anyway I checked 4 days later and both queens had been released. I will have to wait another few days before I go looking for eggs.

Bee Stoic