At the Edge of May

Spring is half shot through- and although I swore I'd be on top of the bee thing this year, I find myself overwhelmed. In part, due to a greater number of hives, and in part, due to plainly not organizing my time well, to focus on the most important things. Its not a 50/50 split, and I'd be wrong to say its not of my own making. 

Each year it seems to me that I forget the year before. Basic tasks I've done again and again- basic tactics and strategies- I forget. I lay awake and try to recall the various steps- and there are blanks. Is it age? Or just having a limited number of pigeon holes and too many of them filled? I've opened hives up for 27 years I think- and even now-I am not opening them without confidence- unsure- hoping I have  a plan that makes sense. 

I only read old books on bees, and I have a good library of them. Although I write this on the internet- I never- or rarely- look things up about bees on it any more. Bee books are awesome- and a million times superior to the internet to me- for what matters. Sure- Randy Oliver, and Rusty Berlew, and many others- are awesome with new ideas- but I so much find that the old writers- all of them-long before there were" likes" and "sponsors" and "comments"- so much more pithy- and helpful. There was an era, now forgotten, that made more sense, but took longer. I wish it were here still.

I drive an old truck. Why don't I have a new one? I'm cheap. I have had this truck since I was 30 or so. I had a 65 bus before that, and a 55 bug before that, and I just have always had beat up old cars. This truck- dang, I love her (like a ship, a her, and if it was convention to say him, or they, I'd say it with the same conviction). I just rebuilt the carb, and put in a lot of new parts, and told (her) I am sorry I have kept her outside all these years. 

The VW bus I drove all those years is apparently now worth thousands and thousands- as that death trap got on FB or something- and there is such a yearning for the times when hippies rode free through the West with flowers painted on it- in this Nazi work vehicle. In then end, its all irony. 

Bees. Today. I start with my truck, unloaded but set up for doing a days work in an apiary:

And then, turning a bit in the morning, some of the hives to contend with. I have just stripped off their weed matt wraps (AWESOME!) and pulled their tops. This apiary is at mu friends Denny and Megs (and Tom and Emma's) and has 12 hives.

And here is my 9 AM setup to inspect two hives. I then move down the line. Tall firs kept the sun off- so I start on the west side. However- I pull off the lids and line the up, and set empty drawn and empty brand new undrawn frames besides them. This is a place to say that having ONE TYPE OF EQUIPMENT is awesome.

Closer up- so much to say here in this small picture- there's a blue lab book for notes,  and my smoker posed with a corrugated cardboard cylinder (learned from Jim U and another MUST do- so amazing) which I blast with a torch (I have three, two in mu truck, one in my  bee box) and let burn awhile, then push into mu smoker....

And here- I am missing out describing the adventures of 8 hours of work - but you can see the sun has shifted far to the west- and I have put the tops on hives, and cleaned up all the stuff I have thrown out on the grass, and its weed wacked, and hives are taller. I went through every one. Frame by frame- as I found 20 or more queen cells in one. Turns out, it was just that one, which I attempted to Demaree- way late- and then screwed up - but found only one QC in the hives here.

In summary. And I am not using the word "summary" like an high school essay here- but trying to figure this out- how many hives are too many for 1 working person?- in summary- getting it more like a Ford production line- less drifting (did that happen in a Ford plant in some weird way?)- means I can manage more. But how many more? And how responsibly?

The adventure continues. I love this, it fits me.