Bummer. Everyone has had a cold around here, after the nasty crud in December, and the flu over Christmas… and I thought, knock on wood, that it might just pass me by. Nope. I got it. It’s been a horrid cold and flu season around here, hitting people in this community very hard. Actually, I think it’s been bad everywhere in Wyoming.
It’s a cold, not the flu, for that I’m grateful. I spent the day laying around. I don’t generally do that, but I was TIRED! Vernon did a flying trip to Billings to get our new calf warmer… and I’ll have to show that to you, but I declined to accompany him, thinking that crashing on my couch would be much better than trying to sleep in the pickup.
Ironically enough, I also spent a few hours on the phone working out insurance. BLECH.
I should have been productive and built my beeswax video… but it was so much easier to read a book and nap! I *am* in a Facebook group where ag bloggers are learning to improve their videos, and we were supposed to post to Vine. Vine is like Twitter with 6 second videos instead of 144 characters. What was I going to do??? Well, my visit to my bees yesterday gave me the answer!
I dropped the dogs off early to let them chase bunnies AWAY from my Bee Barn… sometimes those bees don’t seem to like furry creatures. I then continued on and, lo and behold… THIS!
My girls were out and flying!!!! A sight to gladden every beek’s (beekeeper’s) heart! The warm weather lets them escape from their hive and do what is called a cleansing flight. I don’t suppose you’ve ever thought about bee poop… I hadn’t before I became a beek! But bees don’t poop in their hive! They hold it. For months. Then on a warm day, (over 50˚), they fly and poop outside. I know. Amazing. If there was a food source they would go for it. In fact, I’ll be giving them a supplement tomorrow. There’s still plenty of winter to make it through, and I don’t know how much honey they still have, so I’ll help out a bit just to keep them alive. I have some store bought food, and I may give them some corn syrup cut with water as well. Mess-opotamia was doing most of this, but my Golden Mean hive was active as well. I’m hoping they’ll make it til spring, but right now? We’re a bunch of Happy Girls!
Find me here!
I hope your bees make it through the winter also. Just an FYI- had some friends who were beepers once. They too lived in a very cold, long winter place! They “fed” them Jolly Rancher candies through the winter!!
Hey there,
Happy for you and the bees! I am curious about the calf warmer. Please do show us that, too.
Blessings to you!
Theresa
Great video. I really enjoyed it. So glad your bees are doing so well.
I picked up the Bee videos on Twitter. They are great. What busy bees the are.