Everbody's Prepping for Spring ....

The Bee Girls are awake. Although the temps dip below freezing on many nights, still, the daytime temps are reaching up into the 50's. Things are warming up! The rain is not so incessant, so there are more and longer sun-breaks.(strange for Jan in the Willamette Valley, but I am not gonna rant about Planetary Heating in this post.) Enough so that the forager ladies are out and about most late mornings, bringing in loads of pastel yellow pollen from plants unknown. (Aspen? Maple? Willow? ... Calendula???) I set up a couple of Boardman feeders just in case my two most at-risk colonies need some short-term nutritional assistance. The liquid is disappearing from both feeders at the rate of about a quart per week.

Today I took a trip to Glory Bee and got some stuff to make another Biodynamic Lang - this one for Jenny and Mitch. And I'm going to add another 'Western Super' to my own BDL. I got the garage cleared out enough to operate the table saw and set up my brand new compressor and brad gun. (Thanks, Santa Molly!!!) I'll make my wonderful patented Lang/Warré hive-stand-bottom-board, a telescoping top, and a set of top bars for the Redwood Warré's last new box. I've decided it's not making any difference whether the bottom boards are screened or solid. I'll do either style as the mood strikes me and the Goddess commands .... I'd make my own deeps and supers for more Biodynamc Lang hives, but I don't have the jig to do the fine rabbets (hint hint).

Anyway, Glory Bee usually has the cheaper unassembled boxes on sale so that it's hardly worth the extra labor to build them from scratch. If I were a commercial guy instead of a newbeek "hobby" beekeeper, it would prolly make even more sense to buy the precut supers, no doubt.

This weekend I guess I better print out some more swarm-attracting flyers to hang up on the community bulletin boards. (Got Bees? ....) Wouldn't hurt to go by and remind the Fire Dept, the DOT Highway guys, and the hardware store that I'm here and ready to deal with swarms and maybe some cut-outs this year. I've got the local nursery guys ordering me some more of those cardboard fiber pots so I can continue to assemble more swarm trap/baithives and get them placed before too much longer. I'm going to try some smaller eight-inch pots as well as my twelve-inch beauties. (Yes, I'll let you know ...)

I guess I ought to go over to the Keeper of the Bee Tree Grove and remind him too, unless I can get Karen to do it. (hint hint) I wonder ... should I get some little business cards printed up offering to come get bees, mention my Warré/ Lang/TBH hive-building skills and my wise fool (sophomore) advice on setting up for beekeeping, etc?

Hmmmm ... yeah, you're right ... maybe not.

Oh, hey,  .... check out Adam Schreiber's Bee Blog - For the Time Beeing. He has lots of pictures, great words, and he's a city beek! Makes a nice contrast to our rural Cascade Foothills location. It's also linked over there <---- on the blog list.