On Tuesday my new bees arrived. They were waiting for me when I got home from school. I had everything ready for them. I opened the shipping box and took out the queen cage, uncorked it and put it in the hive. Then I dumped the rest of the bees into the hive, put in the top bars, and closed the hive.
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| My new bees in their shipping package. |
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| Opening the package. |
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| Looking into the package. |
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| Installing the queen. |
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| Putting in the top bars. |
Everything looked good – except the weather. It was in the low 50's during the day that day, but that night the temperature fell drastically. By bedtime it was below freezing. I knew my poor bees were huddled in an empty box with no food and no comb. I was worried, so Stacey and I went out in the dark and rigged a tent over the hive made out of a blanket. Then we dragged extension cords across the yard and plugged in a little electric heater. I set it on low and we went to bed. I tossed and turned all night worrying about the bees. In the morning before I left for school I checked on them. There were quite a few dead ones. I put a dish of honey by the hive entrance and propped the blanket open so they could fly in and out if they wanted. We also put some honeycomb from last year’s hive next to the hive. It was cold all day that day. The wind blew hard and it snowed off and on throughout the day. When I got home, I checked the hive right away. Even more dead bees. My heart sank. The next night was even colder. I kept the blanket and heater on them that night too. On Thursday the temperature began to rise a little. When I checked the hive that afternoon, there was still a clump of bees huddled in an upper corner of the hive box. I took the blanket off and put the heater away. It seems they have survived, but with many casualties. There are about 12,000 bees in a package. I think I lost more than half of them. It will set them back quite a bit on getting their hive established.
Despite the cold weather, the world is determined to come to life. Everything is late in sprouting and blooming, but grow and bloom they will. We finally see catkins on the willows around the beaver pond. The maples are starting to color up a little. As their buds swell, the forest takes on a red tinge. Out in the orchard some of the trees have broken bud. It will be a while before the flower buds appear, so I won’t have to worry about frost for a little while yet. The daffodils and hyacinths are blooming. The tulips will bloom soon. The forsythia bushes are budded out. It makes me happy to see color again.
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| Hyacinths. |
On Thursday after school Josiah and I put up the pea fence and planted peas. I also planted a bed of lettuce and a few rows of radishes. Friday I was scheduled to go to school, but when I got there, they said they’d made a mistake and didn’t need me. I came home and found myself blessed with an unexpected day to work in the garden. I like days like that. There’s so much to do.
Saturday was a busy day. Stacey and I went to a quilters’ show over in Smethport in the morning. We displayed our barn quilts. It was a nice event. They had many beautiful quilts on display and classes and workshops for the quilters. There were lots of vendors there selling various quilt related items. A lot of people stopped to look at our display. Some took our card and expressed interest. We’ll see what business comes of it.
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| Our display at the Quilters' Show. |
While Stacey and I were gone, Hannah and Josiah spent the morning delivering donuts from the Boy Scout fundraiser. Our scout troop does an annual Krispy Kreme donut sale. The scoutmaster picks the donuts up in Erie (4 hours away) early in the morning and has them here by 10:00 for the scouts to deliver. We always order some for ourselves. They are such good donuts (taste-wise, but not health-wise). We ate the last of them for breakfast this morning.
Saturday was Prom and Hannah spent most of the day getting ready for it. She went with some friends to get her hair done in the afternoon. She wore a deep red dress with a black bolero jacket. We bought her a corsage to wear. She didn’t have a date. She went alone and preferred it that way. She was one of the candidates for Prom Queen – the only one of our daughters ever to be nominated. She didn’t win, but she didn’t seem to mind. She looked lovely and she had a fun time.
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| Hannah ready for Prom. |
There is a pond along the road in Shongo, New York, that we pass when we go to and from church. In the warmer months, there are usually turtles basking on a log in the pond. We’ve been watching for them for several weeks now and today we saw them for the first time on the way home from church. We were so happy to see them, we stopped to take some pictures.
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| Turtles on the pond in Shongo. |
It’s nice out today 50°, – just warm enough to feel like spring. When we got home from church, we took a quick walk around the yard. We looked at the beehive. The bees are busy and that gives me hope. We looked at the flower beds noting what flowers are opened and what will soon come. In the woodland garden there are ferns and leeks and daffodils and bluebells coming up. The trees are full of singing birds. The trees swallows are back and are inspecting the birdhouses. The hazel hedge is in bloom, although the flowers are so inconspicuous that you’d never know it. It’s a beautiful day in a beautiful time of the year and there’s even more beauty to come.
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| The beehive this afternoon. |
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| Josiah and his best friend Pancho. |
