Bee Industriousness

A week ago last Sunday, I collected a swarm. I gave them some sugar syrup to keep them happy and to encourage comb-building. If I don't use a feeder board that restricts their entry into the feeder box, I fill the remaining space with frames. Not only had they been industriously building comb on the adjacent frames, but they filled the space around the jar with comb. In the photo (not that you can tell) the jar is being held by the surrounding comb. The comb was full of eggs and larvae. I salvaged some of the comb by holding it onto empty frames with rubber bands. Some comb was too wavy, so I abandoned it. It was full of drone larvae, so it wasn't as great a loss as if it had been full of workers.

While preparing to remove and reattach all this comb, I heard queen piping. I saw a clot of bees and separated it, finding a small black queen in the center. After dislodging most of the bees that were clinging to her, I put her in a queen cage. Then I saw another clot, and found a large golden queen at the center. I caged her, too, and then proceeded to check the rest of the hive. I suspect that the small black one is the bought queen (Lolita) that I thought had died. Having thought this, I had combined the swarm on top of Lolita's hive. Big and Golden must be the swarm queen.

Anyway, I decided to keep both queens for now, to see how they'll do when they're not bitch-fighting. I made a double-decker hive, separating the two queens with a double screen. Next week I'll decide whether Lolita is any good (I doubt it). I've got to stop naming these girls until they've proved themselves.

I set up another double-decker hive today. This time, the queen has been making swarm cells, and I don't want her to leave. So I tracked her down and set her up in the penthouse, and will see what happens below with what are now several queen cells. I've been having some queen melodramas this spring, so want to see if I can get some decent queens. Not only was Lolita a disappointment, but a second queen I bought at the same time (6 weeks ago) wasn't much good, and then died. Considering I have just about as good luck with homemade queens, I figure I'll try and save some money.

I've not reported on the bees for a while, mostly because so much of it becomes too routine to tell. But I hope this satisfies those who hunger for news of the bees.

Big Lagoon Messabout, May 14-16, 2010

As Ratty told Mole in The Wind in the Willows:

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolute nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing... about in boats — or with boats. In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.

About a week before Messabout, the lagoon was so full that the campground was flooded. But all that water wound up breaching the sand bar, and the lagoon had drained quite a bit before the weekend. We had to walk carefully down the slick clay beach to our boats. Because of the new connection with the ocean, there were jellies and seals coming into the lagoon.



We sailed down to the breach both Friday and Saturday. Depending on the tide, we had to beware of getting sucked out to sea or being pushed back into the lagoon. For me, it was all good for experience, especially when Thorne let me man the helm of the Lord Chamberlain.



Along with the usual cast of ne'er-do-wells, we acquired new friends. Jeff, Dean and Eric came out to play. It turned out that Jeff is the son of one of my beek friends, and it was great to finally meet him.



In camp, we were visited by a very friendly cat. According to the campground host, someone abandoned him when they broke camp. The host has been feeding him, but hopes a kind soul will give him a good home. Some of us were sorely tempted, but already had cats at home to consider.



On the spit, the agates were ripe. During our Sunday morning inspection of the ocean, many of us settled down for some treasure hunting. Some of us got to coach others on the art of agate spotting, and many fine specimens were collected.

Anderson Ren Faire (aka Shasta Dragonwood Celtic blah blah blah Faire) May 1-2, 2010

This is a favored event for the Sirens, mostly because it's relatively close to home. They also let us fire cannons and muskets, which makes it even more attractive. The weather was great, which has been a rarity so far this year.



The fair itself is rather small, but who cares when you get to go costume camping by a gorgeous river?



Our camp was out of the way, which was lousy for getting visitors during fair hours, but wonderful for having privacy and relative quiet. We encamped with the Earl of Stampford's Regiment of Foot (Thorne's roundheaded bunch) and Montrose's Free Artillerie Company (Dale Shinn's royalist bunch). Despite having opposing sides in the English Civil War at such close quarters, peace and harmony were maintained throughout the event.


Photo from Stacy Dunbar

Dale Shinn brought his hurdygurdy, and serenaded us now and again with old timey tunes. If only he had been playing when we sang Friday night; we might have stayed more in tune. Dale also had a reproduction of an old water-filled clay bird call that got me running about looking for that strange bird. Saturday was gambling night, with a good game of three pot brag. Some fellows from another camp came by, hoping we'd be singing again. This surprised us, considering our singing is strong on enthusiasm and short on tunefulness. But I guess they were desperate for entertainment.