Two More Lambs

I get really giddy every time we have new lambs. Two more were born this week.

Lambing Epic Fail

It is lambing time again. My spidy sense told me that I'd have lambs when I went to the farm. I was right!!! I saw a ewe with a little lamb. My joy turned to "epic fail" when I found that she had twins. And, the twin had fallen into the water trough and drown. I've fixed since covered the trough so there is a small opening.

Queen Rearing

I attended the University of Nebraska queen rearing course last week. Here is a clip of grafted larvae.

The Smell of Honey

The main nectar flow is on. The bees are making honey like mad. The bees are fanning air out of the hives to cool them since the weather is so hot. This makes the air smell of HONEY!

The Russians invasion

I put Russian queens in my hives last year. I had really disappointing results. A number of the queens were quickly superseded. The remaining hives came out of winter very strong. The down side is there were also very aggressive. One hive had so bad it was like someone was shooting bees out of a shotgun at me. Needless to say they are getting a new queen (once I can find her).

The Start

Believe it or not, we are in a race. A race to get hives ready for the main honey flow. The Start begins with trees. The flowering trees were closely follow by dandelions. The little yellow rascals started blooming in mass this week.

Reece and I inspected hives this week. They continue to get stronger as the weather warms up. In general they had a bit more pollen stored up than they had a couple of weeks ago.

Spring has sprung. (and then ran away again)

Hive inspections were great last week. The bees already have quite a bit of brood going. I put feed and pollen patties on.

The hive losses were below 20% over winter. On a positive note, none were due to starvation. Still stinks all the same.

This week is not that great, it's snowing. I've got my fingers crossed the week long cold snap does not set up back too much.