Ha! I got a few things done today

[Phillip Allen]

quite a bit of sheetrock mud
finished hanging a troublesome door
'unstuck' a couple more (planed the sticky parts)
got the meds out of the bee hives (only one sting through my sock and I was wearing shorts and t-shirt)
got the queen excluders on and supers on all but one which may be in trouble though it had meds

wonderful

[Shang]

Good for you, Phillip, particularly about your bees!

I need to re-start my hives this year; Winter before last pretty much wiped my buzz bugs out. The fault is mine, I knew that they were weak but I didn't medicate in time, and haven't put screens on the hive bottoms.
I plan to relocate my hives to the lake, it appears that there are no native bees left there. I've been keeping an eye on the fruit trees, usually there would be hundreds of bees working the blossoms, this year there are none.
Have you heard anything about Carpathian bees? A few years ago they were suggested to be immune to the mites which were killing the Italian bees.

Oh, congratulations on the sheet rock mudding too.
I spent a couple of hours cutting cedar and gluing a box together for an art project Barbara wants to try. Also baked bread for the coming week.

[Phillip Allen]

Good for you, Phillip, particularly about your bees!

I need to re-start my hives this year; Winter before last pretty much wiped my buzz bugs out. The fault is mine, I knew that they were weak but I didn't medicate in time, and haven't put screens on the hive bottoms.
I plan to relocate my hives to the lake, it appears that there are no native bees left there. I've been keeping an eye on the fruit trees, usually there would be hundreds of bees working the blossoms, this year there are none.
Have you heard anything about Carpathian bees? A few years ago they were suggested to be immune to the mites which were killing the Italian bees.

Oh, congratulations on the sheet rock mudding too.
I spent a couple of hours cutting cedar and gluing a box together for an art project Barbara wants to try. Also baked bread for the coming week.

I use the Russian bees. I tried the Italian bees but long after the Russians were out working, the Italians were still arguing and waving their little arms around.
This year is the first time I have found the small hive beetle in my hives... I switched from Apistan to Mitecheck and had good results. The one iffy hive had Apistan in it because I ran out of the other. I found varroa and one wax moth larva this afternoon... get in the habit of watching drones... there is where you'll see the mites... or cut open drone cells to check for them... they'll run right out in front of your eyes when you cut the caps off

[Shang]

Wax moths... Kipling once wrote an essay about them, a political analogy if I recall.
I had an invasion in them in my hives many years ago. Dang they're hard to get rid of.

The part of bee keeping that is hard to explain to neighbors (who blame bee keepers for every wasp sting they happen to get), Is that we're not after the honey. Keeping bees is a little like raising prize goldfish. The bees are an end in themselves, the honey is frosting on the cake.

Did I ever tell you about the time I sawed through the roof of a carage house and fell into a whole hive of wild bees?

[Phillip Allen]

Wax moths... Kipling once wrote an essay about them, a political analogy if I recall.
I had an invasion in them in my hives many years ago. Dang they're hard to get rid of.

The part of bee keeping that is hard to explain to neighbors (who blame bee keepers for every wasp sting they happen to get), Is that we're not after the honey. Keeping bees is a little like raising prize goldfish. The bees are an end in themselves, the honey is frosting on the cake.

Did I ever tell you about the time I sawed through the roof of a carage house and fell into a whole hive of wild bees?

No you haven't... and I've been meaning to tell you how greatful I am (just kidding)

[Phillip Allen]

one sting on my ankle and it feels positevely bruised

[Shang]

"...Did I ever tell you about the time I sawed through the roof of a carage house and fell into a whole hive of wild bees?"

...Or the time the newly opened hive mistaked my face for a newly opened bee near?

[Shang]

"...bee hive..."
The speller isn't working tonight...

[Shang]

By the way, if those of us who are not bee keepers aren't worried about the bee die-off,
be afraid...be very afraid...