Tuesday, May 01, 2018

May Day

May 1st!!! May Day... a first day of spring.. and a day that used to be make with all kinds of traditions. May baskets that were left on the neighbors door... the May pole..and a number of other things, some I knew and some I read about on line. I'm not so sure these traditions are done anywhere anymore, and are mostly left now to memories and google searches.....
I however,  I did do one of the May Day traditions, mostly by accident this morning... and not only was it fun, and something I was looking forward to.. but it had me leaving the house quite early, which meant, I was able to snag a piece of breakfast pizza from the the local store... a fav of mine for sure. 
And, the big event that got me up and moving this morning... picking up a bee hive. I ordered this hive last winter, with the hopes that I would yet again, be the keeper of two hives. Sadly, with that long cold snap we had last January, I lost my hive... so I was happy to think that I at least had one on order for this summer. I'm glad I got my order in... the shop told me they had 125 hives, and were sold out.....
I have the feeling that bees are quite the popular thing right now. It seems that goats, chickens and bees are the "pets" in vogue right now...  I don't know if it's the fact that all these critters provide a type of food source and that makes them popular... or the fact that these small farm type animals are easily kept even in the urban neighborhoods and legal in many towns, that make them so wanted. Either way...I see bee stuff is easy to purchase and I'm often asked about them. My first answer is.. take a class, because there is way more to these little creatures than one would think. A bit of "nature"... a bit of luck.. and a bit of what works....I've had good luck with some and not so with others....
But, I do love having bees... I enjoy watching them, and seeing what they bring into the hive... I like collecting the honey (though that in itself is a process...) and I like seeing them around the farm, doing all the good things they do.

Since they arrived on a work day, Ed wasn't home to go with me to collect them. But I've had the long enough that I'm pretty comfortable handling them and knew that I could get them into the hive on my own. It was also nice because of the early pick up time, the morning was actually almost cold and it was "easy" to move bees that were more on the sleepy side. 
I had everything ready to go, so that was helpful, and the move went well... I did get one sting...overall though... it was a  success...
 As the day began to warm up, the bees began to move about and I left them alone to get settled in. Later tonight I'll make sure that everyone gets inside, and will add some food to the feeder to make sure they have enough to get going until they're used to their new home. 

Welcome little bees, hopefully i will have you a good long time. 
Because it's been so very wet this spring, the winter paddock for the horses is still ankle deep in mud. It bothers me to see them standing in all that yuck and I worry some about their feet always being in the wet. So, I'm chancing it, and opened the pasture for the season. The grass is just beginning, so it will give them the time to get back on green grass slowly as it grows, I just might not have much grass come August, but I guess I'll worry about that later... 

They were pretty happy to have all that room back, and started looking right away for the good stuff... and me.... I just love looking out the windows and seeing them again....

The big wood furnace is shut down now... the top is back on the screen house... water garden is running and the bees are flying... so, May Day... you have officially brought spring!!!!