French Country Blue will be this year's color, and Abby is painting flowers and vines on the first hive bodies.
May 8: This is a good place to bring the bees home to.
May 9: NEW BEE DAY!!
Today's the day! Ken and I drove out to Billerica and Tyngsboro to get the new nucleus colonies!
The experience at the two different apiaries couldn't have been more different. New England Beekeeping is run by a sweet guy out of his house at the end of a residential street. There are nucs and hives everywhere. He spent 1/2 hour or so just chatting with us, and he marked my queen for me (barehanded, just reaching in and trapping her, and then dotting her with a special marking pen). He had two big golden retrievers that gamboled about. So sweet.
Merrimack Valley Apiaries, in contrast, is a huge business, with a giant factory building and many acres covered in hives. We got there at 8, and there were at least a dozen other people waiting around for their bees--some waiting for 50-75 nucs, to cart away in industrial trucks. We had to wait for over an hour, as the sun set and the mosquitoes (which were fierce) made clouds around us. The main beekeeper wanted to wait for the field bees to come home before sealing the nucs.
In the end, I think that wait was a good idea. The nuc from MVA appears much stronger--or at least, it just has lots more bees. I think it may have the jump on the NEB colony. We'll see!
Abby came out with us to do the installation, and she took most of these pictures and a sweet video:
And another:
May 10th: Happy Mother's Day!
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