Good Day for Bees

What a difference a day makes!  Well, OK, a day with sunshine.  I've been gritting my teeth for a week as I see flowers blooming, but with all this rain and grey days, the bees haven't been able to get to them.  Plus, I've been dying to see what our new solar wax melter can do, but with no sun, there's been no solar power.

That changed today.  We were predicted to get some sunshine in the afternoon, so I was hoping for a little action on both fronts.  When the sun peeked out in the morning, I raced the melter out onto the table on the deck and faced it towards the sun's rays.  The sun kept playing peek-a-boo through the clouds for the first couple of hours, and the temperature never got above 57, but there was a bit of melting around the edges, some of the comb coming together into pieces solid enough for me to know that it would work.  I let it go for an hour or so more, and went back to check it again.

Apparently, the sun a had a much better opportunity to do its business, for when I came back, the wax had almost entirely melted, run through the filter, and was sitting in golden chunks in the receiving pan.   The entire tray had melted down, and all this on a partly cloudy day below 60!  I can't wait to put it to use on one of our hot, summer days!

Meanwhile, the bees were hard at work.  At one point, all of our hives had orientation flights going on at the same time.  Lots of activity in the apiary, lots of bees in the air.  We needed to take a look into one more hive, as we had run out of time on our last inspection day, and the weather hadn't permitted it since then.  Another hive needed a new bottom board, as we had had to make do with an unpainted one at our last inspection.  Today seemed a good time to take care of those pleasant chores, so we suited up and dug in.

I'm happy to report that all the hives look good.  That last hive hadn't been opened since last fall, and though things looked good from the outside, I wanted to take a peek inside to make sure.  Plenty of brood, nectar coming in, the bees were loaded with pollen; I think we have some happy campers in the bee yard.

So it's been a good day, bee-wise.  Oh, the wax we rendered?  It's already earmarked for a special batch of lip balm, the first to use wax from our own hives.  We're looking forward to it, and I think you will, too.

Can't wait till we get some more sunny, bee-friendly days.  Tomorrow?  Uh, no.  Sunday?  Guess not.  Monday?  Tuesday?  Someday?

After the drought year in 2012, I promised that I would never again complain about the rain.  So this is me, not complaining about the rain.