Triplets!

[doodlemaier]

I don't know how this happened but while others are lucky to be getting their packaged bee orders fulfilled at all, I got an extra shake in the mail that I wasn't expecting. To sweeten the deal I wasn't charged for them, either! How fortunate! The down side is that I now have to scramble to get a hive together to put them in. They're not like a pair of shoes that you can just send back. I called Chuck to see if he might have an open box and if he was interested in them but he didn't think he'd be able to get out to the Valley again before Friday evening. I'm very glad now that I took the extra time off work.

It was my sincere intent back in January when I was making the appointment for my snip, originally sheduled for the second week in February, to get it out of the way so as not to interfere in any way with hiving honeybees. As it turned out I had to reschedule the vas-cation due to funding and, sure enough, the next available Thursday coincided with the weekend my bees were to ship up from KY. I managed just in time to finish some last minute details, like the mite drawer in the back and establish the hive's situation on the morning before going into Winchester for surgery. Here's the hive, set up and waiting to hold the colony I'll call Brigid. Each will be named from references in pagan mythology concerned with Springtime, fertility, and abundance.

She's not alone, now. I actually had the presence of mind to build an "extra" hive; mostly because I had almost enough materials for another hive left over in scrap wood. So I dug out another cloister into the birm this one sits on and set the 2nd Front Royal hive up in the dark tonight rather than in the rain tomorrow. The weather should help convince the un-named swarm to stay put when I introduce them to their new digs sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'd have loved to get the girls into the boxes tonight but I'm out of light, patience, energy, and my stitches ache. Waaaa!