…about how nice it is to live on our farm! The final piece of the farm-grant puzzle came together yesterday, when I went to Portland to pick up a dozen crates of bees for my new hives. A lot of people in this half of the state get their bees from the same place, on the same day, so it’s pretty exciting. The bee store is normally a sleepy establishment, but on this day it has extra help on hand, extra checkouts, people to direct traffic, the works. It’s also funny and surreal, because half of the people in there are actually wearing their bee suits (not the norm) and there are occasional random bees drifting through the fancy, front-end part of the store, having lost their way from their friends waiting in the warehouse. Here I am, standing by a few pallets of bees.
From there, back on the road and home to Gravel Creek. But first, a stop for lunch. No, I didn’t lock the back of the truck while I was away. The thought of someone opening up the truck to pilfer something and finding all those buzzing, excited bees is very amusing to me. Anyway, two hours later and I was home and ready to put the bees in their new residences. I’ve never hived so many bees at once before, but it was kindof fun, getting the system down and just being efficient. All told, it took about two hours to get them comfortable in their new, high-class digs. And the final sting tally? Only three. Though the one on my chin was awfully painful. Note to self: when leaning over, do not let my face brush against the screen mesh of the bee veil, especially when there are dozens of angry bees hanging from it.
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