Falls work

[Vance G]

I am crippled up by a surgery that got more complicated than it was supposed to be. I got a volunteer to work bees and his only concern was going early to beat the triple digit heat. I felt compelled to acquiesce to his request but I am grumbling about this being time to go hunt ducks, not work tropical insects. He wanted to know whether he would need his bee suit or just a jacket. Since I normally don't get into hives until close to ten in the morning, I usually start in a tee shirt and shorts and then armour up as is required. I have no idea what I will find though I doubt it will be crowding! Awful dry here not like the Canadian beekeeping paradise.

SInce I have a ten pound weight limit for lifting. I wonder how I am going to keep my hands in my pockets!

[Colino]

Sorry to hear about your surgery Vance, but it's good to know you have some help. From what I know of you you're a tough old curmudgeon and will heal well. I'm off this morning to do one of those $1500 cut outs in a town office near me. https://www.dropbox.com/s/ildnbtwwx25xx ... 3.jpg?dl=0 It's a recent swarm by the looks of the comb so it could be a bit messy. Take care and have a speedy recovery.
Colino

[Charlie]

Vance,
I wish you a speedy recovery and all of the best. Just believe in yourself and your recovery and you be back at your bees in no time. If you consider the stupid factor you are light years ahead of me at least in Bees I seem to I seem to be prone to making every stupid mistake in the book at least once.

Your volunteer may actually be a future beekeeper, all in all that may be a very good thing.

Again all the best

Charlie

[Vance G]

I am thankful I have been so free with my help. Today I had a guy who I babysat all summer when his hives had AFB. He brought a friend and we fed nucs and stripped off boxes that were going to stay empty and tested for mites and treated all the nucs I am going to winter. The miller feeders I made hold a couple gallons and the bees are emptying them in about four or five days and drawing comb in second stories of their nucs. I can't see to winter a single but put two nucs in a divided double with a second story and feed them full of syrup and I have little trouble getting them thru to spring. Yesterday the doctor said I could resume normal lifting the end of the month. I am doing fine.

[Vance G]

I got more help today feeding bees and putting pollen patties on my nucs who are drawing plastic frames with 1:1 syrup. They were fed last Friday and today was a day too soon as the miller feeders were still wet and the bees can crawl in mine to completely dry them off.

I found evidence that my free help made some minor mistakes but one should not be niggardly with praise. As far as your plan to go suitless in the middle of a herd of new beekeepers of unknown skill sets, My last two weeks of bee helpers have shown me that I need at a minimum a veil when my hives are getting clunked and banged and bees crushed enough to put that alarm pheromone in the air. Of course you will be in a position to do the lifting and prevent these aggravations to the bees. I am not much worried about stings myself except for those around the eyes which can cause work stoppages and I don't care WHO you are. The bees are not in robbing mode here even though most of my colonies are in a dried out area. I think I better hire one of my volunteers to pull my mediocre honey crop before things get nasty.

[Vance G]

I had a couple guys pull my honey today. One location was still putting away a little more, but time to treat for mites. On the whole the crop is a major disappointment. I need to find a better location for the bulk of my bees. For some reason the bee go was not working well. It was too cool when we started but warmed up pretty rapidly. The bee go still didn't work so we did a lot of shaking and banging. My little crop is in a pile by my extractor now and I will put some heat in the room and get set up to start extracting day after tomorrow. Tomorrow I will go put some apivar on and see what I forgot to do in the bee yards.