T Stands for Bee-ing Busy

 Hi everyone. It's time for T Day once again over at    Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

   Last week was a busy week for me; I had a lot going on and add to that my skin hives (not bee hives, but actually my medical  chronic urticaria) were flaring so my skin was covered with lots of red itchy welts.  Grumble and groan and scratch.😩 Luckily as of now they are on the improve, and I hope they get back under control ASAP.  But speaking of hives, over this past weekend my husband and I took down the winter windbreak we put up in the autumn around my honey bees.  

     Boy that looks a mess, doesn't it? Because of our cold winters I also wrapped the hive in a hive blanket, and underneath the stand I put some trash bags with leaves to help insulate the bottom.

      I left the hive blankets on because our nights are still on the cold side, but the bags of leaves have been moved. The last couple of years my hive didn't survive the winter, and even though I knew there  were still some bees alive back in February and early March, I hadn't actually gone into the hive to see how many were left. Now that the wind break was off I could easily get in and check.

    While I was removing bags, there were a few greeters that came out of the hive to see what all the commotion was about.

And then I had a big smile when I took the top off if he hive. The good news is that I have a good number of bees functioning inside. ❤❤❤

The white you see in this next photo is some dried winter bee food called fondant. I put it on a screen frame right above the bees so they can eat it but not have it smother them.

It was still a bit cool outside, and I didn't want to lose too much hive heat, so I didn't leave the cover off too long. Here's one more photo I snapped.

I'm so excited they're looking good. 

    I've wanted 2 hives (of bees) for the last few years, and you may remember I've had some issues accomplishing that. One year I had 2 hives going and then all of the bees from 1 hive went into the other hive.  Last year my second batch  of bees arrived with 95% of them dead. Because it was a late order for the bee season, I couldn't replace them. 

      This week I have a batch of bees arriving so keep your fingers crossed they get delivered alive and  settled nicely into their new home.

     Another thing I did last week was make some more liquid bee food to help my present hive and the new arriving batch of bees survive. It's a sugar water solution, and it's my drink for T day this week.

I make my own batches and store them in empty water jugs in our basement refrigerator so it's ready when I need it.  In this last photo there's a cool reflection of the opening to the jug. Doesn't the circle in the liquid look like it's a mouth or a portal into some secret world?

I know none of us want to drink this sugar water. It's not a clear solution because I buy unbleached sugar for the bees which is not pure white. I even use it myself in baking etc. I am sure the bees will love this nutritional drink until there is more plant nectar for them. So cheers to the bees and another hopefully season.

Have a great T day and week ahead everyone.