The Art of Bee Keeping

 Hi everyone. I hope everyone had a great past week. Other than the morning I spent waiting on hold to talk to someone from the IRS for far too long (the tax people for those of you who aren't familiar with American taxes) and then they cut me off and told me to call back (let's just say I wasn't happy at that point), it  was  a good week for me. Today I am joining Nicole for Friday Face Off  and also Gillena for Friday Lunch Break.

   I also want to apologize if I didn't get by your blog. My last 2 posts were scheduled, and the days got quite busy, so I'm behind. 😖 But today I should (hopefully) be able to watch up. 🤞

   The other morning I did a bee hive check, and I know some of you are interested in them, so if that's you, here's some insect faces for you today.

    Above, you can see how successful the new hive is doing. Not just those on the top, but if you look down between the wooden frames,  you can see all the bees that are there also. 

 The next photo is when I first took the top off the hive. Since these bees are new to the hive, they don't have a huge store of honey to eat, so I put in one of these sugar/pollen patties that you can see. It's about 12 inches/about 30.5 cm square, and usually takes the bees several months to go through. (They go through it quicker in the winter when there is nothing in bloom than they do when there's things in bloom.) However, with no honey store these bees emptied that package in just over 2 weeks.

  My other hive, which was new last spring and made it through the winter, is going crazy making those odd shaped combs from where I left out  3 frames.  You can see the honey glistening in many of the cavities. That honey will be covered as you can see in the bottom left of this next photo. It's the white bumpy part.

   Later in the summer I will remove this comb and take the honey, although with all the work they've done, it does seem kind of mean, doesn't it? 

    This crazy comb is in the smaller upper box.  The next box down is filled with honey that the bees get to keep, and then the bottom box is filled with eggs and brood. This hive probably has in the ball park of 75,000 bees in it.

   This older hives of bees are NOT very interested in me when I open up the hive.  I do use a smoker and smoke them (it covers up their alarm pheromones to keep them from attacking), but very very few of them check me out. They just go about their business.  The new hive however is much more curious about me when I open the hive.  They buzz around me checking me out. 

   However, I haven't been stung for a couple of  years. And when I have been stung, it's been my own fault doing something dumb. The only thing you must do when you open the hive is be totally calm and not rushed. You'd be surprised how relaxing it can be  to open a hive full of stinging and buzzing insects and just to focus on them. 😏

   Some of you probably don't even want to read this post. Grin. I get it. 

   Have a great Friday and start to your weekend. 

   

Anthusa

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday to you. It's just about a long weekend ahead here in the US. I started my summer job at a local boat ramp this past week, and I work Monday and Tuesday mornings. That means I actually have to work for a few hours on the holiday.  If the weather is good I expect it will be busy too.

     Today I have some more Greece photos to share. I hope you don't mind more travel photos since I took a whole lot of them. 😏

    Today we're visiting a  very small village in the mountains of northwestern Greece where my friend's grandparents came from.  She had been told we probably couldn't get there because of snow and road issues, so we weren't really planning on finding this village. (You might remember my post when we drove up into the mountains. If you'd like to check it out, you can read it here.)  However, as we drove, my friend was using her phone's GPS, and suddenly she said we were just around the corner from the village. It was quite an emotional moment for her when we could actually get there.

    This first photo is for Nicole's Friday Face Off. I think this is a really fun fountain. I also wonder  if the face is anyone in particular.

I am also linking up to Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break  .

     This village is called Anthusa.  I believe my friend's grandparents immigrated to the United States during the 1910's (but I'm not 100% certain), but I do know that her grandfather went first, established himself a bit, and then her grandmother traveled over to join him. 

     I tired to find some information online about this village, but my internet kept sending me to Anthousa, which is not the same place.

       I don't know much about this village's population in the past, but I do know that other than a few year round residents, most of these homes are now nice weather getaway homes. I wonder how many of them are still in the same families. 

     I loved all the pavement tiles in Greece, and the one in the above photo is really interesting. I love how so many of the rocks are cracked from time. And speaking of rocks, you can tell that people used a lot of what they had on hand to make their village a home.

I'm not sure if this building is a restaurant, store or both. From this photo you can tell it wasn't open yet. There were lights on the metal bars that must hold an awning, so I picture tables out here in the better weather season. I bet it's the place to go in the village. 

Even the church looked closed up for the season.

Whoops, I forgot to flip this photo before I posted it.

Here I am in my bright pink jacket. (And shoes too if you look carefully😜)

And finally, here's a little stone bridge to cross from one side of the village to the other.

I like to imagine what life was like when this was a bustling village, and I wonder how it looked when my friend's grandparents lived here.  Sometimes I  wish I could take a few minutes trip back in time to get a peak. 

Have a great start to your weekend.