Dawn's view

Get bees... ... you can capture a swarm, but that needs drawn comb... so unless you already have bees... no. Today's cost? $225.00 - 300.00 for a NUC of bees. Basically a starter colony. 5 frames, drawn and filled with resources or brood. (I paid 175.00 back in 2020. I got a NUC bursting with bees. In fact, this new-beekeeper didn't know better and they swarmed within a month, even though they were in a bigger box and had plenty of room. If they want to swarm... they swarm.) The good part? If you establish a bee yard, that in itself is a swarm lure... I have captured many swarms in the trees just south of my bee yard...  You have a 10 frame deep box to house them in... great. But they will need 2-3x that before the end of summer. So, that is 20 more waxed frames, and 2 more (deep or medium or shallow) boxes (how ever you wish to extract honey from)... ~$100.00 for the boxes, 2.00 per frame. Approximately 240.00.  Sugar to feed a new colony. You have to feed them so they will d...

Many things have happened since 2023.  My mom is doing fine, everyday she is just so happy to be here. The landscape seems to be a real source of beauty and joy to her. From exclaiming during car rides ('wheeeee") to telling me how many shades of green sees in all the trees... oh, and she loves telling people that she can see Arkansas from her house! LOL! But she misses my dad tremendously. Caring for an 88 YO who is basically healthy, but has given up is trying to say the least.  We constructed a new observatory building, bought and assembled the dome for the building. Unfortunately, along with the problems the build brought due to Bryan's diagnosis in 2022, the Shutter lift system just doesn't work. We have tried and tried to work with the system that came with the dome, but it is shit. I will blog on that more in depth. And of course, I have bees. Lots and lots of bees. It is within this world, where I HAVE to be calm, I HAVE to move slowly that I get solace. And ha...