Set up camp in area #2 just like Feb. Ran out of battery in panorama camera in time to start up Bright Angel.

On the other hand.... I did 16 miles on schedule on day one- down S Kaibab, Phantom Ranch for bag lunch, Indian Gardens by 3:30, out to Plateau Point and back by 5:00.

No signal, then problems with data coverage. Now on unlimited data retroactively.

Packed, using my regular backpack and a rented sleeping bag and pad, no tent. Looking forward to a hot meal at Phantom Ranch.

It is so exciting to see the changes at the South Rim in the last 6 months. The weather will be perfect.

Well bless my soul, I have a back country permit for Indian Gardens for tomorrow night. The plan is a complete reprise of Febuary's trip in two days with options to bale on the hike out to Plateau Point if it is too much tomorrow.

there isn't enough to do, so I outlined a book early this morning

"Muy querida" was my first assignment, this morning. I heard from a distant friend for the first time in years, and that was the salutation. I am slogging through horticultural Spanish, so subject article agreement are way beyond my payscale.

I just checked a blog I set up for a friend, and she was able to send a video from her iPhone, first try. How gratifying. such things are fun parts of the job. Backups and network security are the nuts and bolts- have to be done, hard to do well, and not very visible.

Which is why I love working with bees and gardens, too. Luckily, it won't freeze while I am away for the next few days. I don't have to get the plants in quite yet. It takes some work to make sure they are bug free before I let them into the house. I just have to keep the bees going. They need to store as much sugar water as possible so that I can get them through the winter. And I have to check them for varroa mites, today.

Don't ask about the book idea- It is a great idea and will write itself or die on the vine. I hope it lives. 

Bee updates

Monday rainy and quite cool. I checked my bees yesterday, and they had snarfed both Thursday's 2:1 sugar and yesterday's. So it is time to get bulk sucrose. C12H22O11 for those who can rem a little Organic. It is costing me about 54 cents a pound. I use the instant hot faucet to get the granules into solution. Nice addition to the lab, don't you think?

Beekeeping in later days

I finally focused on my bees again, after quite a few weeks of being overwhelmed by other things.

They have not been busy in the right way. They ate their Apiguard, but they did not continue to make honey or comb. Tonight, I started feeding them sugar water again. I made up 3.5 sugar to 2.5 volumes. hopefully, I will see some busy. This morning, I clearly saw drones on the outside of the hive in a cluster, just hanging out. They were gone by 11:00am.

They were bigger than I remember and darker banded.

My mind has been on many things, not on making bee notes

I forgot to note that I had put my varroa mite med in on the Friday before I helped Cathy and her husband medicate their bees.

I do have pictures, but I don't have them easily available for making notes on my blog. that is frustrating. It is always something getting in the way of seamless productivity.

wednesday update

It was raining when I got up today. wasn't supposed to. The bees need more warmth to figure out where they are, and to get acclimated and feed.

My jacket and gloves washed well. The gloves took a while to dry. The goat skin is a little stiff. At least most of the dead bees are swept out of the van.
and in front of the hive. My neighbors have been curious. The bees have been very quiet since Sunday, not really showing too much activity. Once it stopped raining today, that changed. They were quite zippy and all over the place, even bearding a little on the front of the hive. I got my stuff together around 2:30 and proceeded to feed them. As usual, the smoker took a while. We need to get more matches. The trough still had some sugar water, and the bees were not actively feeding, but they were interested. BC had just gotten home, so I have some cautious photos to post later.

No stings.

How much volume of honey and brood do the bees need to get through the winter?

I think I won't have to check again until Friday or Saturday.

Monday- bees are home but what a frustrating Saturday night.

It rained most of yesterday, and I needed a day of benedryl and ibuprophen. The bees that didn't make it into the hive, I am sure were lost to the weather. When I got home from getting the fence posts, this morning, I suited up, and checked the bees. They are definitely hassled, but they are alive. As soon as I opened up the hive, they started off at my hat. So the pheromone had not dissipated yet. I fed them and added a honey supper. They immediately showed interest and activity. All in all much better outcome than I had feared. So far. Still don't know if the queen survived, and that is the important part of long term survival.

Now I get to see if the cotton jacket washes ok. I think it will, but I am much less sure of the goat skin gloves. Can't really wash the veil and hat.

Harrowing and epic trip home.

Second floor so the AC is on. It is pulling moisture put of the air dramatically. However I can still smell skunk. So my final thought for the night is a celebrity death match between bees and a skunk. I hope my queen survived the trip.

It was 81 degrees on the se

I pulled my left hamstring. That is on ice right now.

Lynn and I were stung multiple times through clothing, the bees got everywhere even repeatedly inside our veils. Lynn got stung on the Achilles tendon. I got stung on my knees, bikini line and chin.

Lesson learned- duct tape sucked at holding the hive together. I should have gotten a strap and ratchet system to keep the supers from shifting. Every time the supers shifted the bees got madder.

My bees are finally moved home, but not without incident. Lynn was quite a comrade in arms through the entire experience.

Skunk, skunk, skunk. Just showered, took my second benedryl, and three ibu, cause it's going to hurt.

I would like 2 sets of clothes so that I can have one for home and one for Cathy's house. A larger smoker might be easier to stoke.

The other two hives are half as aggressive and much quieter. I topped Cathy's smaller hive. Last, I mixed up my sugar water.

Today, I was making sugar water by 7:45am, at Cathy's by 8:10. the first hive I worked was the big one. Like yesterday, even with smoking, there were so many bees in the feeder area that when I lifted the lid off, they spilled out onto my feet. The noise of that hive is completely aggressively productive. The feed trough was empty.

I found an interesting blog by a man who had a similar hive loss this spring

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/ian-douglas/

Mr. Douglas lost his hive, then requeened, and lost it again. Now he is discussing the loss of hives in general.

today's quick trip to feed the big hive

I got to Cathy's at 3:15. I was pretty sure there wouldn't be any access to the hood/veils, or gloves, so I brought my smoker and a glove. I smoked the hive a little bit, then opened the top. There were so many bees in the lid, there was an avalanche of bees that fell onto the ground and my boots. I was very glad I had long sleeves, pants and boots on. True to their voracious appetite, the feeder trough was empty. I gave them their gallon, but I think they need more, tonight. So, we have a daily job for the near future.

i wonder how we are going to survive. Does Cathy have any plans to go away? Should I make sure I don't till the end of fall? I have already said I would go to Hackers in November.

I did order a jacket, veil and gloves today. I tried to get a S nylon jacket, but I had to settle for a cotton one. I ordered 2 pairs of gloves- small. One cloth and one goatskin. They very carefully say- sting resistant, not proof. Kind of "cover-your-ass" funny.

We need more frames- Cathy's deep super frames are not as busy as her medium super wooden frames. I am thinking we should add another medium super, so that we can then have maybe 3 brood supers( medium) then move the big super away. Maybe we can replace some of the plastic frames with wooden ones at the NJBA auction on Saturday.

Fwd: Today's bee workuu

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com>

Date: June 1, 2010 8:47:57 PM EDT

To: Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com>

Subject: Re: Today's bee workuu

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Tomorrow- sugar sharing, sugar water making, put trough feeders in hive bodies.

When get deeps, put Cathys frames in deeps, set up feeders, then put my second deeps on my first deeps.



On Jun 1, 2010, at 20:25, Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com> wrote:

On Jun 1, 2010, at 19:32, Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com> wrote:

1. Watered cladradtis

2. Planted nandina.

3. Loaded my hive bodies, clothes

4. Got cathys hives

5. On time to brian Rowe.

6. Loaded my cordovans. 1 hive has new queen. Check on Thursday

7. Needed to use nucs for Cathy,. Her hives were too actively making honey.also, Brian was running out of blond Italian super nucs.

8. Got tray feeders from Brian, $42

Cathy had to order 2 deeps and one feeder. They should arrive end of this week.

9. Need to make sugar water to feed bees. 81 pounds of sugar.

10. Moved Nadine to tomorrow

11. Will have to make honey supers asap and sugar water.

Fwd: Today's bee workuu

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com>

Date: June 1, 2010 8:25:15 PM EDT

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Subject: Re: Today's bee workuu

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On Jun 1, 2010, at 19:32, Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com> wrote:

1. Watered cladradtis

2. Planted nandina.

3. Loaded my hive bodies, clothes

4. Got cathys hives

5. On time to brian Rowe.

6. Loaded my cordovans. 1 hive has new queen. Check on Thursday

7. Needed to use nucs for Cathy,. Her hives were too actively making honey.also, Brian was running out of blond Italian super nucs.
8. Got tray feeders from Brian, $42
Cathy had to order 2 deeps and one feeder. They should arrive end of this week.
9. Need to make sugar water to feed bees. 81 pounds of sugar.
10. Moved Nadine to tomorrow
11. Will have to make honey supers asap and sugar water.

Fwd: Today's bee workuu

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com>

Date: June 1, 2010 7:32:53 PM EDT

To: Lorette Cheswick <lepac@cheswick.com>

Subject: Today's bee workuu

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1. Watered cladradtis
2. Planted nandina.
3. Loaded my hive bodies, clothes
4. Got cathys hives
5. On time to brian Rowe.
6. Loaded my cordovans. 1 hive has new

Today's bee update

Boy, I didn't want to work my bees today. It was hot, I was tired, and there were way too many things to do. But bees, like children do not understand when you are late with their sugar water. In this continual heat my bees and Cathy's bees are making comb as fast as they can and aggressively sipping all the sugar water we feed them. Today when Cathy called me at 4:40, I threw pants, 2 long sleeved shirts, long socks and my hiking boots on. I grabbed my smoker and some tea.

By the time I got to Cathy's house, I was in a much better frame of mind. Lynn came home shortly thereafter and got ready to help. Cathy had just received a package from Brushy Bees, so the first thing we did was put foundation in 32 medium frames. I was thinking that we might need a super for Cathy's smaller hive.

Cathy wanted me to look at her two hives for the whereabouts of their queens and if the broods were doing ok.

While I was lighting the smoker, Lynn fed my hive which had a dry feeder trough. Since I checked my hive last time, I wanted to leave it alone this time. Once the smoker was going, I started on the smaller Cathy hive. I put the top brood super on top of my hive lid. That super is full of wooden frames. Then I systematically went through the lower brood super.

What I found- The bottom brood super is a full height super that only has plastic frames. The first two frames had almost no activity. No bees, no obvious bee products. The third frame had brood, but it wasn't really strong. I did not have my glasses, and the light was no longer really bright, I explained to Lynn how to look for young brood v capped brood. He felt there was some uncapped brood on the next few frames. We found the queen on one, and she was busy. I was afraid that one of her wings was miss-formed, but in a bit she moved, and Lynn thought she was symmetrical. We moved one of the empty outer frames in closer, but I was not impressed with how the bees were working the bottom layer of brood super. THe story was completely different on the next layer. There was lots of capped brood, even some that had more of a domed cap, like a drone. I would say that all of the frames except one had comb built out and there were more than half of the frames busy with brood in all stages. Lynn cleaned the top feeder and we put in new sugar water.

The big hive was dry, as it always is. The bees were all over the feeding trough, and we filled it. I will add another gallon tomorrow.

Things I need to do- cut the metal post in my front yard, so that I can get my bees home. Cathy says my bees seemed to be settled today. That most days they have been agitated. Zipping high and low, back and forth. Order my new bee clothes so that I am happy.

Just a reminder- I did get bitten on Saturday. I wasn't sure at the time. Inside the L knee. Yesterday, it was swollen, but on my 5 hour beach walk, I kept the knee wet, and the swelling went down rapidly, and it stopped hurting. It is still visible today, is not warm, and is about a nickel in size.

I moved frames on the bottom super of my hive. Both of that hives supers were active but seemed to be busy with honey as well as brood. It seemed like about 50% brood. I did not find the queen but I did see uncapped brood.

When I checked the big hive yesterday I did not see brood in the two honey supers. Beyond a small bit on one frame. The bees were actovely making comb on the newest honey super and filling the first honey super. I did not check the brood supers because it took 1.5 hers to do what I had already done and I was getting tired. I still have problems keeping the smoker lit. I got stung on my left knee this time.

Cathys big hive got a honey super three weeks ago and a second one t a week ago. The second super seemed warped so Lynn and I put it in the middle.

Perhaps stress of moving the hive. Perhaps the damaged queen. On the other hand both supers are busy. So I might try putting a honey super on when they are home.

Yesterday I worked my moved hive and the top two frames of cathys big hive. Then I gave my hive most of a gallon, her big hive a gallon, and her small hive a gallon.

Well that last post was pathopneumonic of a lost hive. I just didn't know it at the time.

Pictures of the bees and taking care of them

Hard to take pictures when I am the center of the activity, but I think I need to get someone to work with me. I did try to show CS some of the larvae. I think it was hard for her to differentiate, and I couldn't point because I was holding the frame.I want someone to help document my work with the bees.

Rule 1. Don't let go of a frame with lots of bees on it until you are slowly putting it back into the super.

Rule 2. know what you should be looking for. B Rowe says brood should be putting a frame of brood or honey together  a week's time. I don't think I am seeing that for 3 of the hives.

I now think I know what capped brood looks like and what capped honey looks like. I got to see a hive beetle crawling a few cells on one of the queen yard's hives. Another hive had hive beetles, but they were not able to do damage in a plastic comb frame. Cool.

Variation in the bee body coloration- from black to white, and all in between.

My fellow beekeepers hives: today

I got to my fellow beekeeper's hives at about 6 pm tonight. Great breezes and nice sun. Low humidity and no sugar. So, CS's husband was tasked to go to SR to get sugar, and CS and I talked about our hives and the missing queen bee.

When the sugar arrived husband went off to hit some golf balls, and I went to work. CS's right hand bees go through their sugar water every time. Today, it was gone from Saturday. They are bubbling up into the upper super. There are new larvae in some of the cells, and they are actively making comb on all of the foundation.

CS's other hive is slower- 2+ good frames on the bottom, queen visible, and lots of new brood.  I would say that that is the same amount of frame work as last week. I am seeing uncapped larvae. They are working the upper level of brood super, but not to the same extent as CS's busier hive.

I checked the frames on the upper super of the busy hive, saw larvae, pollen, and some honey production. I can't remember if I saw capped cells, but I think so. I did not look at the lower super because there were so many bees in all of the frames.

I decided to come back on Friday to check on the sugar water consumption. When I put everything back, and backed away from the hive, I brought the empty bottles for the sugar water back up to CS's home. I did not take off my gear until I was on the back porch steps, I did not check my gloves first. As I took off my gloves I got stung on my middle L palmer knuckle.  I took a benedryl immediately and put ice on the site. I have to check gloves before I remove them, especially at CS's.

CS and I think we need better gloves and veils. We talked about trying them on before buying. So much to do, and no time to get it all perfect. 

29 June checking on my bees

Today, I checked both hives for brood. Last week I was worried that I was seeing dark areas instead of brood. Turns out they were probably pollen. I have elevated the hives with more blocks. Makes me feel better. The left hive had lots of pretty larvae- uncapped in a few frames. I found the queen on a lower frame toward the middle. I think I have 5-6.5 frames being worked now. For sure I put the second story on way too soon.

The right hive has 1.5 frames of visible bees and lots of honey in frames. The transplanted queen was visible and seemed to be busy. I could not see any eggs yet. I will look this weekend.

My notes on Cathy's hives- They have been much more active, and aggressive than my bees. One of her hives has lots of frames of brood, now. They have been going through sugar water and regular water, too faster than my bees. Ithink this is because they are in the sun, and there is more evaporation.

Bees update

The summer and beekeeping have caught up with me. Last week I noticed that my hive with the introduced queen had fewer frames of active bees than the week before, when I had been excited that they were making honey and that the frames were heavy. That, in retrospect was not a good sign. Turns out I could not find any brood, was seeing cleaning activity, and could not find the queen on Thursday, the 24th of June. I called my queen supplier, who asked me to check one more time that evening for the queen.

No go, I then spent the weekend worrying and missing the queen supplier because of other work, etc.

Yesterday, I got a new queen. this is hard work for the queen bee producer. He maintains smaller hives- 2 frame hives( 4 per 10 frame super) with entrances on all 4 sides of the supers. It took almost 2 hours to find a hive with a queen. We left a sea of work for him to consolidate hives. At one point he mentioned that he had not checked the hive we were looking at for the last 2 weeks. He has, I think 64 hives in one bee yard, then a bunch - maybe 10 on a small hillside. The queen we found was unmarked. He has a portable hood for collecting her- a kind of exoskeleton that fits in a net muff thing, then he marks the queen's abdomen and puts her in a queen cage for transport. This was somewhat of a panic on a 90 degree plus day. The queen candy he uses to plug the cage up was already melting, before the queen was ensconced. The instructions for introducing her went from over night in the cage- like last time, to 2-3 hours in the cage, to one hour max, and use AC on the way home. He was concerned about the powdered sugar all over the queen. He wanted the bees to get to her asap to clean her up- worrying that the candy/sugar could damage her somehow. I haven't even had time to google the issue yet.

Anyway, I got her home by 1:30, then into the hive. She was out by 2:40, and disappeared into the frames.

benadryl makes me sleepy, but apparently not enough.

My bee bites did not go away, yet. Today, I started taking Benadryl to minimize the swelling. I am going to have to get better protection from stings, fast.

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My hives don't have as many bees. They are both. 2- 2 1/2 fres full of bees, but the hive with the. Introduced queen is making honey in a number of frames

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CS's bees- R hive is up to 5 frames of busy activity. L hive has 2 1/2 frames of insects. The rest looks pretty quiet.

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The first stings hurt at injection, but could not find sites when I took off my uniform. Today I was not so lucky. My fingers are slightly swollen and I had tingles on my lips.

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10 days into working 2 hives. Today, I changed sugar water for my co-tyro beekeeper CS. Her hives are more agressive than mine.

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I got stung twice today on my L hand knuckles. Previously the same hand, ankle and R knee have been sites.

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10 days into working 2 hives. Today, I changed sugar water for my co-tyro beekeeper CS. Her hives are more agressive than mine.

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Last breakfast on the S Rim. I'm packed, checked out, studying for my practical exam. The coffee shop is a pull down banner in the bar. 2 sales types chatting. 

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Krispy Keene just down the road from the car rental place. They gave me a yellow Pontiac G5. wonder what Jeramy thinks of them.  

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Bright outside

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Wondering how far it is to Vegas from the Rim-

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On the ground in Phoenix. Did geology on the way out.

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So far, I have forgotten my iPhone headphones, my current reading glasses on my current croakies, and my current paperback. I just rearranged my carryon backpack- it has my snacks, ID, study books, and maps.

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On the plane, aisle seat, no security problems, so I must have packed pretty well except for glasses. At least I had a backup pair in my backpack.

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In liner for security hoping my glasses are packed. Can't see

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For my packing consideration. 

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What/who I am leaving behind. 

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Less than 24 hours to go. Will the limo work?