the bees

its a little out of focus, but they land and disappear inside the hive so fast that its hard to react fast enough. the yellow on the back leg is the pollen sack full of pollen. most of the bees were coming back yellow today, but i've seen red and orange and even purple...

the bee in the bottom picture is a drone, i think. they are the males responsible for mating with the queen. they are bigger than the worker bees, and somewhat clumsy and so much fun to watch....

:(

stupid spring hailstorm has made a mess of my garden. the garlic and potatoes survived largely intact, but the onions were devastated. and all of the standing water left by the rain makes me wonder if the seeds i had started will sprout. i guess it's only the middle of may, so if i have to replant, hopefully there's enough time......

the garden is planted

it doesn't look like much yet, but hopefully in a few months we will have zucchinis and cucumbers and melons and carrots and onions and peas and corn and broccoli and brussels sprouts and.......

the bees are hard at work

i was fully expecting the bees to have started building comb and filling it with eggs and honey, but it still blows my mind that i put them into an empty box, basically, and 9 days later there are several bars with comb on them. it's a little sad how buying honey or eggs at the store divorces us from the process and from being involved in the miracle. i suppose it shouldn't blow my mind that chickens lay eggs, and bees make honey, but it does. it's so amazing.

bees!!

the bees are here and they are in the hive. getting them out of the box was surprisingly easy. there were two casualites.... i accidentally squished one, and mac ate another one, but since they were overnighted, i didn't see any dead in the bottom of the box. in 3-4 days i can check to make sure that the queen is out of her cage, and then they do what bees do best..... by the end of the summer we should have a regular supply of honey.

so cute....

beehive!

the hive is done. now we wait for bees. it will be a short wait, since they ship tomorrow and i will have them tuesday. more pics to come......

the coop

we've been worried about protecting the outdoor animals from the elements and the neighborhood predators. (you wouldn't believe the size of the hawk i saw in the neighbor's backyard) so we built them a permanent roof. the door still needs some work, but now they have a safe, dry place.

the garden

garlic, onions and shallots are growing in the garden. everything else is waiting for the weather to stabilize so i can move it outside.

Hennessy

we've been talking about getting a friend for bb for a little while, but hadn't seen any bunnies that we wanted to bring home. the new murdochs is next to the bike store, and they have chicks right now, so we went in to look, and left with a new baby bunny. she is tiny and adorable (and not black like every other animal we have) and bb really likes her. good thing he's been fixed......