The First Day of Spring in an Apiary

Spring in the apiary

Woo Hoo! Spring has sprung and here in Illinois, it felt  like spring today.  The temperature was well into the 60's, the breeze was light, and the bees were flying.


Here's a picture of David out in the queen yard.  We need to get things ready to start off our queen year next month.  You can see how bare the trees are and how brown everything still is in Illinois, so you can understand why queen season for us is still a ways off. 


David found our honey hives in good shape after a cold, cold winter.  These are the ones that we graft winter hardy queens out of, and these hives have survived our winters for years now.  We graft out eggs out of these and make the hives turn them all into queens, and then separate them out into mini mating nucs.

Sweethearts checking out the bee yard

The weather here is so nice that I got a picture of a pair of sweethearts walking down the long country lane in front our of house. In this picture is Karee, who is David's apprentice in the queen yard, along with Jesse who is going to be a first year beekeeper in an urban area, which has been gaining a lot of popularity lately. 


All of us spent the Saturday teaching and helping at our Spring Basic Beekeeping class in Danville.  The class was large, and a whole lot of fun.  Beekeepers always tend to be a fun lot of people, crazy to boot as well, so we usually find ourselves making friends, and having a good time at these classes. David taught beekeeping classes this week also in Decatur, at Parkland College in Champaign, and in Danville, IL.

David teaching a new flock of beekeepers for 2011


We also got to spend a little time with our oldest daughter and her family this week.  Her husband Dustin is starting Olive Branch Apiaries, under David's tutelage, and they have been spending time out here getting things ready to be launched. I was able to snap my youngest granddaughter chasing the chickens, who were glad to be out in the spring air and finally getting to nibble at some early fresh grass.

Be careful around that rooster!

That was our weekend.  I hope yours was as good as well.