5/25/2024
I hope you enjoy the Memorial Day weekend!
The Longest Day is a 1962 movie depicting the events surrounding the the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944. For the thousands of service members involved in the invasion and liberation of Europe, it must have felt like their day would never end. While our longest week wasn’t as important or have the ramifications of D-Day, it was pretty exhausting.
The week to come
I began to get a idea of the week to come the evening of Wednesday the 15th when I checked on the swarm trap on the way to an American Legion meeting in Columbia. The property owner had told me that he had seen a lot of activity at the swarm, but I was a surprised by how much there really was.
The video gives a glimpse into what I observed.
Based on my observations, I realized it was time to relocate the swarm. However, we were not prepared at all. The hive box had been constructed but not painted, the top had been started but was far from finished, and I didn’t have the necessary wood for the stand. There was a lot of work to be done.
Day 1
The week officially started on Friday the 17th. All we accomplished was planning out the activities to come and checking on weather patterns to determine a day to move the swarm box here. We didn’t need hot or rainy weather because it makes the job that much harder to do.
Day 2 – 3
These days were taken up with weekend activities.
Day 4
The first major task was to paint the hive box. However, before we could do that, we needed to buy handles and install them. So, we headed to Westlake Hardware, got the handles installed, and placed the box on the workbench. Linda applied three coats of white paint and also painted the frame of the top. This process took up most of the day.
Day 5
The first thing to do was to carry the hive box to the kitchen so Linda could work on the design and so I could finish building the top. We had another event to attend, so we were finished for the day. It did give us a chance to run to Lowe’s to pick-up some wood for the stand. After we got home, I built the stand.
Day 6
This was the hardest day. We carried the stand to the apiary and choose the location. After this was finalized, the stand had to be leveled as best we could. This is done so the comb hangs straight down and doesn’t interfere with other frames.
Then the hive box was carried down and placed on the stand. This, of course, changed the leveling so it was amended.
Finally the top was carried down and placed on the swarm box. It wasn’t permanent because the hinges weren’t attached to the hive box, so it mostly held in place by the weight of it. We left to go to church leaving this task unfinished.
On the way home we picked up the swarm trap. It was dark, in fact, almost too dark to work. Despite a little mishandling of the trap, it made it to the car. We drove up to the landowner’s house to tell him we were finished. We still had our beekeeping jacket and veils on, so we looked pretty funny sitting in the car.
Day 7 – moving the colony to it’s new home
It took longer than expected to attach the hinges to the box, but after we got this completed it was time to move the bees.
First we opened the swarm trap entrances.
Then it was time to open the hive box.
The video below is a composite of the frame moves.
Of course there a still a lot of bees to be moved.
We let the remaining bees get their bearings and added a walkway for them.
It took less than an hour for all the bees to find their way into their new home.
It might have been a long week, but it was worth it.
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