Fall approaches...
On Friday when I was out in the bush by Lake Cowichan, I noticed that some of the leaves were turning colour. Summer's almost over, and I can hardly believe it. At first, I thought the trees were ill or something--in a whole forest of replanted evergreens, the odd deciduous can look a little odd. It's been so hot too, that it seems impossible that fall is in gear already.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a little summer retrospective on my adventures in beekeeping.
This is how we load pallets of ten hives onto the crane truck. A full load is ten pallets, which means one hundred hives! Once on the crane truck, we can then drive the hives (in the middle of the night, so the bees don't fly away) to their summer location out in the bush somewhere.
A nice spot, somewhere in the wilds of southern Vancouver Island. I love working outside! It's wonderful (except for getting heat exhaustion, but whatever. I'd rather get baked to death then be stuck in a recirculated building.) There's so many lovely spots I never would have seen if not for my job.
The beekeeping crew that day.
A fireweed plant: one of the main reasons we take bees out into the bush into old logging slashes. The pollen is a deep green, the wax is almost white, and the honey deliciously light. It starts blooming at the bottom of the stalk, and progresses up the stalk as time goes on. When the bloom is almost finished, only the top blossoms will be left. Because it blooms for so long, and because it is so prolific in previously logged areas (or burned), it is a great source of forage for bees.
That's me!
My handsome boyfriend.=)
The first picture was taken at a spring yard somewhere in Saanich, and the rest were out by Port Renfrew area(yes, where that bear tried to eat that guy). Actually, the day that guy was mauled, I wasn't out there, but other beekeepers were, and they actually dropped off a guy at the bar in Port Renfrew so he could wait around to help move bees back out of the bush. He was there! But he didn't know about it until it was all over, because the bear followed the guy onto his boat in the marina.
Anyway, I'll make a solid effort to bring a camera this week, since we've started bringing home honey.
Anyway, I thought I'd post a little summer retrospective on my adventures in beekeeping.
This is how we load pallets of ten hives onto the crane truck. A full load is ten pallets, which means one hundred hives! Once on the crane truck, we can then drive the hives (in the middle of the night, so the bees don't fly away) to their summer location out in the bush somewhere.
A nice spot, somewhere in the wilds of southern Vancouver Island. I love working outside! It's wonderful (except for getting heat exhaustion, but whatever. I'd rather get baked to death then be stuck in a recirculated building.) There's so many lovely spots I never would have seen if not for my job.
The beekeeping crew that day.
A fireweed plant: one of the main reasons we take bees out into the bush into old logging slashes. The pollen is a deep green, the wax is almost white, and the honey deliciously light. It starts blooming at the bottom of the stalk, and progresses up the stalk as time goes on. When the bloom is almost finished, only the top blossoms will be left. Because it blooms for so long, and because it is so prolific in previously logged areas (or burned), it is a great source of forage for bees.
That's me!
My handsome boyfriend.=)
The first picture was taken at a spring yard somewhere in Saanich, and the rest were out by Port Renfrew area(yes, where that bear tried to eat that guy). Actually, the day that guy was mauled, I wasn't out there, but other beekeepers were, and they actually dropped off a guy at the bar in Port Renfrew so he could wait around to help move bees back out of the bush. He was there! But he didn't know about it until it was all over, because the bear followed the guy onto his boat in the marina.
Anyway, I'll make a solid effort to bring a camera this week, since we've started bringing home honey.