Moving to Eugene Oregon

Yesterday our bees arrived!

Tom put the hive facing south just outside of our woods.

They were pretty sleepy when we transferred them to the hive.

Here’s Tom dumping them into the hive:

We didn’t get stung, but Tom tucked his long beard into his shirt just in case. I took a look at the hive this morning, and there were eight dead bees on the threshold. Not to worry, the bees kick out any dead ones. The loss of only eight is not bad!

When we moved into our home in 1985 there was an ancient oak tree at the edge of our deck, full of honey bees. About five years later the tree fell in a storm. We were able to move the swarm into a hive where they lived happily for several years until the bee mites finally got them. The fallen tree had many, many pounds of honey in it that we enjoyed for a couple of years.

All that’s left of that oak now is the hollow end. After we chain sawed the last piece, it rolled down the hill and landed upright. Here it is with our cat (Ogopogo) sunning herself on it:

Filed under: Gardening, Outdoor Activities on May 9th, 2009