Monday 20 May 2013

Spring 2013

Well, I was wrong about the winter.  Wasn't as nice as I thought, bit long.  We must be a week or two behind last year.  Wintering survival was terrible.  Lots of thoughts on that, but no hard facts.  Certainly the younger queens survived better and the 2012 Russian queens did very well.  Too bad the Russian stocks are nasty and have not proven to be good enough producers to offset their aggressive behaviour. Was planning on replacing them this year but, with my numbers so depleted, I'll suffer with them.  I don't have much love for them after one crawled deep into my ear last year.

Our honey stockpile has dwindled considerably. We have less than a dozen 7 kg (~15 lb) pails left.

Busy this spring recovering from the winter losses and trying to build a house at the same time.  We really are building a house, we could not find a framer that was willing to undertake it.  Part of it is straw bale and they don't appear to like a challenge around here.  We had one show up to start the mudsill but the lumber yard failed to deliver the material as they said they would.  So our framer drove off with vague promises to return.  He never did.  So Kari and I took up the hammer and with the internet, started whacking nails into wood.  Slow process, but we have floor joists on the second floor waiting to be sheeted.

Just to be a glutton for punishment I volunteered to coach U10 soccer as well.