Wednesday, April 11th, my bride and I drove over to Lake Charles, Louisiana. We enjoyed a few beers at two breweries, lost a little money at one of the casinos with the intent of picking up bees early the next morning.

Early, early Thursday morning, I drove over to Jennings, LA, a short 40 minute drive from the hotel in Lake Charles, to pick-up 6 NUC’s. The pick-up went very smooth and I was back at the hotel to pick-up my wife by 7:40 AM. She was still snoozing!!!! 8:00 AM wake-up for her, breakfast and on the road by 9ish…..

Returned to Kingwood just a little before noon and now……time to install the bees. My Goo friend John……long story, went along for the ride. I was well prepared for the work. I had feeder buckets ready to install in the hives that I set-up a week ago, and……yes, I forget to put the buckets in the truck! I did bring the lids! Not much good with out the buckets!

I also made up 6 jars of sugar water for the entrance feeders on the new NUC’s…. and…… yes I left them sitting next to the back door. I set them there so I wouldn’t forget. Hmmmm, didn’t work out so well.

So now it is Friday, a storm is on the way and I had a meeting with a client on the west side of Houston early this morning! Meeting went well and now an hour drive back to Kingwood. Change clothes and…..

Ok, I remembered to load the materials and off I went into the wind and minor precipitation. First stop!

A big wad of bees, a swarm, sitting on the ground, 25 feet from one of my “empty” hive boxes! Yee haw. I positioned the empty box, fortuitous, on the board adjacent to the bees and started scooping. Around scoop 5 or 6 the bees started migrating toward the box. Success!

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About 25 minutes later it looks like they are happy with their new home! If the storm had caught them out on the ground like they were when I found them, it could have scattered them or worse. My poor memory may have, at least this time, been beneficial!

If they stick around I will be managing 17 colonies. So much for being retired! Not that I really want to “fully” retire!

I put all the feeders in place and then went on up to Blakelock’s Berries in Grangerland. There are now 4 boxes of bees up at Paul’s place. The blueberries need pollination help! Paul’s plants are young but they are loaded! I did wander over to check! It is amazing to see how big they swell up when ripe! Paul, I did sample a couple as a taste test. Thumbs up!

The plants are loaded!

In a week or 10 days from now the picking will be amazing!

The Natchez blackberries are looking good too! Paul has 3 varieties which leads a long picking season.

Tons of blossoms all the way through the fields. I am looking forward to picking season!

The day, and I guess everyday upon reflection, is the way it is for a reason. The reason may not always be so obvious!

TTFN

Bishop