As some of you know, my wife was in the hospital for over 2 months with Pancreatitus. She had 2 months of hospital food and/or IV’s during which she also underwent 2 surgeries back to back within 24 hours of each other to remove her pancreas and to check to see if all the infection was removed. She has been home for 3 weeks now. Prior to that we spent some time in Orlando, FL with our son when he graduated RN training. So it has been over 3 months since I have seen my bees. All this is said to bring you up to snuff to understand the next few paragraphs.

From the middle of December, I have been predisposed and could not check my bees. I have 7 apiaries – of which 6 have bees in them. December and January is the time to make sure the bees have enough food, both honey and pollen, to carry them into the Spring Flow in February and March. I did get to check them the last of February as my wife was well enough and strong enough to get out of bed and, by using the walker, go to the bathroom by herself. I left snacks, water, and drinks plus her medicines on her bedside table to hold her for the six hours I was gone with a friend to check all my hives. She also had instructions to not get out of bed except to go to the bathroom. I left a cordless telephone in case she needed some help from the neighbor across the street.

We checked the hives by looking in the brood box and checking for eggs, sealed brood, and pollen. Then we  combined all the honey into one super on each of the hives. Some of the hives had 2 supers because of the one full capped super and an empty one for them to put up any nectar they found when they could fly.We then made sure that all the hives had an empty super because of the upcoming Spring honey flow. I now number 12 hives and 3 nucs.

Since then, I have had several teaching engagements at the local schools for prekindergarten classes, Leisure Learning Club (40 years and older), and  I have chaired a workshop for one of the bee associations I belong to. This past Saturday, I got to attend another workshop and I even got to listen to the speakers. I was not on any committee, a speaker, or a volunteer. I enjoyed myself to the fullest.

My wife did not require any outside help and when I called her several times that day, she assured me that she was okay. It was a rest as much as anything for me as I have been with her almost constantly for 3  plus months.

Now that she is doing more for herself, I now can get back into the bee business. Here is a list if what I have to do to get caught up:

Clean wooden ware (supers especially), re foundation using plastic inserts, paint hive bodies, mow grass in my apiaries, clean and use queen excluders until the first super is capped, clean extracting equipment, clean and mow my home yards, clean the swimming pool and get it ready for the warm weather swimming, and get my trailer refitted to place about 16 hives on it to make it a portable apiary for specialty honeys i.e. Gallberry, Tupelo, Palmetto, etc.

Where to start? All of it needs to be done.  When you get behind, this is what it looks like. I hope you never have to be in the shape that I have myself in.

Check the hives to be sure you have enough supers on them. That will be one way to help keep them from swarming. I’ll talk more on swarm prevention in a later post. That’s all for now. I have to fix something for my wife and me to eat.