I haven’t had the time to try to find where the bees were living. You know, Thanksgiving and visiting with friends. Today, I took my grandson, age 11, to my friend’s house to pickup two barrels of Peppermint Candy that I bought three years ago. I had forgotten that I even had them. When we started to load the candy, Murphy and his law struck again. The forklift started acting up. The forks would not tip up. Then the forklift died and we had to jump it off not once, but twice.

I took a deep breath and said to myself, “Self, if this is the way the day will go, then I might as well go home”. Well as it was, my wife said that we were taking the grandkids to see the Poarch Indian Pow Wow and Tribal dancers, and that she would meet me at the apiary with the granddaughter, age 5. Again I took a deep breath and told my friend that we had to load the barrels.

Nothing more adverse happened. We loaded the barrels and went to the apiary where the landowner was to off load us. To make a long story short, we had to readjust his back-loader (tractor) so it would raise the barrel high enough to pull it off the end of the trailer. Then found the boom was not long enough to reach the second barrel. But it was decided that he could come in from the side of the trailer, pick the barrel up and I could drive out from under it since I have side rails on the trailer. That worked.

My wife and granddaughter met us and we parked the Ram and trailer. We did all that we were supposed to do and on the way home, picked up the truck and trailer and went to a pizza place to eat. This morning, I discovered that the barrel chain and hooks were missing. Probably because I had left them on the trailer instead of putting them in the bed of the truck, they apparently bounced out on the way home. Now I have to make another set or replace them since they were borrowed.

As the peppermint candy is to be used for winter food, I and my grandson went, today, to pick up four colonies to take to the winter apiary. When we got to the farther-est apiary with three colonies, I was unhappy to learn that two had become dead-outs. We loaded the empty boxes and all the paraphernalia then loaded the one colony.

WE went to the next apiary and picked up all the empty nucs and one colony. That was the total to take to the feeding ground. I have three colonies already there. Now my grand total is 5 in that apiary and I have only one more to check on. That one has been in the same location, a garden, for over 3 years and is my most successful colony of all. I haven’t checked it yet. I am almost afraid to. I will run by there tomorrow afternoon after church and see if I can count on it to keep my moral up.

I don’t foresee any problems this next year. With these six hives, I will do some splits in the Spring. And coupled with the swarms I should be getting around the same time, I should be able to continue to grow on the way back to my former strength of around 100 hives (over 2-3 years).  Wish me luck.

I will be getting some screened bottom boards built for the new colonies along with new top boards. My grandson said that he will help me clean boxes and frames so I can be ready to expand when the time comes. By-the-way, I told you this grandson is only 11 years old and he is going on 21. He has been a great help. If I could just get some of my beekeepers that I am mentoring to work as hard.

At this time, you should have already consigned your colonies to the Winter mode. No need for the veil and smoker, but you always need your hive tool handy and sharp for cleaning and whittling. Until later—