mmm-mmm good

I got a couple of nice surprises last night. I was doing my weekly inspection of the hive, and the girls have about trippled in number and are drawing comb on about 8 of the 10 frames in the hive. So, I was able to go ahead and add a deep super (a deep "box") on top of the existing medium we started with.

The really nice surprise was that I had to scrape off some burr-comb (honey comb that the girls are building in places they shouldn't, like on top of the frames). The burr comb had some honey in it, so I got a taste of the fruits of their labor. Let me tell you, store bought honey shouldn't even be called "honey". By the time the distributers have mixed all the mass-produced stuff together with all the other honey from who-knows-where, it just doesn't compare to this!

Bee-sy

Man....its been busy!

The new chicks are looking like adults, now. The bees have been home for 2 weeks now and I am thinking I may need to add a super to the hive, soon. The inverter for the solar battery backup is wired up to the battery bank and I have built one solar panel (3 more planned in the immediate future) and the charge controller is on order. Going by ACE hardware tonight to pick up parts to wire the inverter to the breaker panel.

I've been amazed how docile the bees are (right now, anyway--might be different when I try to collect the rent later this fall). Yesterday, I sat about a foot away from the hive entrance in a camping chair and just watched them come and go for about a half hour. Got strafed a few times, landed on once or twice and a clumsy girl ran into me once or twice, but they were all as gentile as could be. I lifted the cover on the hive top feeder just to check it and one landed on top. I just gently pushed her out of the way with my finger and she politely obliged so I could replace it. It's fascinating to watch them. Seeing their little pollen sacks on their hind legs full of red or yellow pollen as they land on the bottom board to carry it in. Amazing just how much the little ladies can carry. I think I see what the expression "busy as a bee" really means, now :)

Update -5/20
The solar charge controller was just delivered. Looks like I can now permanently connect the solar panels with the batters without worrying about overcharging!

Jefferson Quotes (Lest We Forget)

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826):

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

To take from one because it is thought that his own industry and that of his father’s has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association—the guarantee to every one of a free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it.

To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” (Quoting Cesare Beccaria)