My Cup Runs Over

My bees are flourishing like never before. 20 of the 22 hives at Dr. D's place are packed with bees and honey. Two needed some help but still had bees in them.

I am also happy to say, that I didn't see a single beetle yesterday - not that I looked too hard for them. The heat index was well over a 100 degrees and 1.5 hours was enough to exhaust me completely. Noah is younger and fared better than me but he still looked spent by the end.

We added 11 supers to the hives that needed more room but we needed 13. I'll have to make two more boxes this weekend and wax 20 more frames.

By the way, I bought 13 pounds of wax to coat my old plastic frames. 1 pound of wax is enough to paint 10 plastic frames.

I still have lots of old plastic frames but I have used all but a couple of my old supers. So from here on out, if I want to expand anymore, I'll have to build more equipment.

Nonetheless, my bees are doing exceptionally well, as are all the aspects of my life. I have just kept my head down and pecked away at the work and God has done the rest.

"Indeed, don’t try to get there at all. It’ll happen when you’re not looking for it." - The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe.

Nothing in life is promised. Yet, I feel optimistic about the future in a very real way. My cup runs over.

Hive Count: 23 Hives

p.s. The moist black wax in the hive I mentioned in the last blog is gone and that hive looks perfectly healthy. Whatever it was has self-corrected.

Wedding at Dr. D's

My energy is split between what I have to do and what I want to do. However, it is absolutely impossible to devote time to everything. Family, work, and sleep are non-negotiable. So I am left to juggle downtime, beekeeping, writing, and inventing.

While it sounds like a rationalization of my shortcomings, the truth is I accomplish a lot each week - just not enough beekeeping. Of course that is real key to success - accomplishing more than average. I've known far too many people that complain about their lives, lack of money, or lack of success but never do anything more than work 40 hours a week.

Success is achieved when your 40 hour work week is over. But I digress.

My wife and I went to an outdoor wedding at Dr.D's this past Saturday - it was epic. However, since most of my bees are located at his country home (were the wedding was held) I couldn't go bee keeping until it was over.

The horror came halfway through the wedding when my wife whispered to me that Dr. D had been spraying the property for mosquitoes all week. While she didn't catch the problem, it made my mouth go dry.

So Sunday afternoon, when I was confident Dr. D's guest were gone, I did a quick hive inspection. All 22 hive are doing well - with the exception of one that is queenless but has queen cells in it.

Given I have let the other aspects of life prevent me from beekeeping for nearly 3.5 weeks, God has smiled down on me and my bees are thriving in spite of me - as usual.

Hive Count: 23 Hives

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the more I work the more I have of it." Thomas Jefferson