View of Walker Mountain January 14, 2010
Yesterday, the temperature climbed to 52 degrees so I went on a long walk to the back pasture of our land. The above photo was taken from the pasture. Most of the ponds were still frozen--to my dog Kookie's dismay. The only one that was partially melted was surrounded by cows so Kookie didn't get a chance to do her winter dip.
Yellow Poplar Dried Flower
The Yellow Poplar tree has these dried sepals on them. They're large--2 to 3 inches and look beautiful against the clear blue sky yesterday.
Bee Hive January 14, 2010
Yesterday was the first time I saw my bees out since Christmas day. They cleaned out the hive--putting out a pile of dead bees.
I bought a "pollen patty" from my local bee club. I put it on on the inner cover and about a hour later, I checked to see several bees on it, eating away as well as several bees coming up through the cover hole to check me out and then went up on the patty. I think the patty is good since I didn't really see a whole lot of pollen stored on my last inspection in November.
I lifted up the top box to check its weight--still heavy with honey so they have plenty of food. I think the bee cluster is in the middle box but I won't inspect until weather warms to 60 degrees--always a possibility.
Close-up of Bee Hive January 14, 2010
Glad to see they survived that long cold spell along with me. I already sent off a seed order to Gurney's--noticed about half of it was flower seed for the bees!
Lovely pictures. It has warmed to 48 degrees here, but feels cold because it's very windy now.
ReplyDeleteYou keep bees? How interesting, I'll look forward to more posts on them
I love your bees! I often think about bees in the winter when I'm eating an English muffin with butter and honey for breakfast. yummm. I would love to try and keep a bee box, but my yard is really small and my neighbors are too close. I will just enjoy yours!
ReplyDeleteSo glad they made it!! And I LOVE the dried flower! Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteMimi--thanks. It's gotten a little bit cooler today because it's mostly cloudy. Hope it warms up this afternoon. Thanks for your visit.
ReplyDeleteLetspaintnature--There are a lot of urban beekeepers--lots of nice landscape trees there for them. The trick to is screening your hive and providing water close by.
ReplyDeleteKerri--thanks and I like the dried flower too (actually it's just the sepals of the flower).
ReplyDeleteHowdee...
ReplyDeleteso i read this post a while ago offline on my itouch..and have been meaning to comment..
i love the dried flower photos..
and i find it very interesting to read about your bees and bee keeping.
See ya in cyberspace!