This past Sunday morning (5/22/2022) I left work in the around 08:30 and drove nearly 2 hours to the Bramble Bee Ranch and checked in on all the bees. I found that all 3 of the new hives had one box COMPLETELY FULL of larva, eggs, honey, royal jelly, and bee bread! I estimate that there are nearly double the number of bees flying around and collecting pollen and nectar. Every box of each hive (there are 3 boxes per hive, with a queen excluder so one box will be only honey) had honey being made. If we do get a flow off of what is currently being produced we'll have a gallon of raw, unfiltered honey by December 1st. I do not plan on taking any honey this year, because the hives are new and need to fill out on bees and honey. The queens seem healthy and I did have to dispose of a few spiders trying to nest in the honey super (top box) as well as a small number of sugar ants that were in the syrup feeders. I removed the feeder trays, as the amount of pollen carrying bees flying into the hives was intense and the amount of bees putting nectar into honey cells was just as numerous. There must be around 100k bees total across the 3 new hives. I believe that by the end of summer that each hive will have up to 100k bees and the amount of honey produced will be about a gallon. I do not plan on taking any honey this year as the hives need to mature and stabilize for next year. I know the past two winters have been very harsh here in Texas, so I want my bees to be as healthy and well fed as possible through winter.
In other news: I found my game feeder knocked over, after adding 150 pounds of concrete to the legs. The game cameras caught 4 pigs pulling the feeder down by lifting it up by the legs. To make things clear, the legs are 3 pieces of steel tube nested into each other. So, taking the legs apart isn't all that difficult. I am not surprised that hogs managed to do what I have done, when moving my feeder: take it apart! Only around 40 pounds of corn was lost, which is not a huge deal, but still annoying when I will have to secure the legs together with bolts or self-tapping screws so the hogs CAN'T yank the feeder apart in the future. It's all a big learning curve with wild pigs and I feel that I am loosing battles in favor of trying to win a war that is unwinnable. At least there will be a bigger herd of hogs this summer and fall for hunting! More later my fellow peeps and peepettes!
Somebody left this on my widshield. Anyone know what this is or means? I recognise a few of the smaller symbols, like the octogram in the middle and the double fish symbol the encircles the whole thing.
I wanted to share a little about my dog, Antoine (we call him Andy most of the time). Pictures are worth a thousand words, so it has been said. He is a big softy, loving and not exactly a lap dog. It doesn't stop him from laying on you though. I think he is a Catahoula or Louisiana Cattle Dog. His eyes, coat and demeanor are typical of the breed. His left eye is marbled, the top half is brown and bottom half is blue (like his right eye). He loves to chase anything small and furry. He's never caught a squirrel or bunny and frankly, I doubt he knows what to do with one if he ever caught one.
Every so often I take him with me in the Jeep to the ranch and let him explore while I work or just relax in nature. All he does is mark every few feet and stick his nose into everything out there! I have had to pull a few cactus needles out of his nose and paws because he found a new smell. I wish I had video of the time my wife and I let him chase some wild turkeys. That was funny! Also ...
