We are on the beekeepers roller coaster!

Up and down. One minute things look great, the next, not so good! Here's how it's been going this season in the Camp Kreitzer apiary:

May 16th -- Just did a bee check. All well, except for ants, but not so many I'd call the hives infested. Will probably weed whack and put down diatomaceous earth around the stand legs. Busy, busy bees. None of the hives needs a new box yet, but the second box from the top on the middle hive was so heavy I couldn't lift it and Larry was out so I was on my own. Looks like we will definitely get some honey from that hive even though it's the new one. And if we can retrieve the swarm from our garage ceiling we will have four hives this season. That would be great!

May 21st -- Bees have taken up residence in our garage ceiling. We have called in beebusters to help deal with the challenge. I'm excited to see how an experienced beekeeper gets a swarm out of the ceiling of our garage. He has infrared heat equipment to find exactly where the bees are. Then we have to cut open the ceiling and he has a bee vacuum to get them out. Then he'll cut the comb out and put it in a hive box. Then we'll have to plug up the entry to make sure nobody comes back. What a learning experience. Haven't scheduled it yet but really look forward to it! I love beekeeping. Never a dull moment!

May 23rd -- We turned on the air conditioner for the first time and the bees left. Nary a girl this morning. The cold temp from the air conditioner pipe must have driven them off, or they don't like the vibration or both. Darn! We were looking forward to another hive.

May 24th -- Well, it appears the bees have not given up on their home in the garage ceiling. They are back and we have turned off the air conditioner and will watch for a few days before we call Alex. It will be worth paying him for a lesson in bee swarm capture from challenging locations. However, it may just be robber bees. I've been using my binoculars to see if they are bringing in any pollen. Haven't seen any yet. We are guessing these are just robbers. It will be good if they clean it all out.

June 3rd -- Beekeeping is definitely a challenge. Last check we thought all three hives were queen right. Today, only one hive had brood. Hive A (Anya) was infested with ants. We cleaned them out and added a frame with fresh eggs and brood from hive C (Charlie). Hive B (Bianca) did not have any brood either so we added another frame from Charlie with eggs and young larvae. Hopefully Anya and Bianca will rear queens and all will be well. Larry sprayed several ant hills and spread diatomaceous earth to discourage the ants.

Today the air conditioner guys came to service our unit. The bees are still going in and out of the garage so they declined. The bees wouldn't have bothered them but they were nervous. So we made arrangements for Alex the bee guy to come this afternoon. Never a dull moment. The good news -- Looks like we'll get lots of honey. The bees are working hard and bringing in nectar galore. June is a great nectar month as well, so despite our challenges we will get lots of Camp Kreitzer gold.