One of the virus-related disruptions of 2020 is that I no longer sit at a coffee shop on Sunday mornings and write a blog every week or two. Apologies for the lengthy delay in writing an update since the California venture early in the year! The bees did quite well in the exceptionally warm and […]
Almond pollination is officially underway in the orchards where our bees are located. In the image above, I count six pollen carriers, though one of them is disappearing into the entrance rather than standing around with the others. The orchard with the load from Pella is in substantial bloom, especially in the younger half of […]
A few days ago we started our California bee rounds among the almond trees. We are in two different orchards instead of one this year. The Pella load of bees all went to a ranch where we found them staged on the ends of the rows. We got through that entire group in less than […]
The American Honey Producers Association is holding its annual convention in Sacramento. Founder Phil started coming to this conference roughly fifteen years ago; we think it was 2004. In more recent years, Alex and I joined the annual bee people party. This year’s conference was the first time that all three of us have been […]
Our last truckload of bees indeed made it to California safely. I was most worried about the snow I mentioned in the last post potentially closing I-80 up in the mountains, but the 30″ I feared turned into less than three inches in the end. The forecast at that elevation changes drastically from day to […]
Andrew came out to weave in and out among the hives while we got them stacked for the last truck. I spotted him driving around on the John Deere power wheel tractor tossing something into the hayfield. It was a bag of old English walnuts that he was “planting” for next year! It will take […]
The central Iowa bees were all gathered at our Pella location and loaded for California last week. It is exciting to send a load from the area where our bee business had its birth. The image at the top of the post shows how they looked staged for the truck. They are stacked three pallets […]
We got our first truckload of bees on the road last week. We are getting better at handling them as we get more experienced. It still seems somewhat out of body that we are in the almond pollination picture. We resisted going that direction for quite a few years before deciding it was a crucial […]
The bee roundup has involved forging through early snow. The forecast proved extremely accurate for a change. Both snowfalls mentioned in the last post actually occurred in roughly the amounts predicted. The last round dropped around four inches. A couple of days ago it drizzled enough rain to melt off the snow. Now I need […]
Last night we had one of the prettiest sunsets of the year. The Iowa skies have proven exceptionally colorful, but yesterday evening the air seemed to glow all around. The image above shows the last moments before nightfall. The pressure is mounting as the temperature prepares to plunge, two snowfalls are forecast for this week, […]