Still no bees

Well, it is now the end of May, and still no bees.  I emailed my supplier this morning, but I haven't heard back from him yet.  His first shipment of bees was delivered, but since I ordered late, my bees are in the second shipment.  His website doesn't give any forecast for the delivery of the second shipment.

I've been procrastinating since I don't have a deadline for when my bees will come.  I still need to test out different fuels for my smoker to see what works best for me, and I still need to practice lighting it so it's not too hot and smokes well.  I also need to put together my feeder.  I plan to use a chick feeder, but I need to put some screening around it so the bees don't try to go up into the container and drown.

Speaking of drowning, I know there are some other bee hives around as I saw a bee floating in the chicken waterer.  The waterer is a plastic bucket with spigots on the bottom that the chickens peck and a drop of water comes out.  I may try putting some screening in the bucket that the bees can use as a ladder to get a drink.  Then I won't have to come up with a separate water source for my bees.  We'll see how that works out.

The bees are coming.

Well my bee supplier finally has a pickup date for his first shipment.  Unfortunately, my order will be in the second shipment for which he does not have a pickup date yet.  I'm hoping it is before June.  I want the critters to have plenty of time to draw out comb before everything dries up.

I may have bees coming finally.

My package pickup day was supposed to be April 13, but the weather has been so cool that the supplier hasn't been able to shake packages.  Well the supplier started shaking again and the weather is forecast to be warmer, so let's hope the weather holds until my bed come in.