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.