What a slacker I've been in keeping you up to date!

I did get my bees and got them into two hives with two deeps and a top hive feeder.  I replenished the fence and then left them on their own a few weeks ago and went to Maine for the summer.  I was lucky enough to rent my house for 6 weeks, giving me time to catch up with my second home.

I left the bees on their own but I will be going to check on them next week.  At that time, I will add a super, which, if it is filled, as I hope it will be, will be my honey later this summer.  If I'm real lucky, I'll end up with two supers filled with honey on each hive.  That is  my goal but there are way too many factors that could affect that goal. Things like:

- too much rain
- too cold
- poor flowering on plants
- swarms
- Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)
- the queen dying or not producing enough

I had the hives checked, just visually, the other day.  Bees were flying around so that's a good sign things are just humming along over there.  Apparently the garden is also thriving.  How could it not with all those pollinators! 

However, I still need to cut trees.  I do not get enough light to satisfy me.  I see my shrubs and fruit trees becoming elongated which is them trying to reach for more sun.  I will have more cut this fall.

What is there about light?  I heard that it becomes more important the older you get.  Not sure why but I feel like I crave sunshine at times.

I was speaking with a friend who is also a beekeeper.  She was actually my inspiration in a way as I became interested while talking with her and how excited she would be about her bees.  Not to mention the environmental factors involved and the need for bees in this world. I wanted to help in a small way.  But she said that queen bees used to last longer than they do today so that she's found that she was constantly replacing queens.  Our summer is so short that we need to go buy new queens if we lose one.  It takes time for the bees to create a new queen bee trying to get a good honey crop in this area is impossible if you've lost your queen.  She's giving up and will buy her honey from others. I think that's too bad but she did it for many years.