Tulips

Tulips. Spring is nice.

Beekeeping. Progress Report.

Today was 2 days after installation of the bee colony. Time to check. The main issue is removal of the queen cage. If she's in it, it's time to release her into the colony. As it turned out, the candy plug was gone. I did not poke through the colony to find her. Too much disruption in that. The way they are clustered together, I'm thinking the queen is at the center of the cluster. Hard to see due to lighting. Significant comb already made. Where do they get the energy and food to do that? I do have sugar syrup in the hive. In the morning, it was chilly and they were almost all in the hive. In the afternoon, it was warmer. I thought I saw a few foraging some dandelions. Not many. It's still chilly for foraging.

Front Yard

Tulips and sweet cherry.More tulips and another sweet cherry.Erythronium.

Beekeeping. Progress notes.

Here we are.  Bees are installed in their hive.  It wasn't difficult.  Afterwards, I sat in a chair an watched them buzzing around for 30 minutes.  I still tire easily.

Hard to see them.  By far the majority are inside the hive.  I sat the box under the hive so remaining bees could find their way to it.  After some exploring, they quickly learned where is the entrance.

The bee box contains about 3 pounds of bees.  That's thousands of them.  Plus the queen.  I was diligent about installing the queen per instructions.

Walking around the place.

Red leaf ornamental plum. I thought I posted on this, when planted - August? - but could not find the post. I think this is "Crimson Point", a columnar plum. The flowers are as nice without petals, as with petals.Tamara rose. Cutting-grown, moved last summer. I thought it died. Growing nicely. Tamara is very thorny. Maybe that will deter deer.Iris pallida albo variegata. Rescued from the Vancouver place, was overgrown there. Coming back nicely. Beautiful foliage.Pieris, rescued from the Vancouver place last fall. It was declining badly. The red new growth is as nice as any flower. Recovering nicely.Pollinizer graft on Asian pear tree. Looks viable and growing. No way to know until it grows actively. Sometimes there can be enough moisture to support a small amount of growth even if a graft hasn't taken.Rhubarb at the Battleground place.Laburnum flower buds. This is going to be impressive.