Bit O' Honey arrives:)

Yes, my dear niece Jes arrived last Monday and started her "great adventure" of learning all about bees. We had a pretty hectic beginning of the week and didn't get a chance to get to market until Wednesday but boy was it great to have her give me a hand.

At the market downtown Dan (the market master), who thinks he is a comedian:) calls me honey, after he met Jes he gave her the name Bit O' Honey and you know what, I really like it and I think she does to. She went to the Westgate, Perrysburg and Downtown markets, helped me set up, sell, provide information and tear down. So her first experience was a market experience but I don't think that was a bad thing, it's all part of the process.

A week ago when Jim was in some of the hives he found that four of them were queen-less. No sign of babies anywhere, so we ordered some queens from California, but we had to wait until this week to get them. The girls arrived safely on Thursday and on Friday Jes and I headed out to the different yards to place them in their new homes. Because I value my life, (my brother would kill me if anything happened to his baby girl) I made sure that Jes had all the appropriate attire before we went into the hive. We checked all the hives that Jim was worried about and only two of them really needed new queens so that meant that we got to start two nucs (starter hives) in our home yard. Jes was amazed that the bees really had no interest in her while she was holding the frames. We spent most of the day driving from yard to yard and by the end of the day I think Jes had a new appreciation for what a beekeeper really does. While she had already experienced the market end of things I think having the chance to actually get in a hive and see what needed to be done gave her a better understanding of why Aunt Debbie looks so tired most of the time:)