Happy birthday to me! And Allan!

Got a call from my friend Allan from up  the road. He first told me happy birthday and that his was today too. And wanted to know if I had an extra hive box. He had a swarm at the edge of his garden.  So I went to see if I did and yes, sure enough, I had the super from the Outback hive, full of frames. And 2 frames had drawn comb. So put it all in the car and drove to their farm.

I handed all the kids some of the hive parts and they followed daddy to the swarm. It was so cute. He and Carrie have the cutest 3 kids ever. Look at that little red head! Adorable! And of course her favorite color is purple.

They have a few hives to the left of the garden. The swarm is at the end of these rows. ON THE GROUND! How cool is that?

Just look at these beautiful bees! It was like the best present ever, for both of us!

So Allan shook the bucket in first. This is them, inside their new home. They were all so good. We sprayed them with sugar water. They were all very nice and calm. No one was stung! There were a few bee casualties though.

Next, he shook that round spool with all those bees into the hive

Then the cinder block. It had the most bees in it. Plus a lot of dirt.

This is most of the girls, inside and all around. He picked up as many as he could and put them inside. There were still a lot buzzing around at this time.

I put the rest of the frames back in, then the top board, the the top.

Isn't this the most beautiful view? And what a great place for honey bees. That's Lookout Mountain back there.

                                                          And a pond to boot.

So Allan was going to feed the bees, then wait til tonight, when they would all be in the hive, and put screen at the entrance and move them over by the other 2 hives. Then sometime, we'll split this hive and I'll get another bee hive for my farm! How cool!

It was the best ending to a birthday I've ever had! Just amazing. Who'd have thought this would happen. And it was SO flippin' EASY! We all had the best time. The kids were great. Not a single sting. Perfect ending to 2 birthday bee keepers. I am so happy right now.

Now to get ready for an early farmer market tomorrow.  Then more sheep shearing Sunday. Great weekend!