The Lengths to Which a Beekeeper Will Go!

I was in Rabun county for the weekend and it rained like cats and dogs. One of my goals for my trip up to the mountains was to check on the hive at the Rabun community garden. Finally on Sunday morning we woke up to a gorgeous, sun-filled day. I brought a smoker to use on the hive since they have not been peaceful bees. But any possible fuel, i.e., pine needles, near my house was soaking wet.

I went out and gathered pine needles. My daughter suggested we dry it in a 250 oven. I set the oven up, put the pine needles on a cookies sheet and after about 20 minutes of drying, the pine straw was ready to go. I bought a new smoker for Rabun County so I could always have one up there.



The smoker, filled with oven-dried pine needles, lit beautifully and the hive was full of bees flying in and out in the sunlight. Some kind soul in the community garden group had weed whacked a path for me to the hives.



Inside the hive I found the bees to be busy, busy, busy. They were collecting nectar in the second box. You can see a picture below. Asters and members of the aster family are blooming all over Rabun county.



This hive is light and not nearly supplied well enough to make it through the winter. I decided to hold off on feeding them until I see how much honey they put up from the fall aster flow.



This plant had been cut down near the garden and the bees were all over it.