Giving the bees some sugar to calm them down before I put them in the hive.
This was kindof counteracted by my sticking my hand in the box to look for the queen.

here's some miscelaneous workers surrounding the queen box. if you look close, the queen's still inside.

This past Friday Nicholas and I (Chantal) went out to the farm to get our new bees started in their new home.
Even though the bees had to deal with the weather being a bit chilly, windy and sprinkling I think they took to their hive just fine. Nicholas has never lead a bee rehousing and I had never been around so many bees before, the event went pretty smoothly. Nicholas only got stung five times while I managed not to get stung at all.

Pictures coming soon!

This Saturday from 10-4:30 we will be having a workday on the farm.
We'll be planting strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, hazelnuts, chokecherries, chokeberries, plums, oaks, and a lot of other things. Also, since it will be Labor Day, we'll be providing our workers with a lunch, partially prepared from the garden, and will have a little discussion on labor (and its fruits(hahahaha)). But yes, that's actually what we'll be talking about. Details below:

While I'm feeling all blog-happy, here's the google maps picture of our farm, I think from the fall before last!

Anyway, I guess GeoEye is a commercial entity.

Last Saturday we had a workday. Like 8 people were out planting onions and potatoes and building a fence. It was pretty fun, but we didn't take any pictures of them.
We'll have another workday this Saturday from 12:30-4:30. We'll be weeding some strawberries to know where we should plant the new ones once our order comes in, watering some plants, and starting some seeds. Come and help !
Here's the onions our workers transplanted Saturday, more pictures after the jump:

A couple weeks ago we started these seeds. I'll take another picture soon and see how they're doing.

Vegetable Workday: This Saturday, April 10th 12:30PM to 4 PM: at Mustard Seed Farm: 366 W Ave, Ames, IA 50014 We'll be planting onions, planting potatoes, and building a deer fence.

Potluck April 23, at Jen and Steve's - 708 Brookridge Ave, Ames, IA 50010. topic: hospitality, led by Shari Reilly. Food at 6 PM, discussion at 7 PM

Things have been dry on the farm, though a cold, then a warm front came through in the last week left some rain. So we've gotten a lot tilled and some radishes, beets, clover, and greens planted, and hopefully the rain will get those germinated. We've ordered some bees to replace the ones that died this winter, and are looking to expand our fruit sections by a bit. Our rotations and planting plans are still in the process of final set up, but we should have an idea of what space there is for things after we've planted our onions and potatoes, which will take up a good amount of space.

Mid February, I believe.

and here's the graft.