We always seem to find plenty to do around the farm on the weekend.  But this weekend seemed especially busy.  We had a call to come remove a wild bee colony in a hunter's camper over in Alabama this weekend.   So off we went...even with directions and the cell phone to double check...the next thing I knew...we were headed down an old red dirt (muddy) road through the woodlands of Salem.  The road was getting narrower and narrower, and there were more and more mud puddles to dodge...our cell phone battery was going dead...we needed to check directions...The phone rang...sure enough we could have stayed on the nice gravel road and made it to the camp site...but what's a little adventure...right?

    So, we managed to turn around with out backing over any trees or getting stuck in the mud, and minutes later we were looking at the entrance to the bee's borrowed hive...a small RV in the hunting camp.   They had selected the electrical outlet door on the back of the camper as their hive entrance.  We inspected the site and discussed the process to remove the bees and hive from the RV.   The hunter just wanted the bees gone...he had a can a RAID...or us... and then the honey comb and hive still had to be removed.  So, we donned our bee suits and began.  Richie had to cut into the shower of the RV to get the hive out of the wall.  All and all the bees were very mild.  He got a few stings on his honey laden gloves, but generally the bees were gentle to be having their home taken apart.

    I put on my bee suit and proceeded to take pictures and supervise...LOL... and Richie did all the work.   We learned a lot from the process.  It was so very interesting to see how the bees had made their own hive.  It oozed with honey.   Even with a careful search as the hive was removed, we could not locate the queen.  We don't have a bee vacuum so, we could not get the bees into the hive as we had hoped. We left it overnight to encourage them to go into the new hive with the parts we could salvage for the bees.  But there was only a small number of bees there the next day when we readied to bring it home.  We learned the generator and light we had brought with us were helpful...as well as to remember to bring extra gas for the generator as well.  

   We also  learned, we still have a lot to learn about saving a hive during removal.

check out the pictures on the bee page at www.patefarms.com    BEE PICTURES

    We  also finally planted our fall greens this weekend...mustard greens, four kinds of turnips, spinach, kale, and collards.  I hope they sprout up soon after the rain yesterday.    Uncle Dan, our neighbor killed a big rattler on Monday and hung it up on the fence, and sure enough ...just as old wise tales go...it rained Monday afternoon.  It was quite a big snake with 9-10 rattles on it.  Seems their cat called attention to it out their back door.  I sure hope I don't run into any like it!  It's the biggest one I've seen around the farm in a long time.

   The baby turkeys are enjoying their new pen too... I also took a picture of them... they're not really babies any more. 

I see a few Toms... But I think I'll be able to get a few hens too... I hope to keep some breeding pairs.  These are Blue Slates, and Royal Palms.