This is what it's like moving bees during the day, except that normally you don't take off your veil. The bees were trying to rob the honey under the netting. Saturnino took the video with his cell phone.

I killed a rattler in one of our apiaries today

Left home in Wednesday's pre-dawn hours, got home about 2230 Saturday. We worked from dawn to dusk to deliver, evaluate, switch & feed 3000 colonies.

This is the last 8 colonies to be worked before we head home.

Sorry about the lack of postings here. I got turned on to Facebook, and have been spending most of my computer time there.

I'm speechless...

sorry about the picture quality, it was dark & I used a camera phone

We had our Christmas dinner tonight at Mi Guadalajara in Escondido. It's a nice restaurant with great food. Had a great time talking and joking around. We actually had conversations that didn't involve bees (gasp!) It was nice to meet everybody's families. Being such a small company, 6 people, we get to know each other well.

Alfredo and Jose & his wife are on the left. Saturnino (aka Tony) is all the way at the end in the dark shirt. Hermelindo & his wife are somewhere down the table past Dave's wife. Dave (da Boss) & his wife Marcia are sitting on my right.

This is how we make the pollen substitute to feed the bees. On the left you can see the finished pallets loaded with the mixture. The round cylinders are 55 Lb (25 Kg) containers of pollen. To the right of them are the pallets of soy flour & brewers yeast. Hermilindo is filling 5 gallon buckets with sugar syrup from the tank on the truck. The scale in the middle is what I use to measure out the dry ingredients. Tony is dumping 40 Lbs of pollen into the mixer.


This is about a 3 Lb patty in the hive.

Also, you can eat this stuff. All the ingredients are food grade.

I post a lot of funny stuff, work related pics, family pics & anything else I find interesting here.

This isn't one of those posts.

Several months ago my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Out of 13 samples taken during the biopsy, only one showed any cancer. They felt that they had caught it very early. His Dr. advised him that even if they did nothing, he would probably die of something else. One of the things dad & I share is that if we do something, we are thorough, we make sure it is done right.

Yesterday my dad's prostate was completely removed with DaVinci Robotic surgery. The 5 hour operation took 11 hours. The operation itself went smoothly, but as they were counting the tools used during surgery, they came up missing one biopsy needle used during the procedure. After many, many X-rays, the Dr's were confident that the errant needle was not inside my dad.

Pops had us worried there for a little bit, but he's fine now. Please keep him in your prayers for a smooth recovery.

My bro Charley & sis (in-law) Brooke recently turned me on to Facebook. It's a site I've heard of, but never looked at till now. It has allowed me to reconnect with several old friends over the last few days.

I've been going through a bunch of pictures on my computer and uploading the ones I thought were cool to my profile. Part of this included a bunch of pictures from my short career as a long haul truck driver. I realized that as much as it cost me, how great the risks were, and how much I hated being away from home, it's hard to regret the time I spent on the road.

I have been to 46 of the lower 48 states. I've driven in conditions pulling a 53' trailer that most people couldn't drive in a car. In all seasons, in all types of weather, I've seen all of this great country. The people I've been able to meet have taught me more about human nature than a doctorate degree in psychology. I got my Ham Radio license. Dealing with different attitudes, points of view, ways of doing things & problems that were different every day & that had no choice but to be solved. We might have been 3000 miles away from home and 1200 miles away from dispatch, we had to find a way to make it work.

As much as I'm glad it's over, I am grateful for the experience.

We were mixing batches of pollen today when an air pocket in the sticky, sloppy junk popped on me. I got a face full.

I was eating lunch at work today when suddenly I heard a small plane flying at full throttle. Then it stopped. Then it started again. Then after a few seconds, it died, again. It would run for 2-3 seconds, then die for 5-6. I was trying to find the plane while this went on about a half dozen times. There is a very large field next to where I work, I figured that's where he was headed.

It is a very strange feeling to have a small aircraft pass 100 feet directly over your head when it's engine isn't running. I could hear the swoosh-swoosh-swoosh of the prop windmilling.

He got down to less than 50 feet before it started again. This time it stayed running and he flew off.

Spent some quality time laying tile at my brother Larry's house. As much as I tried to forget that I knew how to lay tile, I still got sucked in.