Workday for Mama, beekeepers meeting

Mama left the farm pretty early yesterday and returned home about 5:30 pm. We did the morning feeding together, but I took care of the evening feeding by myself while Mama stopped by the feed store to get our months supply of feed on her way home from Kimberlyn’s. Mama and Kimberlyn worked on items for little goodie boxes they are going to market at Trade Days tomorrow. Mama will also have her Color Street nails for sale on the tables they are planning to set up, but the focus will be to make some money for Kenny and Kimberlyn. Mama and I, fortunately, so not need the financial help. They do. So, we are planning, staging, and praying for a very successful day tomorrow.

Mama will spend the day today getting all the goodies – hand creams, lip balms, sugar scrubs – labeled and grouped to fill the little boxes she and Kimberlyn have purchased for that purpose. I will go this evening and get the tables for their displays to sit on. We borrow the tables from the church each time we do this. Returning them late Saturday evening so that the men who gather each Sunday morning to drink coffee before Sunday School can have their area returned to service before they get to the church Sunday morning. It is a bit of extra running to set up the booth at Trade Days, but it allows Mama and Kimberlyn to test the market and hopefully narrow in on what they can sell well in the open market setting.

While they are at Trade Days I will swing by Grandma and Grandpa’s and pick up some cabinets Norman brought to their house to get rid of. Grandpa will be setting up his own little sale. Offering the tools and other items Norman brought from somewhere – I am not sure where – for Grandpa to help him sell. Surprisingly, Grandpa does very well selling the things Norman scrounges up for him. Norman lets Grandpa keep the proceeds from those sales, which is a great help to Grandma and Grandpa. Mama has already bought more than $50 worth of items from the garage sale – most of which were good purchases. Regardless, the money goes to a good cause.

Almost as soon as Mama got home, we headed back out to Bridgeport to meet with the local beekeepers in our club. We met last night at a Dos Chili’s restaurant. There were about twenty-five people in attendance. It is always helpful to hear the topic of discussion as well as the sidebar conversations about beekeeping. Mama and I are always able to pick up a lot of useful information at the meetings. This one was important because it is the first in-person meeting we have had since February. Mama and I ordered a light meal. It was too late in the evening for either of us to eat a full meal, but we enjoyed what we ordered. We thoroughly enjoyed the camaraderie with those who are bee lovers. My only regret with the bees this year is that I have no honey to show for all the stings I got through the year learning how to tend to the bees.

Last night the primary discussion was about candy boards. How to make the actual frame and how to mix the sugar to make the candy boards. The bees need some type of feed to carry them through the winter. Last winter I used syrup feeders, but the syrup feeders can produce excess moisture in the hive. That moisture causes mold. Remember that the bees are keeping the hives warm throughout the winter, above 95°. That temperature difference alone causes condensation within the hive. Adding excess moisture to the hive makes the problem worse. A brick of sugar (the candy board) in the hive tends to absorb the excess moisture while the moisture absorbed by the sugar helps the bees eat the sugar. Pollen is added to the candy board to get the bees started on producing young in the very early Spring. Mama and I are going to try it out this year. The candy boards should be far easier to make than the syrup feeders I made last year. They also do not require me to open the hive to refill the jars of syrup. All in all, it seems like a great idea.

The business portion of the meeting took almost as long as the open discussion, but that too was enjoyable. Mama and I got to see how the members viewed the club business. I was impressed by the comments and ideas that came out of those discussions as well. It was an evening well spent.

While the country is caught up in the midst of fraud and lying, it was good to be around honest compassionate folks looking to run their business with the highest ethical standards we can attain.