One of the two chores I got done Saturday was to fit the nesting box I had put together for the little coop into the interior wall of the coop. That allowed the bulk of the rather large nesting box to extend into the ante area where we enter the coop outside of the roosting area of the small building. I did not like the nesting box taking up so much room in the little roosting area and I thought it might prove difficult to clean around, so the solution was to put it in the wall with the entry to the nesting boxes open to the chickens in the coop. So far, it has worked well. We even have one chicken who has been using the nesting boxes on a daily basis. Hopefully, more will follow soon.

After I had cooled down a bit I got suited up and went out to inspect the hives. I was a little more encouraged this time. On the hive we made from a split of one of the older hives, I found that the bees had filled the brood box and were ready for more room. They had not even looked at the honey super, so I removed it and added the new brood box along with a syrup feeder. Right now, the bees have nothing to eat from nature, so we are supplementing them with sugar water. On another hive, I removed the honey super because those bees were not interested in making any surplus honey. That hive was not ready for any additional room. Perhaps they will be ready by the end of the month.

In the hive where the bees are actually making honey in the honey super I looked and found that they are making very slow progress on filling the super, but they are making progress. On the fourth and last hive I inspected, I found in the upper brood box I installed a couple months ago that the bees were filling several of the large frames with honey. There is very little brood in that box, so I will be able to harvest several of those frames when we take honey from the hives. It was exciting to see that much honey in the hive where last week there was none. Especially since the bees are finding little of the nectar from which to make honey in the parched landscape. I also took time to treat the hives where I will not be collecting honey for Varroa mites. I will repeat the process next weekend. All in all, I was out at the hives for over an hour getting all that done. I was once again soaked when I got back inside to cool down.

According to the forecast, this week will be a little cooler. Not much, but enough to notice the difference. For the most part we will be in the low nineties. Having worked outside in the hundred degrees plus afternoons this last week, any respite is appreciated. We have the blessing of rain to start the week. Through the day and overnight we got a total of an inch of rain. About perfect for our little farm. Other areas very near us got over four inches total along with high winds and hail. Mama and I are very pleased with our gentle inch of rain. It soaked everything pretty well without all the damaging impact of the storms around us.

As we dropped off the girls last night after church, we saw a tree that had fallen onto a house in the neighborhood where the Chinese grandma lives. It did not appear to have done much damage to the house, but I am sure the homeowner is not looking forward to dealing with the issue. It was raining so hard as Mama got to the church with the girls (I was already at church for choir practice) that she was so focused on getting into the church with the girls with a minimum soaking that she forgot to turn off the engine. It was only a little later that James Wycoff came to her and asked if she realized she had left the car running that it was shut off. He went out into the very hard rain to do so. He was completely soaked before church. Mama, by the way was also pretty wet from her brief exposure to the downpour. She spent the service tucked up beside me.

This week is Vacation Bible School. There has been a muted push to gather riders for the busses that will go out to pick them up for VBS. It is far more difficult with the constant scare campaign of COVID being promoted nationally, but we pray to have a good attendance for VBS this year. I am certain that the Lord will get the right ones there. Our three girls will not be coming tonight because of other activities they are engaged in; however, they will be coming the next three nights. Mama and I will be going each night.

I will be teaching tomorrow. Only two classes this week. More relaxed than last week, but still productive and fairly busy.