keljonma's Front Porch - Settling in and adjusting

[keljonma]

73 this morning! The humidity is higher at 77%, but the almost 20 difference in the temperature sure made a difference to me this morning while TR and I were out on the back porch drinking coffee. Just a beautiful morning!

TR said the Patient Satisfaction Experience team looked at the patient surveys for the month of last two weeks April and first two weeks of May. The number one complaint was too much noise at night, making it hard to sleep. Some of the changes they discussed yesterday included elevator dinging at each floor and the door locks on the nursery on the ob floor. Now a number of the team are going to study the night routines on the floors to see where improvements could be made. TR did not volunteer to participate in the night noise evaluation. But he offered input about the routine in the EnviroServices department and made some suggestions that Regina (the director) will take to the supervisor.

The hospital served turkey burgers, salads and a yogurt/fruit dessert for lunch. TR said the salads and dessert were wonderful.


Because of the new education wing construction at church, the air conditioning system has been disconnected. So at last night's Disciple's class, there was some Cranky Christian behavior in the not-sharing of the portable fans in use in Angel's Wing. I guess the heat was making some people really really cranky. The class saw an 1 1/2 hour video about The Revelation, ate their snack, and discussed the homework completed during the week. They also planned for next Tuesday's Love Feast, which is the last class.

On Sunday, Laurie and I found that the church kitchen refrigerator wasn't working; the temp was up to the mid-50s at 10:30am and 56 an hour later. I found Carole, who is in charge of Christian Cafe, who said the maintenance man had just been last Thursday. Thankfully, Christian Cafe isn't until the 1st Tuesday in June, so there wasn't much in the refrigerator anyway, except the drinks for Sunday School and Encounter. So Laurie, TR and I removed the eggs, milk, cheese, salad dressings from the refrigerator to ice-filled coolers before we went to The Diner.

Anyway, the non-working refrigerator was still not working last night. Which only seemed to aggrevate the class crankies even more. :/

I have Mary/Martha Circle today. Hopefully, I will find out when the maintenance man is supposed to arrive, and can talk to Pat about tossing everything in the fridge that needs it. I would think the refrigerator should be fixed before next week; although it has been acting up quite a bit this year. And if she orders today, the items needed for Christian Cafe should arrive before Tuesday. As it has never happened before, I don't know what happens if the refrigerator is not working before Tuesday's free community meal. Christian Cafe has been serving about 200-250 people twice a month, so it is definitely needed in the community.



Our high today is supposed to be 78 with a low temp of 52; and Thursday's temps right now call for a high of 68 and low of 42.
Friday's forecast is predicting the R word again........

It is spring time in Ohio.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

it may be spring in your part of Ohio, but we went straight to summer here

 

[keljonma]

it may be spring in your part of Ohio, but we went straight to summer here

Yes, the past two days were definitely "dog days of August" here as well. WE don't have a/c here; so we were melting too!

But this morning is why I moved back to Ohio from Texas! Honest, it had NOTHING to do with the fact that the grands and other family members were living here in NE Ohio!


ETA: this morning would be great beek sitting by the hive drinking her coffee/iced tea/iced water kind of day.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I actually plan to be out there in about an hour to try to WORK that hive! If I wait too much past 10-11, it will be too sweltering hot to open it up.

Reinbeau suggested I wait until atleast 10-10:30 am to open the hive, as more workers will be out then...

but I must have about 10,000 drone bees - because last time I opened it when "more workers would be out of the hive" there was still a mass of bees in the hive that looked like the mass of bees on the lid of the nuc box!

I'm just scared I'll mess up getting them back in the hive body and lose my queen.

 

[keljonma]

Take water with you. You will need it after you get out of that hot suit.

Lay the telescoping cover down upside down on the table behind you.

Put the upside down inner cover down on top of that.

Remove the top deep hive body and place it on top of that.

Start on one end of the deep hive body and remove the frame closest to you. You can use the hive tool to loosen it, if needed, and the curved end can help you get a grip on the end of the frame. Inspect the frame and set it in the empty hive body, which prevents loss of bees.

Calmly work each frame in order.

Lift the frames straight up.
Look at both sides of the frames.
Look for the queen on the frames. Your mom's queen was marked and you should be able to see her.
Look to see if the queen has been laying eggs. Are there capped cells?

Look for build up of cells - pollen/honey stores will be at the top of the frame, brood cells in the middle of the frame.

If E is out with you, he could write down what you tell him you see and he can take pics.

When you are done with each frame, place it back into the hive body. Put the frames back in the order you removed them, so move the frames back and put the first in its position. Sometimes, I would put the inspected frames into an empty hive body and then just put the newly filled hive body back on the bottom board. But do what is comfortable for you.

If necessary, you can brush bees into the bottom deep hive body... or smoke them.... or spray them with the sugar syrup.

If you spray or smoke them, don't overdo it. If you spray them, they will stop to clean themselves off and sorta ignore you. If you don't get the spray on yourself.

 

[keljonma]

but I must have about 10,000 drone bees - because last time I opened it when "more workers would be out of the hive" there was still a mass of bees in the hive that looked like the mass of bees on the lid of the nuc box!

I'm just scared I'll mess up getting them back in the hive body and lose my queen.

Not likely that you have that many drones in a new colony. What you will have are the house bees who do all the work of making cells, attending the queen, attending the nursery bees, housekeeping, storing pollen and nectar brought in by the other workers.

If you put the telescoping cover upside down on the table, in theory, you catch any bees that are on the woodenware.

 

[keljonma]

Maybe these pics of mine will help you



Bees building new comb on a frame

Filling the frames

Working the hive

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

good advice kel, but I still have that wild and large burr comb on the inner hive cover.....

but I have someone coming to help me today.

 

[keljonma]

QA, if you find that the reason for the burr comb on the inner cover is that the bottom deep hive body is full already - do you have frames ready to go for the top deep hive body?

At worst, I think you could use one of the old frames I left you that came with that white hive body. With help, you could attach that comb from the inner cover to a frame. Then put the rest of the frames with foundation in with it.

If the bottom deep isn't filled and they are just ignoring those frames, you could try putting the burr comb into this hive body.

Remove one of the less built up frames from the newer hive body. Attach the burr comb to one of the older frames, and stick the frame with the burr comb attached into the newer hive body. Put it near the center of the hive body.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

QA, if you find that the reason for the burr comb on the inner cover is that the bottom deep hive body is full already - do you have frames ready to go for the top deep hive body?

At worst, I think you could use one of the old frames I left you that came with that white hive body. With help, you could attach that comb from the inner cover to a frame. Then put the rest of the frames with foundation in with it.

If the bottom deep isn't filled and they are just ignoring those frames, you could try putting the burr comb into it. Remove one of the frames from the newer hive body. Attach the burr comb to one of the older frames, and stick the frame with the burr comb attached into the newer hive body. Put it near the center of the hive body.

um yea, I'm pretty much confused by all that now - you should so be living next door lol