Put a feeder on my Center hive yesterday with 2:1 syrup. Less than 20 hours and more than a third appears to be gone. This was the high population hive that felt light. Consecutive rainy days forecast and not much to forage on.

A warm sunny day and all 3 hives are active but I don't think there's much out here for them to forage on.

Some slow bees to enjoy at 25% speed.

This is the West hive today. I've seen each of the 3 hives busy now so I think they made it through the winter ok so I'll just have to see how much food they have left one of these days while it's sort of warm. Cooler and wet weather coming they say.

Some bees flying today, February 24, 2025, before it started raining.

Building an apiary supports bee populations, essential pollinators for sustainable food systems and ecosystems. Aligned with the Highest Good of All, One Community promotes beekeeping through open-source setup and maintenance blueprints, aiding education and reversing bee decline. Explore resources here!

https://www.onecommunityglobal.org/apiary/

This old Tallowwood is an entire village. Epiphytes, lichen, moss, creepers, gravity-defying lomandra, and a nest of wild bees!
#thicktrunktuesday #ecology #apiary

My parents have 2 bee hives. Did a big #honey extraction day with the family today. Both hives were weighing in at over 200 lbs each!

It's such an interesting process.

Step 1: The frames are carefully removed from the hives, leaving enough for the #bees through the winter.

I heard the distinct sound of a swarm of bees after I was close enough that it was louder than the sprayers in the orchards a mile away..

It was just gathering up in the tree as I noticed it. Wasn't much activity around the hives but there were a number of bees circling.

1/n

I thought I had lost one hive but today discovered all 4 of my hives are alive. The one I thought didn't make it has a mouse in the bottom, the bees have moved up under the lid. My next bee task will be fashioning mouse guards for all the entrances. I fed them all good quality pollen patties today, and did another O. A. treatment. 2 of the 4 are very strong, 2 weaker but hanging in there. Considering the absolute clown weather we've had, I am very encouraged.

Thoughts on my first play of #Apiary. Reminder I've only played it solo.

1. The place/retrieve mechanism is implemented in a way I haven't seen in other games in my collection. Typically in worker placement you get your workers back once you run out. In Apiary when you retrieve workers, they "level up." I definitely handled this wrong and will need to retrieve more often in future

2. Bumping workers as well as the actions where you add your value to already played workers is very cool

@mwt