All of the pre-prep has been done.

My head has healed (I think), but there’s a new divot in it now.

 

I’ve been up in the hayloft collecting supers.

I was in the back of the wagon shed pulling out frames and brood boxes.

 

 

My younger daughter and I have been brushing off and dusting off and generally cleaning all of the doo-dahs that the honey bees will need in their spacious new homes here.

The cleaning doesn’t really have to be that fastidious or thorough because when the bees get here they will be……………well, busy as a bee doing their own housework…

 

They know what they want.

They will deploy entire committees and sub-committees to accomplish their level of cleanliness (which is really quite polished).

Even though there is a plethora of shiny equipment that you can accumulate and employ in your honey bee project……………keep in mind that an old Florida Cracker could probably raise a healthy brood of bees in a rusty old toolbox just as successfully.

So early in the morning, my daughter and I drove Paolo’s sub-compact to the pick-up spot that had been arranged for our Nucs.

We purchased our bees through the University of South Florida’s Honey Bee Club at the Horticultural Gardens.

 

(I tried to join the club once……….but I found the organizer quite irksome.)

(I don’t do well with irksome people.)

(Plus, I have a few rural friends who are quite proficient with bees……………I found the club’s suburban-bee-approach……………well…..too suburban……so I quit.)

But we were at the pre-arranged-pick-up-point, at our scheduled-block-of-time and we were loaded up with our two/new/bright & shiny Nucs…

 

 

And then we drove home…

 

 

We kept the windows up in case there were any loose bees…

 

I told my daughter just to stay mellow……………that a few free bees wouldn’t bother us…

 

And if we opened the windows the errant bees would get lost and never find their home-hive again…

 

Tragic…

So I drove quickly…

 

 

Well, a few free bees turned into a dozen (at least)……….

But they really didn’t bother us.

They stayed by the windows……….mostly…

 

 

Like I said…..I drove quickly…

My daughter was cool.

 

We did choose not to put on the radio……………we didn’t know what kind of music they would like……………and what kind of music would irritate them…

So, no music…

I don’t have any photos of the drive-home-experience…

 

I was really concentrating on driving home…

……………quickly…