Bee Report - June 3, 2012

The Koski Store

We managed to install a wonderful old egg-yolk yellow (okay, honeybee yellow) wooden screen door, originally from the Koski Store (the original Willow Springs building) which had been left in one of the grounds' sheds. It was efficiently re-cut to fit and installed by Judi Vinni, who has been building willow furniture for years and is a fabulous woodworker and builder. 

The legendary door

We also finished the front walls, but we still didn't get to the electric fencing. We wanted to, but realized we didn't have the proper insulators for the 90-degree angle corners. Next week, after more consulting with the internet and searching for appropriate leftover and donated insulators and wire in our home sheds and garages, we plan to erect the electric fence. Yes!! (For those readers outside our area, electric fence is essential here to discourage visits by honey-loving bears.)

I love that everyone has an idea about how to make something work, like using an old screen door for a gate. How creative and unique is that!

~JoAnne Henderson

Beeyard in progress!

Bee Report - May 17, 2012

Got an excited phone call from our board chair Julie, saying that there was a swarm of bees in her friend's spruce tree in town, and did I want to come and get it as her friend was severely allergic to bees? Whoa! Could this be true?

Not only was it true, but the huge swarm was only three feet off the ground. The swarm had been in her tree for almost a week, but it seems that the cold weather had slowed down their scouting for a suitable hive space.


They appeared to welcome the box we gave them. We decided that until we had some form of critter protection in the new partially-constructed beeyard, we would keep the newly acquired hive close to the building, and provide a radio and light (not for the bees, but to deter overly curious night creatures). Ayla gave the new bees syrup to help them get settled. Good thing, as it rained for several days afterward (an understatement, as locals know) and the bees couldn't get out to forage.

~JoAnne Henderson

Bee Report - May 13th, 2012 - Mother's Day

The Willow Springs Bee Blog is back in action for another year!

Our imaugural WS beeyard event, held on Mother's Day, May 13, was to be the day that the beeyard posts went in and the electric fence was installed. Those of us involved thought we had planned this as thoroughly as we could via e-mail, but obviously, we were lacking in the visualization part of the process - that is, we all had a different vision of what the outcome would be! 

We ended up having an exclusive lesson on fencebuilding from Brian Biesenthal (Thanks Brian!), who patiently guided Ayla Ludwig and myself through post-hole digging (no big rocks thankfully), sinking posts, making sure they were vertical and in line with each other, and securing them in place. I guess we made it half way through our list - the posts went in, but the electric fencing didn't. Good thing, because I didn't know where to start with it.

During the ensuing two weeks since Mother's Day, Ayla, Judi Vinni, and several volunteers managed to put cedar on three sides of the yard, and build a platform for the hives. The idea behind the three almost-solid walls is not only to shelter the hives from north winds in winter and create a warm space to collect sun and heat, but to make the hives less noticeable from the road (Willow Springs is on the corner of Mapleward and Kam Current Roads). The front (south) wall will have cedar planks in between spaced electric wire, using spacing obtained from sources on the internet. The idea behind the alternating wood and wire is that, as a bear looks through the gap in the fence (trust us, this will happen), it will contact the wire - hopefully. The wood on the front should also make the hives less obvious to passers-by, and less threatening to those who are fearful of bees. It might also encourage the bees to fly up when they leave the hive - we will see if this works. :)

~ JoAnne Henderson (Willow Springs Volunteer)