Gee's Bees, LLC

We finally got around to bottling up the mead we started back in November,  🥂 Making Mead (geesbeesnc.com)  Surprised at how dry it was,(we thought it would be sweeter) and really surprised at how potent it was. We were feeling pretty good just from our taste testing. We yielded 3 bottles from each carboy and have labeled them Dry, Dryer, and Extra Dry. Not sure what we'll do with it now besides give it away, but I'll probably stick with wobble-pops. B is already picking out recipes for her next go-round.

We put together some deeps this fine Spring-like day in mid-February. Managed to cob the table saw together enough by bypassing the switch in order to get some grooves cut inside some deep boxes in order to promote the bees to make propolis envelop in their brood box. We've been following some work by Dr. Marla Spivak that there may be some benefit to propolis and viral protection. We'll see, wasn't much of an investment in time so not much to lose. So now that the boxes are grooved, glued, and stapled, we then set out to get them dipped  Eco Wood Treatment . We also got a chance to get the bottoms dipped,  🔨 Bottom Boards , and the lids,  🔨 Lids . All but one lid that was placed on Hive 21 after being toppled by the tree falling incident,  🐝 Storm Damage , we will have to remember to get that dipped when we get a chance to get into some hives. Speaking of which, hopefully, the weather might cooperate enough this weekend. Forecasted to be 58° on Saturday may ...

After a couple of hours cutting up some old 1/2" plywood we had kicking around the shed Beth put one together. Gotta say it came out good enough for the bugs we hang out with... at least functional. We followed the cut-list from beesource.com  - https://goo.gl/EC2CTH . A few modifications, like having the entrance run the entire width of the box to accept a modified reducer, and I want to run the Hive Cleats all the way around the top to have more land if we want to use a top feeder in the future. Calling this a success, they just need a couple coats of paint and these should work for a few years at least. We do want to put some thought into a hive top feeder to fit. Getting closer to being ready for the Summer Solstice (it's cooler to say that than the beginning of July) to practice some OTS Starts after the flow.