Someone very special, asked me recently about Mondays being slower than weekends, at the Fire Station. I told her that it never makes any sense. Sometimes a Tuesday will be busy, and a Saturday will be quiet, with no alarms. You can never tell.

Well, today was one of those busy Mondays. The Engine was at a funeral until almost 1400 hours, leaving the AP to cover alarms in the area.

We started with the day with a call to assist the Police with a home made pop bottle bomb. Acid (Muratic or drain cleaner) plus aluminum foil, sealed in a one liter bottle. One had been left on a woman’s porch last night and found by her son this morning. There was no damage. Just a little mess on the porch. After that, a couple of medical alarms rounded out the morning.

This week happens to be the time when the Sewer Department is smoke testing the sewers in the area. So, naturally, the afternoon was spent, responding to alarms called in by people who had not read the warning in their water bills, and thought their houses were on fire.

In our spare time we fit in a little car wreck. This gentleman suffers from a medical condition, and passed out while driving over the Big Ditch. No injuries were reported in the car, just numerous sprained necks from people driving by.

Today my son came with me to the Fire Station and rode out. It’s been a fairly quiet day today. We’ve only made two alarms so far today. Smoke coming from a chimney and a small grass fire along 21st. street. This is in stark contrast to last Sunday. The last time he rode with us. Last Sunday was quite a bit busier. We made seven medical alarms. The most significant alarm came in around 3:00 AM. My son was sleeping on the floor in my room when the alarm came in. He partially sat up, but I could tell he was still asleep. I decided to let him sleep, because in the majority of overdose calls, we stand off until WPD clears the scene, and then the subject typically is strapped crying to the cot and whisked away. This time however, the subject was code blue and we performed CPR on him for 25 minutes before they pronounced him dead. My son was pretty upset that he missed it.

So far, the only exciting thing about today is that it is Saturday, and that means we start all the power equipment on the machines and tilt the cabs to check the oil and belts. Not too exciting, but it looks kinda cool.

Well, today is the last warm day for awhile, and it seems like the bees know it. The little darlings are out in force today. It’s been a long time since I sat at the hive and heard the loud buzzing that comes from several hundred bees flying by your ear. I also decided to provide them some yummy sugar syrup to celebrate with. I don’t know how, but they’ve also been able to find pollen somewhere. I see many of them waddle through the entrance with great wads of the pale yellow powder on their legs.

I took the video with my Blackberry, and it really doesn’t do it justice. I think in future, I’ll have to stick to my video camera.

My son’s new project for a marketing class . We shot this in an hour and had it put together and posted in less time than that.

Spring is the time for establishing new hives. I’ve got five hives that should be here by the end of April. The bees are like little snowbirds. They are wintering in sunny Texas and in the spring, they will move back to South Dakota. Unfortunately for them, five hives worth are finished with the tourist life, and will have to buckle down and get to work in little ‘ol Kansas.

Actually, only four of them are staying in Kansas. One hive will be going to Oklahoma, to stay with my good, good friend, David Clark. When he found out about my having hives. He told me his dad would really enjoy keeping bees. They have a nice big place, way out in the country, so it should be perfect.

It’s kind of exciting. Helping a break in a new beek (beekeeper). I’m not really broken in myself, but that won’t stop me from trying to screw someone else up. Now they get three months to shop for equipment, wooden ware (hives and frames) and to try and educate themselves as to what to do and when to do it.

Today was such a nice day we had some Aerial Platform training. It’s been awhile since we’ve had it out and messed with it, it was nice to see the old girl stretched out and flowing water.

The only flaw in our plan was the south wind. When we opened the nozzle up, much of the water was carried to the neighboring business’s parking lot. We’ll see if we get any complaints. It was decided that future sessions will have to take place where no innocent cars will be involved.

On a lighter note, the two rookies that were in the basket, learned about remote control nozzles, first hand. In the middle of flowing water, the AP driver overrode the basket’s nozzle controls, and opened the nozzle pattern as wide as it would go. This effectively soaked the two probational employees that were riding there.

I mentioned in another post that I received my bees in late July of 2008. I thought I’d show a few pictures of the event. This is the “nuc” hive I purchased from “Bullseye Bill”, a local Beekeeper. He was very helpful and provided eight frames of bees and brood, instead of the usual four or five frames

Here I am. Soaking wet behind the ears. Just having the vaguest idea about what I’m doing. If you look at the pictures, you’ll notice that the comb in the frame I’m holding is irregularly shaped and doesn’t fill the frame. This is because it is from a “cutout” that Bill did to obtain the bees. The bees were probably in a dead tree, or in the wall of a house, and he “cut” them out and placed them in frames, using rubber bands to hold them in. I did the same thing when I did a cut out in an old mobile home.

This is how it looked a week and a half later. The girls have put up curtains and are checking color swatches. They really adapted well. I’m so proud of them.

Just thought I’d say a little more about the cutout we did last August out at my dad’s. It was all an experiment, with nothing to lose, so there was no pressure. There are some things I would have done differently, and some things I still don’t know how we got away with. But, all in all, it was a very valuable learning experience. And, it was a lot of fun.

I introduced a possible future beekeeper to some of the wonders of their world. I know he had a good time (even though he got stung five minutes into the cutout).

And, if the bees don’t make it, which seems like a pretty safe bet, there were still some pretty sweet benefits.

In keeping with my bee theme, I wanted to write some more about my hives and my experiences, so far, with keeping bees. I already wrote about my attempt to save a wild hive that had moved into a derelict mobile home last summer here. Update: the owner of the trailer decided not to burn the trailer. It turns out I could have waited until this spring to move the bees, and maybe they would have stood a better chance.

I wanted to write a little about my failed try at owning an observation hive.

I purchased a homemade one locally and installed it in my living room.As you can see, it needed cleaning. The “bee space” was not correct and the bees were, as bees do, putting comb in the extra space. I decided that the hive needed cleaning and, one nice day, I took it apart. If you don’t know, bees use a material called Propolis to seal and protect their hives. It’s made from tree resin and other such things, and is used to seal cracks and “glue” things together. This material is the reason all beekeepers carry “hive tools” when they work their hives. They have to break the various components of the hive apart. I mention the propolis to explain why I ended up breaking the glass on the hive while attempting to take it apart. But, a quick trip to Loews and the hive was as good as new. Better, actually.

For not really wanting to do the project in the first place, I think I did a pretty good job. I even managed not to lose the queen. The hive survived for another month or so before it died out. The reason for the extinction of the hive was, I think, not because of my cleaning the hive, but due to my inexperience with feeding bees syrup.

As it started getting colder, I started worrying about the hive’s food stores. The queen was a prolific egg layer and the hive was busting at the seams with bees. Being only a four frame hive, there was little room for winter stores (three frames of brood, one frame of honey). So I started feeding 1:1 sugar syrup. I think the combination of a leaking lid, too thin syrup, and the cold weather coming in, doomed the bees. I started noticing extreme condensation in the hose they used to exit the hive. Soon dead bees started collecting in the hose, and within two weeks, the rest of the bees absconded.

As you can see, there were plenty of bees in the hive. It was a vital thriving hive, until an inexperienced beekeeper tried to help. What is it they say about good intentions?

I loved to go outside at night and look at the beard of bees around the tube that fed into the hive. Sometimes it would extend up the window frame a good 12″.

The brief respite in the weather got me thinking more about my hive and bees in general. I will be adding a few hives this spring. But that is for another post. I was actually thinking about all the benefits that bees, and honey, provide.

After a quick search, I found a web site touting 19 Ways to Bee Healthy. They offer benefits ranging from helping to prevent Osteoporosis, to helping teething babies.

I knew that eating local honey helped develop resistance to pollen allergies, but I had no idea that it was also a migraine cure or a hair conditioner. Some of the suggestions sound optimistic, but all sound plausible and worth trying. I’ve already explored making mead (from store bought), and I can’t wait to finally try my own honey.

Hurry up spring!