Scat. Lots of Scat.

We spent today mowing. We have a few acres to mow and between that and weed wacking, it's pretty much a full day of work. Bernie weed wacked around the apiary and noticed two things - lots of bees returning to the hive with pollen and lots of scat around two of the hives. Our weakest two hives to be exact. I put pictures on The Bee Buzz of the girls weighted down with pollen and of the scat. The scat is most certainly skunk scat. Skunks love to eat bees. I wrote a little about that on The Bee Buzz Blog. We plan to add some electric wire down low tomorrow that will keep the skunks out.

As we were walking in the front yard, picking up tree limbs and rocks before we mowed, we noticed some bear scat - in two different areas. Between the bears and the skunks I do worry about our bees. I am hoping the electric fence will detract both of them.

Other than mowing and worrying about scat, the weekend has been rather calm so far. We bought a new battery for Bernie's bike and installed it after we mowed. It started raining shortly after noon and is supposed to rain through the night. Thank goodness we have the garage now or we wouldn't have been able to work on his bike at all. Even though it's the beginning of May, we have a fire in the fireplace. I'm just certain summer is only around the corner

All in all, our homestead is doing well. Predators are a fact of life in the country and we will deal with them the best we can. In the meantime our bees are happy and bringing in lots of bounty! I can only hope that equates to lots of honey in the fall.

Bee Free,
Penny