These California poppies are taking over the front yard, and I’m not going to stop them.

Last week summer arrived and so I let my OCD run rampant and I weeded like crazy.  My highly incentivized team of weed removal experts helped out with the lawns and the weed wacking, and the garden looks fabulous. Just as well that it is finally raining, so that I can take a break from all the hard work and blog about everything.

Inspecting the frame.

Small Guy holding a frame

On the weekend, Art and Bryn stopped by to check on the hive, and so Small Guy and I suited up to look into the hive. These bees are quite docile, so even when we opened up the hive and started to pull out the frames, they seemed pretty calm. As we took out and inspected one frame after another, the bees were flying around us in a big cloud, and I hoped that my neighbor – who was playing with her dog on the other side of the eight foot cedar hedge – wasn’t noticing the extra bees.

Art and Bryn checked the honey production, looked for the presence of the queen, larvae and looked for anything unusual. There were a few strangely capped cells, so they removed the contents and put them in a bag for laboratory testing. Overall, the hive is thriving.