Spent all day cutting the bars in the top bar to the proper length. J had decided the bars should be longer  than the plans specified to give better leverage and  finger space for holding  during inspection. All well and good, but every time I put the roof on it was a struggle to get it in place without kicking up  some of the bars and leaving the bees vulnerable to cold and invading insects.  In fact, that may be part of the reason I lost the bees in the top bar. When I opened it the first warm day in March two of the bars were popped up, and they were  the bars immediately above the sad remnants of the cluster. Maybe the extra cold caused them to go through their honey stores more quickly. This year I'm going to remove some honey in June, stick it in the freezer and give it back to them in the fall. I am determined to make keeping bees in a top bar a success in my temperate zone. I tried using the circular to cut off a quarter inch of both ends of the bars, but chewed up one of the bars pretty good before resigning myself to an afternoon of hand sawing. Why both ends? The comb guide that was already glued and nailed in place has to be centered in the top bar. Whew! it gave the my shoulder a workout!

I picked up my package of bees from Earl's Bees and it looked great. Normally when you get a package there's a layer of dead bees on the floor of the cage. These bees were in a lively looking cluster around the queen with very few casualties. With all top bars cut to the proper length and in place I pried up the shim of plywood covering the top of the pkg. and was pleased to find the queen cage accessible from the outside. Much nicer than having to put my hand down inside a cage of three pounds of noisy buzzer/stingers. The queen was marked with a lovely blue dot which will make it  easier to spot her in the hive. I used a piece of cotton yarn to hang her cage from the first bar. Then thumped the cage once to drop all the bees to the bottom, upended it and poured them in. I had used a little sugar water on them so I didn't have nearly as many airborne as the last time I installed a pkg. With the feeder filled and installed, all I had to do was drop the last few top bars in place and smoothly set the roof in place and Wallah! mission accomplished.

I spread some composted  manure in the garden, put in a row of kale and still  had enough daylight  to take a ride to my sister's. She lives out in the country the next county north, and her road is for CRAP! Before I even got there I decided I wasn't staying. There was no way I was going to play dodgem in the dark down that 3 mi. potholed washed out nightmare of a road. It wasn't even fun in the daytime. They weren't home so I just dropped off the item I was bringing back to her and headed for home. It took me a couple cups of hot coffee and Baileys at my favorite watering hole to get warmed up again. I should have worn chaps, it would have been much more comfortable. Cold weather riding always reminds me that I'd really like to try heated gloves.

Starting the weekend out with a fun date going to Snickerz stretched my two day weekend into almost three. So, thanks Harry, you're a hero.