We have a yard full of them; they bloom for a month or so, and are a sea of red. Also a few sports that are a lighter pink, or even white. A very few are spotted. I believe our bees will love them.
Yes, a week ago Thursday, I headed up to Rapid City, and picked up my hive. Normally, people mail order ‘package bees’—3 pounds of adult bees literally randomly vacuumed into boxes, with a caged unrelated queen added. Or they order & pick up a 4-frame ‘nuc’—nuclear hive—that is a half-size working hive.
I got neither: the local bee club leader, and semi-professional keeper had some extra full fledged working hives that were more than he could handle, and I bought one of those.
Last Friday & Saturday set new all time low temp records, which meant not being able to get the second brood chamber installed, as that would be too much extra work for them to keep warm. They are now fully set up, and working their little wings off with wild plum, apple, and chokecherry blossoms.
Naturally, those temps also froze the asparagus.
NOW, I can finally seed the main garden, and set up the irritation tank, pump, and hoses.
Where can you buy one of these irritation tanks?
I would like to buy one for my cousin Mike.