Needles

As I mentioned in my last post, I have spent much of the past two weeks in Needles California for work.  Every year bees are moved, by truck, from all over the country to groves- apple groves, orange groves, etc.  Our bees go to almond groves in Bakersfield Ca.

Over the last little while, all of the bees have been moved from the Utah area to Needles.  Then we all loaded into the trucks and went down to them out.  For about a week we hit all the yards- where we keep the bees- and checked every hive to ensure that they were healthy and had enough honey to survive.  On Monday, two of us went to Bakersfield and Michael and I stayed in Needles.  We had a lot of hive covers and boxes that needed to be painted- which took most of the days- and then we went out to load bees on a truck to ship to Bakersfield.  Bees have to be moved at night because during the day they leave the hive.  If you move the hive during the day, many of the bees will be lost. 

Our trucker was a man from Spanish Fork.  He was great to work with!  Loading means a lot of time spent sitting and waiting, but the people you work with can make it a fun experience and my co-workers certainly did. Four nights (one load a night) and several more boxes and covers than I care to remember later, we were done.  It was nice to get up Friday morning and head home.  It is never fun to go to Needles and work like we do, but I returned, as always, with stories and a greater understanding of bees, beekeepers and the way things work.