Illness, an Execution, and Package Bees

  I picked a bad day to come down with the flu. It wasn't the very worst, but close to it.  I wake up with the flu, the day before our second delivery date of package bees (Thursday morning). So I'm lying in bed feeling badly about all the work that I'm not doing at the bee store and all the work that my red headed daughter is now shouldering when Linda bursts into the room complaining about all the noise that the two guinea hens are making. I was a little concerned when she asked about the best way to kill them. I gave her my advise as follows:

   "Why don't you wait until I'm feeling better and after the package bees are done. Its just a few more days. Then I'll take care of them."  When that didn't placate her, I advised her that either wringing their necks or cutting their heads off would work just fine.  With most women that little exchange could be termed as "calling their bluff."  Not so with the woman I married. Within 20 minutes she had wrung the neck of one of the guinea hens.  The white one escaped that fate only because Linda was unable to catch it.

    Later, when I told the tale to my friend, Quinten, he said (after he had stopped laughing) that I should definitely add that to my list of reasons why I'm glad I married her. He was obviously impressed with her grit and tenacity.  I have to admit that I was mildly surprized that she carried out the deed so quickly. I didn't doubt that she was capable, but I had mistakenly assumed she was merely putting pressure on me to do the deed soon after I was feeling better. Linda's spunk is definitely on my list of reasons I'm glad I married her. However, if she ever threatens to wring my neck I will probably be less inclined to dismiss it as a mere idle threat.

   As for the package bees... We received a lot of help from several good friends and by Friday morning, most of our assembly orders were ready.  Package Bee Day, Part II actually went very well. Tim Beuler was there right at 7:00 a.m. to drop off 200 packages of bees.  Quinten showed up at 8:00 a.m. and assisted me in pulling off the lathe strips that connect the packages into groups of five and vacuuming off the loose bees from the outside of the packages. Rachel came in early to finish a few assembly orders. Shannon Boling and her daughter, Savanna, were there by the time we had opened for business.  Rick Jamsgard and Dave Pearson came by later in the afternoon. The day went well and most of the packages went off to good homes before the end of the day.  We've had a good year so far, but we've only gotten by with a lot of help from friends. From my perspective, the only significant down side to the bee store is that six months out of the year it is more work than I really like to do.