Listening to the bees in Texas, too.

This is the first chance I've had to get to wi-fi, and I've a lot to tell. I won't tell it all at once, to keep from overwhelming you.  And, I'll have pictures when I get home.  For today, here is a little overview of our adventure in beekeeping.  Or first day here was 100' and 45 mile per hour winds with gusts to 75.  Not ideal beekeeping weather.  We got most of our set up work done before it got so extreme.  Yesterday, I was in my bee suit with hive tool in hand for 12 hours. (!!!;) )We did a few more splits and set up some more shakers, and did our first set of queen grafts.  The guys felt we wouldn't have good acceptance of the grafts, and they were right. Grafting was a test to see if we were right about how the bees felt.  Out of 427, we have about 50 queens coming.  The very first thing we did here was just look at the bees, how they were built up, how they came home from the almonds, what was their attitude.  It was pretty much all bad news, and this is why the guys knew the take would be poor.  We spent the morning reversing hive bodies today, while the other half of our team supered the CA bees so that they can be left alone to heal for a while. We are giving up on raising queens this spring. The bees, the weather, the plants, are just not conducive. The desert is burning up already, blooms fading.  As I said, I'll give you the full story with pictures when I get home, but for now, here is the lesson we are reminded of...
   Don't try to make the bees do what you want them to do.  If they aren't ready, or if the conditions don't allow, don't force it.  We cannot make bees do what they don't want to do. 
   As you can tell, I'm a bit discouraged and disappointed, but as always, learning a lot.  Heading for a shower and a beer.  It was pretty hot again today.  details to come!  T