Bikes and Bees

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to test the limits of el Mundo (that's my new bike).  Carter and I went to pick up Roden from his preschool in the Mission.  It's mostly down hill from here, Sunnyside, so I rarely used the electric motor for that leg of the journey.  Roden rode between Carter and I, and from his school we went to Abadá-Capoiera where we picked up our young friend, Eliot.  With Eliot, Roden and Carter on the back we rode home.  The pedaling was easy with the electric motor assisting me with the inclines and the starts at the intersection.  The hard part was controlling the bike with all the weight in the back and the squirrely 5 year olds.  The whole ride I was wishing there was someone to take our picture.  I'm sure we were quite the site, the four of us riding along city streets. The bike performed admirably and we all had fun. Later that evening we reenacted our epic, 4 person bike ride on the sidewalk out in front of our house.  Tala and Eliot's mom, Kalyani, took pictures.  Here's one of Tala's pics.

Thumbs up!

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Then this weekend, I checked on the bees again.  Not much has happened since my last inspection which you can see in my previous post.  The Easter Hive continues to decline, and I'm worried that it will fade away.  I removed the top box so that the few bees left wouldn't have to struggle to heat all that unused space.  The hive has to maintain a temperature of 94 degrees to raise their babies.  I removed the mite trap frame (the frame that is filled mostly with drone brood).  Drone are a drain on a hive, so hopefully removing it will also help the hive.  My worry, however, is that the queen is ailing or maybe even absent. If the hive holds on but continues to struggle, I may order a new queen.  I'm going to check on them again early next week.  

Drone Brood surrounded by honey - photo courtesy of Sara

Today I'm brewing some beer.  Stay tuned for a step by step account in a post soon!