What can i say been very busy recently and its nearly the end of the month. There is a bee artical in the Texoma Living Magazine about how i got into bee. It seems to have gone down faily well.

Next weekend is the Oklahoma Bee Keepers Spring meet in McAlester. I was hopeing to go but unfortunetly the wife is off to shoot guns and blow things up with the national guard for the weekend as its drill weekend.

I do plan to mark my queens instead. on saturday im going to check the hives out and see whats happening. I got a red markers for last years colur and will be marking them to see how they get on.

The weather her has been very hit and miss, one day sunny the next day thretening snow. Hoefully we will be moving out of that now into more gental sunshine. Clover is starting to sprout here and the main honey season will start in a few weeks.

Getting there slowly

not posted for a while and that's not to say i have given up or anything. Steve's birds have been up and down or the weather has been to windy. That's not to say i have not been doing anything. I got given a load of reclaimed timber ( or lumber as the yanks call it ) More than enough to build my weathering area. Steve my sponsor came over on Saturday and he checked out where i was planing to put my mews and weathering area. We finally decided on placing it at the back of the house. great place for morning sun, protected against midday sun and very private.

We also checked out two potential hunting areas in the Platter area. We have allot of public hunting ground. We got out of my van and immediately bumped two squirrels so i guess more than ever i will be squirrel hunting . We also spotted some pretty decent sized rabbit sign so there is potential in that.

I also showed Steve my Giant Hood. I've been working on it for some time and planning it. Steve recommended timber for the hood as this will make it near pitch black inside and be more beneficial to my hawk when i get it. Chloroplast is nice and light but it still lets in light.

I have made the hood out of very very fine plywood, less than 1/8th of an inch thick. I then used 1/2 Inch square dowel as bracing. Screwed and glued all round and then put some outside trim (compressed foam with pine vainer ) along the edges. So far this is very very light and I'm very pleased with it. I'm sanding it down right now so i can coat it with a polyurethane varnish and then air it for fumes. Still studying and reading up for my exam but i will be starting to put my mews and weathering area together soon.

Steve is off on a road trip for a bit and one of his harris hawks has started molting

Oklahoma State Beekeeping meeting

The Oklahoma State Beekeeper's Association Spring Meeting will be held at the Kiamichi Technology Center in McAlester,Oklahoma on Friday April 3rd from 7:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M. and on Saturday April 4th from 8:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Everyone interested in beekeeping is welcome. For more information, call Keith Amason 918-470-8683

Whats blooming and where

Found this data for the Oklahoma region . see Nasa Wesbite

USDA code	Family	Latin Name	Common Name	Plant Type	Begin Bloom Month	End Bloom Month	Sig
ULMUS	Ulmaceae	Ulmus	Elm	TDB	2	5	N
POPUL	Salicaceae	Populus	Cottonwood, poplar aspen	TDB	3	6	N
VICIA	Fabaceae	Vicia	Vetch, tare	F	4	8	N
ROPS	Fabaceae	Robinia pseudoacacia	Black locust, false acacia, yellow locust	TDB	4	6	N
SALIX	Salicaceae	Salix	Willow, osier	TDB	4	6	N
CILAL	Cucurbitaceae	Citrullus lanatus	watermelon	C	5	7	N
CUME	Cucurbitaceae	Cucumis melo	Cantaloupe, muskmelon, casaba,	C	5	8	N
CUSA4	Cucurbitaceae	Cucumis sativus	cucumber	C	5	8	N
MESA	Fabaceae	Medicago sativa	Alfalfa, lucerne	C	5	9	Y
MELIL	Fabaceae	Melilotus	Sweet clover (white/yellow)	F	5	10	Y
MONAR	Lamiaceae	Monarda	Horsemint, wild bergamot, bee-balm	F	5	8	N
TAMAR2	Tamaricaceae	Tamarix	Tamarix, salt cedar, athel	S	5	9	N
GOSSY	Malvaceae	Gossypium	Cotton	C	6	10	Y
GUTET	Asteraceae	Gutierrezia texana	Bromweed	F	7	10	N
GUSA2	Asteraceae	Gutierrezia sarothrae	Matchweed, snakeweed	F	8	10	N