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Johnny Chuck terrorizes neighborhood!

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Okay, maybe the title is misleading. He really isn't terrorizing a neighborhood but we think he is responsible for some damage to my neighbor's yard. We came home from hockey camp today and what did we see? We saw Johnny sitting in the yard of my neighbor two doors down. I ran inside, grabbed my camera and got some photos of Johnny. Here's Johnny sitting on the woodpile scoping our the neighborhood. Johnny knew I was on to him so he tried to hide under the trailer by the woodpile.
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It was a bright and sunny day..

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It was a bright and sunny day the other day and I took advantage of the weather and did some building. I built three screech owl nesting boxes. They aren't complete as I need to paint them still and make a modification but the majority of the build is done. You can find the plans here  Tennessee Screech Owl Box
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Feathered friends I found while driving around yesterday

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The camera I used to take these pictures is a Canon Rebel XS. American Kestrel Red Tailed Hawk Short-eared Owl
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The end of part 1...intermission

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Today was the day I started the waiting game officially. I havent seen any bee a activity for about a week now and we had three strikes after three nights if seeing no bees in the hive at night. So I took down the bee hive today and took out the tubes that contained some sort of occlusion. There were 37 tubes filled. Of these 37, there were about 75% of them full, end to end and the rest were partially full. Found this pollen clump in one of the tubes, almost like a kernel of corn. This was the first tube setup I used by cutting paper straws on the long axis. I decided these three weren't going to move on into storage so we had a science class in the garage explaining the building of the cells and the cocoons. Going from left to right in the tube, we see first the mud cap, then a pollen bunch, larva, and then another cap. This series continues from one end to the other. If you notice the small little black spots...that's bee poop!
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Strike 1

I went and checked my bees tonight around 10pm.  I shined a flashlight in all the tubes and didnt see a single bee looking at me. So I guess that strike one. I'm going to give the hive three strikes and then I'll start the summer storage process.
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Still hanging in there

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So I saw this on Facebook last night. I did t have a chance to check the hive last night so tonight, I went out and checked it. I still have 2 bees hanging in there. Hopefully they will lay some more eggs and help produce another healthy generation next year.
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I think it's a little chilly

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Found this guy (or girl) sitting outside the give tonight when I went and checked on them. I think it was a bit too cold for him and he just stayed there because he couldn't make it into the hive.  The temperature was about 54 degrees farenheit which is at the lower end of what is optimal for them. I helped him out though and put him in a safe spot in there so he didn't become bird food. Also, the species of bees I have are Japanese Orchard Bees.
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