Relatively warm weather, so fed C2 1 liter of syrup.  Still getting them to build stores up for winter.  A quick inspection of both hives - the bees seem quite healthy, although not all the frames are being used.

Used a spray of sugar water rather than smoke to keep the bees calm during inspection.  Seems to work well as the bees remained calm and no attempts to sting.  Quite a few wasps around, killed them as they tried to feed on the sugar spray.

Divided and planted the Irises and Primroses from the front garden.  After division, there were well over 200 Iris rhizomes to work with.  Replanted 185 of them in the front-east side, keeping the rest to try them out in pots.  The Irises are mostly purples and blues, unknown type.  Need to classify next time they flower.

I've just finished creating the farm web site.  Using Drupal 6.4 and am still defining the taxonomy and data structure, but should be useful soon.  The initial purpose of this site is to contain and organize my notes about the farm.
This post was created at the time and date the web site went live. I will back-date some posts taken from my notes for completeness, but this is the starting point.

Seed sources

http://www.seeds.ca/en.php

http://www.dominion-seed-house.com

http://www.gardenimport.com/plants.php

Westgro

http://www.growercentral.com/

Herbs

http://www.richters.com

Bees

Northwest District Beekeepers Association: http://www.nwdba.org/

Placed an order with Vesey's.  The following items were ordered:

Fed bees in C1: 1 liter. Reaction much better this time. Plenty of activity but not swarm type of activity, and no die-out.
 

Fed bees in C2: 2 liters syrup. Bee reaction was pretty extreme, maybe too much feed. Noticed many dead bees in front of colonies, and not all were drones. Unsure what caused the die-out, maybe feed was too warm? There might be too big a gap between the feeder and the top board.
 
 

Fed bees in C1: 2 liters syrup. Should probably not leave vent board on while feeding, might have started a food fight.  Much bee activity
 
 

 
All the syrup is gone. Hungry bees! Leave on a bit longer then feed bees in C2.
Fed bees in C2: 1 liter syrup
 
 

Bee club meeting at St Aidan's church. No info on how to become a member, but left my number to be called. Volunteered to help out at the Saanich fair. Thymol discussed, and Fumagilin-B. Purchased small amounts of both just in case. Thymol should be ok but has not been approved. Thymol can also be fed.