aquifer beneath the land that we access via the wells we’ve dug.”
“Has climate change affected your area yet?”
Chase looked around. “Silver Creek is in what we call a microclimate valley. It’s based upon landmasses, a mountain range, and it just happened to get lucky enough to be where it is. On the western boundary of Wyoming, they get nine months of winter and the temperature can dive to thirty or forty below. Here”—he gestured around—“we will get down to about twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit in the worst of winter, and the general temp is around thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit for the four months of snow we get.”
“How much snow?”
“On the western boundary, they can get five feet of snow dumped on them all at once. Here, we’ve never seen more than a foot. We have an actual four seasons here, unlike there on the western boundary, which is winter and summer. They don’t have a ninety-day growing season, either, unless they’ve got a greenhouse. Here, we have from May to the end of October. That’s what allows us to have three good crops of alfalfa and clover.”
“It’s ideal for a bee colony, too. They can winter over, but they need a lot of protection and their own honey stores in combs, to get them through it.” She pointed toward the five-foot stone wall that ran the length of the orchard, creating a boundary with the wide dirt road. “I would put hives inside that rock wall, which is ideal protection against westerly winter winds. It will protect the hives and the bees won’t freeze. The bees sit around in large groups within the hive, like a ball, keeping warm by being packed in close to one another to survive the winters.”
“That sounds like good news.”
“It is. I noticed on your other fields, those rock walls are on the longest stretches.”
“My great-great-grandfather spent a year building them. We had a lot of rocks in our soil and he had to remove them, anyway, for planting purposes. My great-great-grandmother was the one that gave him the idea for the rock walls, as well as for planting marigolds next to them.”
“Your family is very environmentally minded and wise,” Cari said. “After I study your map when we get back to the ranch house, I can identify perfect places for your hives. I’ll ensure that we use those rock walls as part of their winterization plan to protect them. Plus, I would also like to see you build hive pads out of concrete. That way, there’s a specific place for the hives and the concrete platform where you’ll set those hives, which are made of wood. That way, they’re protected from wood rot. If you place them on soil, instead, it’s just a matter of time before the wood would rot. Concrete platforms are cleaner, no water issues, and have a far longer life, which in the long run saves you money. You won’t have to buy wooden hives as often.”
“That sounds like a great idea. I can have my wranglers build them for you once you show us where they should go.”
“Let’s go see your hives?”
“Yeah, what’s left of them.”
“In my last phone call with Theresa, she said they’d cleaned out the twenty hives that lost their colonies to starvation. She told me they are ready to be recolonized. If you approve that, I think the next chore is building those concrete pads and placing them around your property in strategic locations. Then, ordering the packets of bee colonies for each one.”
“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go see your bees.”
* * *
Cari climbed out of the truck, her gaze on the five hives that had survived massive starvation. All the hives sat up on a slight knoll. She tried to ignore the quiet charisma of Chase Bishop. He was focused entirely on her, what she had to say, and he asked good questions. He cared about the bees and that made her heart swell. There was no question that he really wanted a honey operation here on his ranch, but he wanted it done right, and most important to her was that he wanted his bees protected and well fed. He had everything a bee could want to make honey on his ranch, plus the weather goddesses and gods had given a microclimate blessing to this verdant valley. She now understood why Mary had come up with the idea in the first place. She’d done a lot of reading up on bee operations for honey