One of Those Days

Just in case anyone has the silly notion that things around here are always quaint and lovely , I thought I'd share with you how my yesterday went.  Events are listed in chronological order.

 ~ I woke up with a slight sore throat and a back ache (I blame the back ache on weeding- evidently I'm still waiting for my body to make peace with the chore).

~ As I was unloading the dish rack, something scurried out of my sink and across the back of the counter top.  Droppings in my sink confirmed mouse.  Sink and counters were cleaned in full willy-nilly mode, just waiting for it to reemerge.

~ The reason I was emptying the dish rack was because dishes were piled up from the night before (it happens sometimes) and needed washing.  In the course of washing, I dropped a quart jar on another quart jar, slicing my finger and shattering glass throughout the same sink. I. just. cleaned.  Dear Sadie bandaged me up and finished the dishes, bless her heart.

~ A neighbor came over to borrow our trailer to haul something and for a few brief moments, we thought the trailer had been stolen (theft would have actually fit nicely into this particular morning).

~ After Jamey's laptop croaked about three weeks ago, mine seems to be thinking it might do the same so just glancing at (no actual responding to) my email and comments took 40 minutes.  I might just have to wash it in the sink and see if it accidentally shatters, too.

~  About an hour later, OUT OF THE BLUE (I was simply walking), pain flew into the ball of my right foot.  So now, walking (if not completely flat footed and as gingerly as possible) takes my breath away.  I just about fainted away when I hobbled outside with my camera to get a picture of our bees bearding (picture to follow if my computer allows).  Since then I've been sitting on my bum, icing my foot and thinking of all the things I could/should be doing.  Driving will be interesting when and if I attempt it.

~  And that slight sore throat is in full throttle.

I'm not complaining.  Just sharing.  Just showing- we all have those days.

{{{{Group hug}}}}

Love,
Jane Pin It

Quite Possibly My Favorite Perennial

It's a lovely shade of spring green.

It has exquisite posture.

It's head of hair is always swept in a tidy up-do.

They stand in orderly rows, as if lining up to be picked and eaten.

I'm talking about asparagus, of course, and when my kids ask me what my favorite vegetable is, I always think of asparagus first.

Our favorite and most often prepared way to eat asparagus is to simply saute a bunch in coconut oil, steam by adding a few tablespoons of water and cover until tender.  Topped with a sprinkling of salt and served hot, it is divine.

After a couple weeks of eating it in it's simplest form, I pull out our other favorite asparagus recipes:  Lemon Asparagus Pasta, Cheddar and Asparagus Quiche, Asparagus Pasta with White Beans and Mint and Cheddar-Asparagus Potpie.

Lemon Asparagus Pasta ready for the oven

For lunch, I've been sauteing a few chopped spears in our small iron skillet and when it's just done, adding two fresh scrambled eggs, salt, and pepper to make a mini omelet.  Laid on top of a slice of toasted bread smeared with Dijon mustard....it makes me swoon!

If we're lucky enough to have more than we can eat, I freeze some to use mid-winter in quiche- a wonderful blast of spring when it's cold outside.

What would we do without you, gorgeous spring spears?

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This Time of Year

I love this time of year because everything is new and lush.  The weeds are manageable thanks to the spring rains.  They make pulling them out by the roots a breeze compared to later on in the summer.  Speaking of weeds, I've been a bit hesitant to pull the dandelions from my flower beds after seeing our honey bees nuzzling down between the petals, covering themselves in pollen.  Below you'll see a stretch of raspberries in dyer need of weeding.  I did pull most of them, but I left a few because the bees were on them as well.  Don't you just love another excuse not to weed?  You're restraining yourself for the pollinators!  Good for you!

The gardens still look neat and orderly.  My yearly Mother's Day gift of a hanging basket just outside my kitchen window is full of bloom and color.  Once again, clothes can be dried outside (without freezing my tail off).  The kids are eager to be out because it's not too hot, there are chicks to play with and there are new games to invent and new places to discover to play.  We're eating asparagus and the strawberries and lettuces are on their way to our table, too.  It's the last week of school before a couple days of testing and soon our days will open wide-ready to be filled however we chose (well, until the garden starts dictating our schedule).

What's not to love?!

You know, in case someone needs to know where to find me.

So, what's your absolute favorite thing about this time of year?

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Hive Inspection #1

We hived our bees last Sunday.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning brought cooler weather and a lot of rain.  By Thursday afternoon, things warmed up and the glorious sun came out once again so late in the afternoon, we took a peek inside the hives.

Okay well, it was more than a peek- we did a full inspection.  I'm not sure this was totally necessary.  While beekeeping with top bar hives does require more looks inside/arranging of bars, it's also not the best to disturb the bees' work too often.  We're still feeling our way along...very carefully and with smoke, of course.

The reasons we wanted to see inside so badly were...

1) We wanted to see how much sugar syrup the bees were drinking.  Because of the cool weather, we thought they might be taking a lot.  We would need to decide if we were going to leave the syrup in, refill the jars or take them out.

2) We wanted to make sure the queens were still in both hives- fingers crossed and prayers uttered!

3) We were curious as anything to see if the bees had started building on the empty top bars.

Jamey donned his bee jacket and smoker and I my white baseball cap and clipboard.  And Sam (our trusty queen locator) followed us out.  The day before I made up a hive inspection checklist because I have become a BEE NERD.

There are so many things I wanted to remember to check on once we were in the hives and since my mind is a sieve I didn't want us standing around open hives with mouths gaping trying to think of what else we wanted to do/check for.  And a gaping mouth could lead to some pretty nasty stings seeing as I don't use a veil.

We were thrilled at what we found.  First of all, the bees didn't take much syrup.  In the upper hive, it didn't look like they drank any.  In the lower one, maybe a third of the quart was taken, so we just removed both feeders.  There are some sunny days in our forecast and we want to encourage them to eat their own home cooking instead of fast food.

Secondly, we know the queens are in there!  We couldn't find the queen in the upper hive, but there was evidence ALL over the place of her existence- eggs, eggs and more eggs.  In the lower hive, we actually spotted her and she was laying well, too.

Lower hive queen- a hair left of center

The bees had been busy building!  Below you can see their own handiwork on the top bars that were empty on Sunday- beautiful, clean buttery-looking comb.

The bars closer to the nest were more built up than the bars toward the back.  This is expected.

 The right side of this bar is a piece of a Lang frame screwed into the top bar that we wanted to save.  The bees are building up the left side on their own.

 Here's a peek inside the hive- look at how the bees make bee chains to get from one bar/comb to another even when we've made more space than usual between.  These creatures are amazing.

We did some rearranging of the bars and added some empty bars to each hive so the bees won't feel crowded and will continue to draw out comb if they like.  Last Sunday, we had 12 bars in the lower hive and now there are 15.  In the upper there were 10 and now there are 14.

We noted a few ants in one hive thanks to all the rain that overflowed our oil can barriers, so those were emptied of water and refilled with oil.  The bees were very tolerant of the inspection and we appreciate that very much.  Jamey only used minimal smoke and there were no stings.

If you're having trouble picturing what the bees (and their developmental stages) look like, here is a really helpful image I discovered on another beekeeper's page:

It was SO much fun to check on them, see evidence of the queens and to know they are busy building, caring for tons of brood and curing honey.  Now, our goal will be to keep our noses out for more than three days at a time and let them do what they do best.

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Pullet-Holding Attire

So, what do girls who love to spend every free minute outside playing with chicks wear when their mama doesn't want them changing their shirts three times a day due to chick-yness?

Outside aprons, of course!

They're perfect- light weight for warm weather, easy to hang on mudroom coat hooks and a cinch to slip on and off.  Not to mention, they save on laundry, making me one happy mama. Pin It

Transferring Langstroth Nucs to Top Bar Hives

Disclaimer: We are documenting our experiences here so we can keep track of what we've done and for others' curiosity.  We are NOT experienced beekeepers.  Please be sure to watch and learn (over time) from our successes and failures!

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One of our bees

Well, plans changed.  To make a very long story short, instead of purchasing two bee packages (bees only), we obtained two "nucs".  A nuc (short for nucleus hive) consists of five (total) frames of brood (eggs, larva, pupae), honey and pollen along with a whole mess of bees (more than in a package).

Pros to Nucs:
- there can be more bees
- they know their queen
- they have a better head start since there is brood already developing and they already have stores of honey and pollen

Cons to Nucs (for us):
- the frames aren't the right size for our top bar hives
- they are more expensive (about $40 more per nuc)

On Friday evening of this past weekend, we met a very nice couple who agreed to sell us two nucs the following day.  They have been beekeepers for the past 8 years and sell honey down the road from our church.  These nucs came from Florida, but the queens are Minnesota Hygienics (bred to be more pest and disease resistant).  On Saturday morning, Jamey and Sam went to pick up the nucs.  The beekeeper suggested that we just set the nucs on top of our hives for a few days to allow them to recover from their car trip (bees are sensitive to vibrations- their car ride was only 10 minutes long).

Jamey opening the doors to the nucs (they were closed for the car ride)

We set the nucs on top of the hives and the whole family enjoyed watching the bees emerge and get acquainted with their new yard and find their water source and nearby fruit trees that are still blooming.  Sam spent the entire afternoon outside watching them with Sadie and Miriam joining him at times.  The bees were extremely tolerant of their new family, allowing us all to get very close with no problems whatsoever.

Possibly the very first bee to find the water source

After taking a look at the weather forecast we realized that the bees would have to be transferred into our top bar hives the following day (Sunday) because Monday would bring several days of cool, wet weather.  It's important to work with bees on sunny, mild days when many are out foraging and their mood is better.  Bees don't go out in the rain.  Instead they are all at home guarding their brood and stores.

A peek inside the top of one of the nuc boxes

Our task on Sunday would be to cut the rectangular Langstroth (Lang) hive frames down to fit our hive.  These wooden Lang frames held plastic foundation down the center with comb drawn out on either side.

After church and a potluck meal, we anxiously returned home and got everything ready.  About 30 feet from the hives, Jamey set up a plywood table over two saw horses and we gathered our supplies.

Supplies
- our spacing plan (where/how we wanted to space the bars/comb)
- instead of a bee brush, Jamey used tall weeds nearby
- a water bucket for cleaning sticky hands and tools
- 2 1-quart jar feeders of sugar syrup (ratio 1:1)
- container for cut-off comb pieces that wouldn't be used
- smoker
- sugar syrup spray bottle
- hive entrance covers
- 2 hive dividers (one for each hive)
- plywood template/pattern of top bar comb size/shape
- tools: saw, hacksaw, tin snips, knives, pliers, drill and screws
- bee hood/jacket
- work gloves (which never got used)

Preparation
- About 15 minutes before beginning, both nucs were sprayed heavily with sugar syrup.  This was to keep them from flying off because they have to clean their wings first.
- Get the smoker smoking
- Feeders of sugar syrup were placed in the back of the top bar hives (so bees shaken/brushed into the hives would be enticed to stay).
- Top bar hive entrances closed so they wouldn't leave before we got everyone moved in

Locating the Queen
One of the most important parts of this process was to make sure the queens made it in the hives.  So our first job was to locate them (one per hive).  We started with the nuc on the lower hive.  We searched the front and backs of all five frames and couldn't locate her.  We knew this was our fault- our eyes aren't yet trained to pick her out from among the masses!  We decided to close up that nuc and move on to the other hoping that when we came back to the lower nuc later we'd be able to find her.

Searching for the queen

I wasn't quite quick enough with the camera- queens move fast.  You can see her abdomen only at the bottom of the picture just to the left of the wooden frame.  Notice her size compared to the worker bees.

The queen in the second hive was found pretty quickly and Jamey carefully brushed her into her hive along with the rest of the bees on that frame, then placed the top bars back, creating a lid to keep the bees inside.  From there the process went as follows:

Process
- Bees were shaken and the remainder brushed off two Lang frames at a time (into the hive) and the hive was closed back up.
- The mostly bee-free frames were brought over to the work table where Jamey used the template to cut the frames down to size.
- The saw cut through the wood frame and the hacksaw and/or tin snips cut through the plastic foundation/comb.  The top of the frame was then screwed into a top bar without a starter ridge.
- The top bars with comb were placed back into the hives.
- If there was a lot of brood on the frame pieces that were cut off, they were also attached to top bars so that in the end we had 7 or 8 bars with comb on top bars to be placed into each hive.
- This process was repeated until all the frames were transitioned into the hives.

The work station- hives can be seen in the background

A Lang frame cut to size for our top bar hives- you can see the top bar at the very top screwed into the top of the Lang frame

Attaching two pieces to a bar

Bee Stages
One of the coolest parts of the day had to be getting to hold the comb up close to peer inside the cells.  We were able to see (and show the kids) freshly laid eggs (too small to get a picture of with my camera), different stages of larva, capped pupae, emerging new honey bees, pollen, unripe honey, drone cells (larger than normal), and capped honey.  I felt like a little kid!

See the capped cell in the center of the photo that looks different than the others?  That's a new bee's head squirming it's way out.

Here you can see unripe honey (shiny and brown), bee larva (white, fat, curled-up worms), and capped brood (light colored caps covering the pupae stage- just before "hatching").

Queen on the Lose!
With one hive completed, the entrance was opened slightly and we moved back to the lower nuc again.  While looking on the first frame for the queen, Sam announced that he found a queen on the ground under the hive we just finished!  How he spotted her or why he even bothered to look over there while Jamey and I were searching for the other queen was a miracle.  Jamey carefully placed her back into her hive.  We have no idea how she got out- if she jumped/flew out (queens don't fly very well when laden with eggs) when we had it open or if she fell/walked out the entrance after we opened it.  Good save, Sam!

The queen was found just in front of the empty nuc box after we had closed up the hive and opened the entrance.

We went back to the lower nuc/hive and found that queen and were especially careful to get her into the hive (although until we see fresh eggs laid in a few days we won't know for sure that she's still in there).  We then proceeded to alter the combs.  Once finished with that nuc/hive, we closed it up, opening it's entrance slightly, too.

Even though we now have partial Lang frames in our top bar hive, we don't intend to keep them there.  As soon as we're able we'll try to get them out of our hive's circulation by encouraging the bees to fill those combs with honey.  Then, if the hive has plenty, we'll remove the bars with the Lang frame, harvest the honey and replace that bar with a normal top bar, allowing the bees to build their own comb.  Reused comb (it was very evident that these Lang frames have been reused) can contain higher levels of pesticide residues, layers of pupae cocoons and fecal matter (yuck for the bees and yuck for us).  By constantly cycling out old, darker comb, we can decrease these contaminants for bees and beekeepers alike.

Spacing
When bees feel too crowded, they start preparing to swarm.  Swarming is when a new queen(s) is reared and half the hive leaves with her to find another home.  The older queen and remaining bees are left in the original hive.  Horror movies have made everyone afraid of swarms but swarms of honey bees are not dangerous.  They're just trying to find a new place to live.

In order to discourage swarming (we'd like our bees to stay put, thank you very much), it's important to make them feel as if they have plenty of room to grow.  Placing empty bars staggered at one end of the hive gives them room to stretch the nest.  In top bar hives, it's also important that the bees draw out comb in nice vertically straight rows so that the combs can be lifted out easily.  This is another reason spacing is important.  If you place an empty top bar between two built combs, the built combs act as a guide and the bees will build/draw out comb in a vertically straight manner.  I wish I was good at computer graphics but I'm not, so you'll have to imagine this with me.  This will be written vertically, but of course the hive sits horizontal.

(entrance end of hive)

full honey comb bar
brood/honey comb bar
brood/honey comb bar
brood/honey comb bar
empty bar
brood/honey comb bar
empty bar
brood/honey comb bar
empty bar
brood/honey comb bar
divider (cut short to allow bees to travel underneath)
empty space: empty top bars above with jar of feeder syrup sitting underneath

(opposite end of hive)


The whole process took just over four hours.

Putting a package of bees into a hive goes much quicker and there are top bar hive nucs out there- we just didn't have access to them.  While it wasn't our original plan, we are so happy to have our bees all snuggled in their new homes.  Here's to hoping that this cool/wet stint will clear up soon so they can explore.  In the meantime, we're hoping they're in there building lots of new comb.

On the next sunny day, we'll peek back in and check on how they're doing.

A note about feeding bees sugar syrup:  It's our intention not to feed them unless we absolutely have to.  Times that we've determined will make it necessary are

1) as they're getting adjusted to their new hives but only for a brief period since we know they have stores and there is a nectar flow (things are in bloom), and

2) if they appear they might starve (no stores or if they're heading into winter without enough).

Also, we put a second source of water out next to the first that holds some sugar syrup.  Our neighbors have a pool, so we wanted to make sure that the bees established our water source as the place to go.  The sugar water attracted them to the drink buffet but now that they've found it, we'll only add water, allowing the sugar water to be diluted and eventually replaced with plain water.

Here are the first two bees who discovered the sugar syrup source (to be converted to water). On Sunday, there were 50 or so happily drinking.

Natural (or organic) beekeepers try to let the bees do the work they were created for as much as possible.  Their food is much better for them than ours is.

The sun setting with the bees tucked inside

Harvest
While we're not expecting much of a harvest this first year (we want to leave plenty of honey for the bees for winter), we did harvest about a cup of honey from the cut off pieces.

Sting Count

Jamey was stung twice on the hand.  The first time he accidentally squeezed a bee and it she stung him.  The second time he's not sure what happened.  Even though Sam and I were right up to the hives and had bees crawling on us at different times, no one else was stung.  We were very proud of Sam.  At one point, he walked slowly over to me and very calmly said, "Mom, there's a bee on my ear."  I picked up the smoker and smoked it off.

We all feel quite differently about bees after this weekend.  And we feel badly about the brood and stores that were destroyed during the cutting process.  We hope to redeem ourselves with good beekeeping practices that will help our hives thrive.

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In Between

I haven't posted a recipe in a loooong time.  I haven't because there has been nothing new going on here lately.  Instead, I've been using tried and true recipes to use up what's left in our freezers.  One is in major need of defrosting and I hope to combine the contents soon  AND soon there will (hopefully) be lots of strawberries to crush and freeze (and eat!).

That said, we could all use a little inspiration in the kitchen this in-between time of year.  So, pretty pretty pretty- please...will you tell me what you had for dinner last night?  I really want to know- even if it's mac and cheese from a box.  That will make me feel better on a whole other level:-).

Last night we had Chicken Chimichangas (from the freezer, made with turkey), Brunswick Stew (from the freezer, for the kids since the Chimichangas are a little spicy), sauteed asparagus (fresh!), applesauce (from the freezer), and lettuce (from the store because I am very, very weak).

Okay.  Your turn!  (please) Pin It

Further Preparation & Why Top Bar Hives?

Before we decided to get the beekeeping ball rolling, I had never heard of a top bar hive.  When I pictured a bee hive, I envisioned the popular Langstroth style (although I had no idea that was their name at the time) - wooden boxes stacked on top of each other, forming a tower.  They are what you see in some fields around here- clusters of Langstroth hives of differing heights gathered together as if having church.

When Jamey built our first hive last year I was surprised that it didn't look like the hives I had seen.  In fact, I had never seen a hive like it ever.  I trusted he must have known what he was doing.  And, as usual, I think he did.  He chose the top bar hive for two reasons. First, he liked the fact that you can harvest the honey without an extractor.  With standard frame-style combs, most people use an extractor which spins the frames, allowing centrifugal force to remove the honey.  These extractors can be expensive, cumbersome and difficult to clean- not very practical if you're interested in harvesting several small batches instead of doing it all at once.  With top bar hives, the comb (with the honey) is cut off, crushed to release the honey and allowed to drain through a sieve.  Requiring the honey bees to make new comb regularly stimulates their wax glands (a health benefit for the bee) and cycles out old comb that may harbor traces of disease, pesticides and pests.  And, we get the added benefit of harvesting beeswax as well.  Candles, anyone?

Another reason he liked this style hive is because it is very inexpensive to make, can be made without treated wood (chemicals) and can/will be recycled if one day it's no longer in use.  But let's not go there before we've even begun!

Here are our top bar hives placed in the back of our little orchard ready for honey bees.  These hives (whose general design is originally from Kenya) mimic hollow logs.  Instead of building comb on wooden frames of foundation, honey bees in top bar hives form their own comb on the top bars which make up the ceiling of the hive when all in place.  The roofs go on over top.

The carpet underneath will keep down weeds and hopefully discourage the reproduction of small hive beetles which drop to the ground, hatch their young in the dirt beneath hives and then can crawl back up and in.  The feet of the hives will be set in cans of oil to keep ants from becoming unwelcome guests.

These are the top bars that will make up the ceilings of the hives.  The built-in ridge will point down and give the bees a guide to build on.  Brushing the ridges with beeswax will draw the bees' attention to the ridge, encouraging them to build there.  One of the tricks to master with top bar hives is helping the bees build nice, vertical combs in line with the bars so we can lift them out easily for inspection.  Spacing the bars is a technique which helps with this and I'll try to write more about that later.

The bees wax smells so beautiful- mild honey deliciousness.  My task only enticed one honeybee to come check me out.  We don't see as many honeybees around our house as we think we should- here's to hoping we can bolster the local population!

 Here is an example of a beautiful top bar comb- not one of ours since we don't have the bees yet (photo credit).

I became a bit frustrated as I read through several of the popular, recommended beekeeping books.  First of all, there were only brief mentions of the top bar hive.  Basically, they just noted that they exist.  All the remaining instructions assumed that we have Langstroth hives (which, of course, most people do).  Secondly, no space was given to the alternate approach of raising bees organically.  When addressing all bee pests and diseases, the only remedies provided were chemical in nature- antibiotics to prevent problems and medications to treat them.

I understand why most beekeepers medicate their bees.  They want to save them from what's ailing them.  They care about their bees!  I just wanted to hear the other side.  We finally found what we were looking for in Les Crowder's book, Top-Bar Beekeeping: Organic Practices for Honeybee Health.  His book resonated with us so completely, that we've decided to keep bees the organic way.  His website outlines reasons to consider the top bar hive so beautifully, I'm just going to link to it instead of trying to re-write and re-word what he and his wife have already written so eloquently.  I encourage you to hop over and read it right now.  

I know several of you are starting your bee journeys this year, too.  No matter what type of hive you have, I am so excited to have readers to learn with and from!  And I know there are some experienced beekeepers among us as well.  As I write about our experiences, feel free to share yours- no matter the shape of your bees' abode:-).

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