And back to hot! A general update.

Well, summer hit hard last week. Lots of temps in the upper 80s. The garden is loving the heat but isn’t so happy about the complete absence of rain. It’s a bit disturbing how dry we are so early in the summer. The catchment basin, which normally holds water until mid-August, is almost totally dry. More a stinky mud pit than a shallow pond. I doubt the wood frogs had a chance to develop from tadpoles, poor things.

Chris did a hive check on the new bees and all appears well. He’s got capped cells in the frames and they are actively working all day. My tomatillos are starting to flower and the last bees adored them. Hopefully these guys will like them too as I purposely planted three near the hive.

The wee chicks are 11 weeks old and running around the fruit pasture like crazy things. The older flock is paying more attention to them through the fencing and I’m going to try to integrate them next week. As this is my first time combining flocks I’m more than a bit nervous. 

Chris continues to make great progress on the upstairs railing. We’ve poured black colored resin into the cracks and voids in the two cherry newel posts, stained the middle pine posts black, and stained all the panel wood black as well. The bottom support rail is in ash and we’ve burned it like the dining room table top (which I just realized I never posted about). We’ll do the same to the ash rail cap. He’s got to cut the goat panel to size, I’ll paint it, then it’s on to assembly. 

NY is now in phase 3 reopening although most the rest of the country continues to see rising COVID-19 cases. Hopefully we continue our favorable trend. Our favorite restaurant is reopening this week and we’ve decided it’s time to venture out. We’ll use only the outdoor seating and hope for the best.

Dad has spent the last two weeks in South Carolina getting his new house prepped for his moving in. His house up here closes soon and I’ll be heading south to help him get settled. We’ll definitely miss having him so close but I totally understand the desire to get away from our hard winters.

working on the railing 

Bees, part two

We were very sad that our first hive failed. Discussions with bee folk suggest mites as the culprit but we don’t really know. We’re going to do more frequent mite tests and see if we can keep this hive going.

Bees in a box 

Activity always brings everyone running.

Curious chickens 

Curious dog

Curious cat

Everyone together now!

We didn’t let everyone hang out too long. Once Chris actually started getting out the frames we shooed away the cat and chickens.

The good dog got to stay longer

But not too long

It only took a bit of buzzing to drive both me and the dog far away. Soon more pictures of the transfer. Chris reports the all went in just fine and we’ll give them a few days to establish as home. It’s great to have bees again!

Bees and garden planning

Well, looks like the bees didn’t survive the winter. Not absolutely positive as we haven’t opened the hive yet, but no bees are being cleared out despite the warm temps.

I know this is common, but we really thought they’d be okay. We put up a hay bale wind break, left the honey super in place, and left them undisturbed. We’ll see what, if anything, we can learn from opening it up. Is there a term for an autopsy on a bee hive? I know an animal autopsy is called a necropsy...

In garden news, the snow has melted off the straw layer and I’ve actually seen some onion shoots leftover from last year. I’ll be doing onions again this year as the crop was great last fall and they lasted us until late January. Not too shabby. I haven’t seen any garlic shoots yet but that’s likely for the best.

I’ve been planning this year’s garden with the greenhouse in mind. I’ll be starting everything from seed rather than buying starts. We’ll see how that works out.

Bee Update

Chris has been worried about the bees as they haven't been expanding in the Lower Deep as quickly as expected. But it has been an extremely cold and wet spring (we actually had a fire in the wood stove in early June and if we weren't so stubborn would have had another last week), so he's been just biding his time and hoping for the best.

Well, not just hoping. Early on he put out food for them to help with the lack of pollen and he's been checking for mites and general health all along.

Today he finally got to add the Upper Deep! He says the hive is just packed with healthy buzzy bees.

Woot!

Bringing home the bees

Now that Chris had a new hive it was time to get the bees. The first class taught how to build the hive and the next class taught basic beekeeping - and they gave you a box of bees. It wasn't creepy at all driving  home with many thousands of bees in a box.

Buzz!

Step one was to put the box up by the hive.

A man, his dog, and his bees.

You don't want too much room in the hive at first so Chris removed the upper deep and the honey super.

Cooper is extremely interested

Next you remove the bung and let the bees do a bit of exploring.

Carefully letting them out

Not many come out at first since they're in a new place. And you just leave them up there for a couple hours to settle in a bit.

Just checking things out

After they've been up there a couple hours it's time to move the frames from the box to the hive. A bee suit seemed like a good idea for this job.

Not many bees are out of the box

Prepping the space

Letting Cooper get a final look

I didn't even have to call Cooper off - as soon as Chris went to lift that box lid she retreated to a safe distance. She's been stung before by "wild" bees.

The lid lifts (the suspense is killing me)

Oh my. That's a lot of bees.

You lift the frame out of the box, do your best not to smush any bees, and set them in the hive.

Clumsy gloves don't help

You also inspect each frame so you know what it looks like healthy.

Carefully inspecting the frame

Surprisingly calm

Inserting the frames

The queen is in there somewhere

Almost finished

There were a few stragglers in the box that Chris gently shook into the hive.

Out!

Then he set the box at the hive entrance and left them to find their way home.

They should relocate on their own

Then the lid goes on, the entrance reducer is put in place, and you leave them alone to settle in. When we looked at the hive the next day some bees were flying in and out and there was already pollen staining the entrance ledge. So far so good!

New Bee Hive

I mentioned that Chris took a beekeeping course. He'd set up the stump hive a couple years ago but hadn't had any luck getting any bees to spontaneously move in. So it was time to get educated and get a "standard" hive set up.

The new bee suit

The first class was on building a hive and basic beekeeping. They built a base, the lower deep (or brood chamber), the inner cover, and outer cover. They were also given a metal top to make it all waterproof. When Chris got home he put together an upper deep (food chamber), a shallow honey super, and many more frames. Then I got to decorate it. Woo-hoo!

Flower, butterflies, and bees - oh my!

I had a lot of fun doing this. I especially like the many bees I put on the honey super.

Bees in flight!

Each side is a bit different

Chris built a rock base that still allows air flow under the hive. It's very stable and blends into the environment well.

That's the garden rock wall in the background

We placed the hive close to the edge of the woods but where it would get morning sun.

Fully assembled

It's also up near the stump hive in case they decide they'd like more rustic accommodations.

Maybe some day they'll need more room

The hive is near the woods - but not too close. The trees should help protect the hive from winter winds and provide some much needed shade in full summer.

It's so happy looking

As with any new endeavor there is stuff to buy. Such as this smoker.

It works!

The next class is when they'll actually get the bees. We're very excited.

Making a log bee hive

Chris has wanted to get into bee keeping for quite a while. But he wasn't overly enthused with the idea of buying hives or swarms. So he did a bit of research and came across the idea of a log bee hive. A more natural, so to speak, approach to bee keeping. Google "log bee hive" and you'll see lots of ideas and suggestions on how to go about doing this. 

We had taken down a tree up by the future garden site but left quite a stump since the tree was a twin trunk. Ultimately that's what he decided to convert into the hive. 

Chris sawed off two segments of the trunk then hollowed out the core. A ledge was created to support the honey bars.

Hollowed out and ready for bars.

The bars

Nails keep the bars in place

Bars attached (and the other segment with cap)

Custom fitted cap

A local friend and bee keeper donated some wax to use to seed the bars. Chris melted it down in a double boiler and then smooged it onto the bars. Hopefully bees will come and use that to jump start the hive.

Melting down some bar wax

He placed the two segments back onto the stump and then drilled an entrance hole. The hope is that bees will be magically attracted to the stump and start a hive. A vial of queen pheromone stuff was also donated by our friend to help things along.

The chickens are always a help

The stump needed a cap to keep the rain off so Chris build a stick frame...

The cap base

...and then covered it in overlapping can lids. He ran out of lids before completing the cap so added a funnel just to protect the top. Once we've acquired more lids he'll finish it off with those and I'll get to use the funnel for something else. Maybe a bird house? Dunno yet.

Look close and you can see the dividing line between segments

He also needs to do a cap for the front stump, mainly for the cuteness factor but also to reduce the chances of the stump rotting. 

No bees yet, but it's early in the swarming season. We'll keep our fingers crossed and see what happens through the summer. Wish us luck!