Just a portion of this week's yield:
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Garden: July 31, 2010
The garden continues to be productive, despite the invasion of cucumber beetles and squash bugs. Late season planting of beets, jumbo snow peas, radishes (for Rose Cresci), and peas are all now beginning to grow.
Just a portion of this week's yield:
Just a portion of this week's yield:
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Bees: Saturday, July 23, 2011
Weather: Extremely hot, sunny and dry, high 90's
We decided not to fuss too much over the bees the past 2 weeks simply because everything seemed to be in order. This past weekend we quickly opened each hive and made some observations. Hive C was extremely busy with tons of beautifully laid brood. There was much activity outside of the hive which indicated to us that these were newborn honeybees. They do this incredible impersonation of a vacuum cleaner, moving forward and backwards with their mouths cleaning the surface. I believe it's helping with their orientation. It was so busy that we removed the entrance reducer to give them more ventilation and ease of entry/exit. We put a queen excluder on and put on a honey super. We don't know how much honey will be accumulated but it's worth a try.
The nasty hive has been slow.... granted it was the last hive to get another queen. We also noticed that much of their building of comb tends to be on one side of the hive for some reason. I'm wondering if it has to do with the hive being made of styrofoam or possible how the hive is ventilated. Regardless, the new queen is laying nice brood around and we're hoping there's a population explosion shortly.
Alpha hive was busy with newly born honeybees too. They were all out and about the front of the hive getting their bearing. We opened the honey super and there were a number of frames full of honey again. We decided to only pull out the capped ones, which amounted to 2 frames and we'll get the rest this coming weekend when the kids are up. Everything else looked in order and we closed her up.
One other thing worth mentioning is that we made our first colonial style beeswax candles this weekend. Here is a picture of them:
We decided not to fuss too much over the bees the past 2 weeks simply because everything seemed to be in order. This past weekend we quickly opened each hive and made some observations. Hive C was extremely busy with tons of beautifully laid brood. There was much activity outside of the hive which indicated to us that these were newborn honeybees. They do this incredible impersonation of a vacuum cleaner, moving forward and backwards with their mouths cleaning the surface. I believe it's helping with their orientation. It was so busy that we removed the entrance reducer to give them more ventilation and ease of entry/exit. We put a queen excluder on and put on a honey super. We don't know how much honey will be accumulated but it's worth a try.
The nasty hive has been slow.... granted it was the last hive to get another queen. We also noticed that much of their building of comb tends to be on one side of the hive for some reason. I'm wondering if it has to do with the hive being made of styrofoam or possible how the hive is ventilated. Regardless, the new queen is laying nice brood around and we're hoping there's a population explosion shortly.
Alpha hive was busy with newly born honeybees too. They were all out and about the front of the hive getting their bearing. We opened the honey super and there were a number of frames full of honey again. We decided to only pull out the capped ones, which amounted to 2 frames and we'll get the rest this coming weekend when the kids are up. Everything else looked in order and we closed her up.
One other thing worth mentioning is that we made our first colonial style beeswax candles this weekend. Here is a picture of them:
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Bees: Saturday, July 9th, 2011
Weather: Sunny, mid 80's, Perfect Day
Our purpose for opening the hives today was to make sure that the queen we placed in the Nasty Hive last week successfully emerged from her cage and accepted by the colony. Sure enough when we opened it we noticed a remarkable difference in the comb that was built during the week. We found it to be more advanced and uniform than before. Last week the comb tended to be off to one side of the hive and this week we noticed the honeybees were working more frames.
We pulled out a few frames and Jim being better at this than me, was looking for egg laying. We noticed that the brood was evenly distributed and once we sure that we didn't have any laying workers, we were put at ease a bit and proceeded to find the queen. That was the last stressful thing we needed to make sure happened. Sure enough, Jim found her AGAIN! Jim - 15, Frank - 0
Satisfied we closed the Nasty Hive and off we went to check on Hive C. All was well there. A bit messy with the slow building comb but we feel that the frames weren't spaced properly so that's why the comb wasn't even. Brood existed and we closed her up.
Onto Alpha Hive. The hive was very busy and perfect in every sense. We quickly removed the top honey super and found that there were 3 beautifully capped frames which we took and replaced with 3 empty frames. All in all, everything was going well so that's all to report on the honeybee hives.
We harvested the honey and bottled about 17 honey containers this weekend. This batch was much darker and extremely thicker than the first batch which was lighter and with regular thickness. We're hoping for another prosperous honey harvest with the next nectar flow which will occur sometime later this month and into next month.
Here's a picture of the honey harvest:
Our purpose for opening the hives today was to make sure that the queen we placed in the Nasty Hive last week successfully emerged from her cage and accepted by the colony. Sure enough when we opened it we noticed a remarkable difference in the comb that was built during the week. We found it to be more advanced and uniform than before. Last week the comb tended to be off to one side of the hive and this week we noticed the honeybees were working more frames.
We pulled out a few frames and Jim being better at this than me, was looking for egg laying. We noticed that the brood was evenly distributed and once we sure that we didn't have any laying workers, we were put at ease a bit and proceeded to find the queen. That was the last stressful thing we needed to make sure happened. Sure enough, Jim found her AGAIN! Jim - 15, Frank - 0
Satisfied we closed the Nasty Hive and off we went to check on Hive C. All was well there. A bit messy with the slow building comb but we feel that the frames weren't spaced properly so that's why the comb wasn't even. Brood existed and we closed her up.
Onto Alpha Hive. The hive was very busy and perfect in every sense. We quickly removed the top honey super and found that there were 3 beautifully capped frames which we took and replaced with 3 empty frames. All in all, everything was going well so that's all to report on the honeybee hives.
We harvested the honey and bottled about 17 honey containers this weekend. This batch was much darker and extremely thicker than the first batch which was lighter and with regular thickness. We're hoping for another prosperous honey harvest with the next nectar flow which will occur sometime later this month and into next month.
Here's a picture of the honey harvest:
Monday, July 4, 2011
Bees: Saturday, July 2nd, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, high 80's, sunny, clear sky
Our mission today was to check on the nasty hive and see if there were any signs of a queen...brood, freshly laid eggs, etc. Upon opening the covers you could hear the roar of a colony without a queen but we still pulled out one frame at a time and examined each one. By the 7th frame, we both realized that in order for this colony to survive, we need to re-queen it asap. We closed her up and instead of checking the other hives, we quickly changed out of our INTEL suits and headed off to Greenwich NY.
When we researched to see if Betterbee in Greenwich was open, we read that because of the holiday weekend they were closing for a few days. Jim remembered there was this other guy Salvatore from the same town that may have a queen to sell us. Jim remembered that the last time he contacted Salvatore via email, he responded quickly. Sure enough when I sent an email, Salvatore responded within minutes that he had one and would only charge us $20.
It was about 1pm at this point so we had a quick lunch and took off. Salvatore's directions were good and since Jim and I had done this drive twice this year already, it was very familiar. We arrived at Salvatore's house and noticed he had a huge honeybee setup in the back of his property. He was a trusting individual and left the queen bee in a cage on his porch for us. We took the queen and left the money in it's place and headed home. Here's the queen in her cage with 3 worker bees that will tend to her until she's released by the other bees in the hive:
When we arrived home we suited up again and headed up to the hives. The queens placement in the nasty hive went well and we're planning on checking the hive again next week to make sure she's accepted. IF they kill her, it can only mean that there are laying workers in the hive and we'll need to remove them before putting anymore queens in. To do this we'll need to shake off the boards at least 100 feet away and make sure no bees hitch a ride back on the frames we've shaken. Any bees that fly back to the hive we can be sure aren't laying workers and only then can we reintroduce a new queen.
We then opened up the other hives and they were both operating wonderfully with no issues. Jim and I ended up taking another fully capped frame from the Alpha Hive and set it in the freezer since the bees had created a tunnel in it and were difficult to remove. The next time we have a few frames of honey....hopefully by the 2nd nectar flow...we'll go through the honey harvesting again. In the meantime, we'll keep it in the freezer.
We also filtered the beeswax this weekend in order to make candles at some point. Here's a picture of the pure filtered beeswax that was poured into an aluminum baking loaf pan...along with some of the harvested golden deliciousness:
After we finished with the hive maintenance, Jim and I walked around the property to see what new flowers were sprouting and Jim noticed a honeybee cleaning itself. It appears that this honeybee is a water carrier. These little ladies carry water back to the hive and make sure the temperature is comfortable for everyone. They use it to cool the hive as well as for drinking. Here's a clip Jim took:
While at work this week, we'll be thinking of how this new queen in the nasty hive is fairing.
Our mission today was to check on the nasty hive and see if there were any signs of a queen...brood, freshly laid eggs, etc. Upon opening the covers you could hear the roar of a colony without a queen but we still pulled out one frame at a time and examined each one. By the 7th frame, we both realized that in order for this colony to survive, we need to re-queen it asap. We closed her up and instead of checking the other hives, we quickly changed out of our INTEL suits and headed off to Greenwich NY.
When we researched to see if Betterbee in Greenwich was open, we read that because of the holiday weekend they were closing for a few days. Jim remembered there was this other guy Salvatore from the same town that may have a queen to sell us. Jim remembered that the last time he contacted Salvatore via email, he responded quickly. Sure enough when I sent an email, Salvatore responded within minutes that he had one and would only charge us $20.
It was about 1pm at this point so we had a quick lunch and took off. Salvatore's directions were good and since Jim and I had done this drive twice this year already, it was very familiar. We arrived at Salvatore's house and noticed he had a huge honeybee setup in the back of his property. He was a trusting individual and left the queen bee in a cage on his porch for us. We took the queen and left the money in it's place and headed home. Here's the queen in her cage with 3 worker bees that will tend to her until she's released by the other bees in the hive:
When we arrived home we suited up again and headed up to the hives. The queens placement in the nasty hive went well and we're planning on checking the hive again next week to make sure she's accepted. IF they kill her, it can only mean that there are laying workers in the hive and we'll need to remove them before putting anymore queens in. To do this we'll need to shake off the boards at least 100 feet away and make sure no bees hitch a ride back on the frames we've shaken. Any bees that fly back to the hive we can be sure aren't laying workers and only then can we reintroduce a new queen.
We then opened up the other hives and they were both operating wonderfully with no issues. Jim and I ended up taking another fully capped frame from the Alpha Hive and set it in the freezer since the bees had created a tunnel in it and were difficult to remove. The next time we have a few frames of honey....hopefully by the 2nd nectar flow...we'll go through the honey harvesting again. In the meantime, we'll keep it in the freezer.
We also filtered the beeswax this weekend in order to make candles at some point. Here's a picture of the pure filtered beeswax that was poured into an aluminum baking loaf pan...along with some of the harvested golden deliciousness:
| Melted Beeswax....and our honey |
While at work this week, we'll be thinking of how this new queen in the nasty hive is fairing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)