Another cool thing in the woods

Lily has spent a lot of time in the woods the spring.   Spring is a great time to find cool things in the woods. 

Like this.   At first glace it looked like a snail climbing on a weirdly shaped leaf. 

But on closer investigation, the leaf actually grew through the shell.

Cool!!

It grew through the shell at exactly the right angle as to pick it up and not knock it out of the way.

What are the chances of that, do you suppose?

And aren't we lucky to see it?

Honey Banana Muffins

As we now have bees and will eventually have honey, I've been keeping my eyes open for honey recipes. A while ago I saw this recipe for Honey Cake in the Penzey's catalog.   I was intrigued.  So I tried it.  It was good.

But kind of heavy on the cardamom.

And even though it was a honey cake, it had sugar in it, too.   Which means that honey was a flavoring more than the sweetening.  If you know what I mean.

And saffron is really pretty, but not so pretty that I need to waste it on a cake that was going to turn yellow anyway from the honey and the eggs.

So I decided to make a couple of changes.

A little less cardamom.

Skip the saffron.

No sugar.    So maybe add a banana?

And vanilla.

And yogurt. 

And make muffins instead of a cake. 

And it was good.   The heavens opened and the angels sang halleluias. 

You need to make some.   Today.

Honey Banana Muffins

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3/4 cup honey
• 1 ripe banana
• 3 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup yogurt
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 T baking powder

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the butter and honey.   Add the banana and eggs.  Mix well.   Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.  Add slowly to the wet ingredients until incorporated.

Bake in papers or greased cupcake pan for 28 minutes.  As soon as you put them in the oven, lower the temp to 325.  It makes taller muffins.   Really.   I tried it. 

Yield:  24 muffins.

Now, I think I need to try it with a  streusel topping.   Sounds really good, huh.

Camassia

 A couple of miles or so down the way from us is a big patch of camassia quamash.  It's beautiful.   

Here's the wiki, if you're interested.

These grow in a big patch by the side of the road and this year they are truly spectacular.    They're an unusually pale blue variety.  Most are a nice medium blue.   These almost look white. 

They usually bloom right after the daffs finish.  I look forward to them every year.    If you look closely at the leaves on the ground in this pic, you can see that there's a little twinleaf and bloodroot there, too.  

Such treasures.   By the side of the road.

Cedar-Apple Rust Revisited

So, you remember last fall when we found those little brain-y looking things in our cedar trees?    We picked them off the cedars whenever we found them.   We missed this tree.

This is what happens in the Spring, when it's warm and rainy.   They turn into orange blobby things. 

I was walking up to the hives and saw this.   

Pretty, in a weird kinda way.  Like orange Christmas ornaments.

Here's a better look at the clusters.    There were a lot on this tree.  

Here's a good look at the 'bloom'.   These were easily as big as your fist.

We saw them on cedars down the road, too.

No apples on this place this year.

We've got three apple trees and this might be a good year to take out the two little ones and plant something else.   We'll keep the big one for shade.

Chevre

A few weeks ago, my girls and I and Murphala from Flour, Water, Yeast & Salt took a road trip to the Swiss Connection in Clay City, Indiana.    To buy milk.   And lots of it.  I got 4 gallons of fabulous raw milk.   But I"ll tell you about that later. 

On our way to Clay City, we stopped at Freedom Country Store, just north of Worthington.  It's a wonderful Amish store with all sorts of things that I can't find a Kroger.  Like clear-gel.  And bulk grits.  And raw goat milk.  Yep, I got a gallon of raw goat milk there.   I was going to make some chevre with that goat milk.   And I did.   And it was delicious.

With fresh mango and kiwi and pancakes.   Mmmm.

You can get the culture from New England Cheesemaking Supply.  

All you do is warm the milk to 86 degrees, add the culture, stir well, let it sit overnight, then drain in cheesecloth to the consistency you want.   Put it in a bowl, salt to taste and enjoy.    It's fabulous.

We've tried to make it with regular goat milk from the store, but that is generally ultrapasteurized - which means they cook it, then put it in the carton.    It makes a lousy curd.   If you can get your hands on raw goat milk, it's worth the chase.   Fresh chevre is a miracle. 

We eat it plain, by the spoonful.   Or on pancakes.   Or spaghetti with sliced tomatoes and basil.  Or on fruit.   Or on paninis.   And sometimes on all of them at the same time.  

Chevre is good.

We love chevre.

Poop Quiz

It's been a while, I know.   

But I'm always on the lookout for good poop to show you.

It's what makes living in the country so exciting. 

See those little yellow and gold spots in the pic?    Those are on the lid of our Flower Lang beehive.   We took the top off and set it on its edge while we were installing the bees.

Which totally gives away who is responsible for the poop, I know. 

After we had dumped the bees in the hive, many of them took off into the air and then dumped their loads.    It was a bit like rain.   Only it left gold spots. 

Bee poop, like all poop, can tell you a lot about the health of the hive.    Bees can get a disease called nosema, which causes dysentery in the bees.   If I were an experienced beekeeper, I could tell just by looking whether any of these bees had nosema.  

If you're a beek who knows, then drop a line in the comments and fill us in on the clues.

Hives - Day 19 Check

Blow these pics up for great details

Confession:    I was really tempted just to give you a couple of nice pics, brag that we found both queens and loads of capped brood and leave it at that.  

The truth is, I did just about everything wrong this time that I could.  Yep.  Pretty much I demonstrated that I have no bee finesse yet at all. 

At All. 

I felt like a bull in china shop.  Plus we were fighting the camera with veils and gloves.  Nothing went right.  Geez.   I should rename this part of the blog:  Rurification: We make stupid bee mistakes so you don't have to!

One thing - this time Eric started the smoker with a torch.   It totally worked!  Thanks, you guys at Beemaster!   A bunch of you said to fill it, torch it, pump the bellows like crazy, get a good flame, then put something on top [I used a skein of scrap yarn].   We had a charcoal briquet, some sumac berries, a bit of toilet paper and toilet paper roll, and some cardboard it in from previous attempts to light the blasted thing when Eric torched it this time.   We had plenty of great cool smoke for the whole inspection.   Woo-hoo!    Now I just have to learn how to use the torch all by myself.  

Anyway.   Here's the awful truth about how things went today.  

We opened the Tardis hive first, and the first thing I saw was burr comb.  Drat!  And this had been the hive that had great comb with no problems last time.   




We investigated and long story short,  when we put splines in the top bars, where the foundation is supposed to go, we put them in too low and the bees built off to one side instead of straight down the middle.  

LESSON:  If you use splines, leave only 1/16 inch or less showing.    We moved all the rest of the splines up so that they barely showed in the empty frames and on any that we had to do repairs on.




The bees were unhappy when I started messing with the frames and I really wanted to see how our repairs from last time worked before I did the same thing on the Tardis, so we closed that hive up and went to look at how the Flower Lang was doing with the repairs we had done on it. 

Remember that little comb on the frame with the double comb?   We repaired it by putting it in a frame with rubber bands.  It had come out anyway and was lying in the bottom of the hive.   And those rotten bees had built another little comb on the frame where we had taken the first one off.   Erg.  And they had built up the place on the other side that I had carved down. 

Really, what was I thinking?  I was nuts to think that they wouldn't.  

LESSON:   Cut out those burr comb bumps, don't carve them down and expect them to not come back.   This means I might have to wait until the comb is attached well enough to support it even if it's missing a bit of the center section.  Next time I'm going to carve it down a bit further for a few weeks until there's a lot more comb attached to the sides.   I'll keep moving the new [soft] comb to the center.  Then I'll cut out the bump out completely.

The next stupid thing I did was tilt a frame over on its side when the comb wasn't fully attached.  It was full of honey and brood and broke right off.   Dumb, dumb, dumb.

LESSON:  Don't tilt the frame until it's fully attached at all sides.  Better yet, don't tilt the comb at all.

It took a while to repair, and the temp was only in the 50s, so there's a good chance some of the brood got chilled.   Chilling the brood could kill it or cause deformities.   Another dumb mistake.  I wish I had realized that before I got done with the inspection.

LESSON:  Don't mess with the bees on chilly days.   Don't take out the frames.  Stay inside and read about bees and stupid beekeeper mistakes instead.

In all, in that hive, we had to repair 5 frames of comb.   I tried to leave the bees on the comb while I worked, but that wasn't always optimal for my concentration or their safety. 

When we got to the last frame, next to the wall that they had put burr comb on before,  we found that they had attached this comb it to the wall again with just a couple of inches of burr, but no extra comb on the wall this time.  And they had done a very interesting patch around to the comb in the frame.   It had sagged a bit in the center, so I centered it.  I have no clue whether it will work or not.




The good news about this hive is that we found lots of capped brood and a bit of capped honey.  And we found the queen.   We knew she was there, but it was nice to be able to spot her.    She's large and gorgeous.

When we were done, we scooted the frames together and closed it all up and moved back to the Tardis.   Lily came out and took over the camera while we were looking at this hive.   She took these last pics.

The Tardis had some comb on 8 of the frames, nowhere near full frames, but still lots of comb.   And plenty of capped brood!    We didn't see any capped honey in this hive.  

We did find the queen in this hive, too.   This makes me really, really happy, because I want to be a good queenspotter. 

And also, truth be told,  I felt like spotting the queen was the only right thing I did in this whole inspection. 

This hive had that one frame with a bit of burr comb on it.   I decided to just cut that section out completely and adjust the soft outer edge to the center.   We put rubber bands around it to support it just in case something happened after we closed things up.    I hope it works.

If some of you experienced beeks are so disgusted that you want to take my bees away, I wouldn't blame you.   So far, I've been a pretty pathetic beekeeper. 

Elaeagnus

Our elaeagnus is in bloom.   The autumn olive.   You can read about it here.

K2 went out and got these great pics.

They are glorious this year.   Hopefully that will mean a bumper crop of berries and lots of jam.   In the meantime, the bees and butterflies are in heaven. 

The bushes are loaded with bloom and with buzzing, fluttering visitors.   It's kind of noisy.   And let me tell you, you don't want to ride the mower too close under one of these or you'll knock a wasp into your face.   I've done it.  

Our bees have found these bushes and are all over it.  Next year, I hope to harvest some of the honey they make from these bushes - if it tastes anything like the flowers smell, then it will be heavenly.

Heavenly.

Those Blasted Walnuts

We have a few black walnut trees in the yard.   Every other year they have a bumper crop of walnuts that drop all over the yard and garden.

All.  Over.

It's a chore to pick them up, but it's good exercise.   And we can save some for dyeing.   The rest are raked into piles and then dumped across the way for the squirrels, or left in the road.    

Last year, I raked a monster pile to the edge of yard and then forgot about it.    This spring, it started growing.  

Because I need 250 more walnut trees next to the mailbox. 

So I got a rake and a shovel one day last week and took care of it.  

The good news is that it had composted beautifully!  There were four wheelbarrow loads full of walnut debris.   I hauled it all across the way. 

The bad news is that when I was done, I had a huge bare patch in the yard.  I had forgotten that a pile of walnuts is toxic to whatever is underneath.

I figure it'll grow grass again sometime.  In a decade.  

In the meantime, it'll be easy to mow.   And fun to see which weeds take that spot over first.   I'm hoping it'll be the wild vinca.   I like that stuff.

Hive Tools

There are a few handy tools to have when you start beekeeping.   Here's our list in order of importance:

1.  Protective clothing.   The less afraid of being stung you are, the more comfortable you'll be with the bees.  We didn't use any of it during the installation, but once those bees are at home in a hive, they'll defend it.   You don't want any surprises. 

2.  A good smoker.    Don't skimp.

3.  A good hive tool for prying the top off and loosening the frames out of the supers.   Bees glue everything together and seal things up with propolis, which is a glue they make out of tree sap.   It works.   You need a strong, thin prybar of some sort to get things apart.

4.  A brush.   A nice, soft synthetic one.   Don't use a natural bristle brush made out of animal products.  Bees hate those.    The brush will help you get all the bees off the frames so they don't accidentally get squished. 

5.  A frame support.  These hang off the side of the hive when you're working a hive, so you can take frames out of the supers and place them in the support and not on the ground.  This is very handy, but a clean plastic tub might work just as well. 

6.  A feeder.   There are loads of ways to feed your bees.  These are handy, but not necessary.

A long time ago, I burned our hill

As you may know, I have a love/hate relationship with most mowers. It is a sad fact that I treat mowers more like battering rams than grass cutters.

Since our property is doing its best to revert to forest, it is a constant battle to keep the trees and rosebushes and brambles from taking over everything. It would look like Sleeping Beauty's rose covered castle if we stopped mowing for very long. In fact, there are places on our property that look like that already. I'm pretty sure that our place is the inspiration for the phrase, "Everything's coming up roses".

Our only defense against the ever encroaching thorny jungle is the riding mower. I have been known to mow down small trees and giant rosebushes with a small riding lawn mower. Here's how: Put it in 2nd gear, slightly uphill from your target. Let off the break, tuck elbows and knees in, scream Geronimo and ram the target.  It works very, very well.

Very well, I tell you.

It's amazing what a typical mower with a 36 or so inch deck can mow through. Our first little Craftsman mower was the best battering ram I ever had. I loved that thing. It had a nice wide bar at the front that sort of pushed things out of the way before they went under the mower. This is especially important when mowing through roses and brambles. You need a mower that will push them away from you as you go through them. It is no fun getting whipped across the face/head with a rose or bramble cane. Just yesterday I got hit right in the face with an old blackberry cane that left thorns in my nose and cheek. Blood ensued from my wounds. Curses ensued from my mouth.

I no longer have my beloved 36 inch Craftsman mower.   I'll tell you why.

One April, many years ago, I set out on my annual quest to tame the roses and brambles on this place. I mowed paths through the jungle so that people could walk around this place and enjoy its beautiful vistas and surprises - like the iris bog, the view of the giant old oak tree, the creeks, the view from the top of the big hill. I spent one glorious weekend, dressed in denim armor, wearing goggles, ear protectors and hats, clearing miles of paths through the acres of dead bramble canes and huge old roses.

Once I cleared the paths, I decided to take out some of the monster roses on our big hill. It's a great sledding hill, except it's full of brambles and roses, which are no fun to land in. Ask me how I know.

I started with the smaller roses. I set the mower on 2nd, gave it a head start and rammed those roses right over. Smack, crack, crunch. The mower chewed them up and spat them out, leaving a trail of stumps and masticated canes in its wake. It was brilliant.

I gained confidence as I gained experience. I took out bigger and bigger roses. I and my mower were invincible.

Invincible.

Rose after rose, bigger and bigger, they fell. And then I took aim at one Medusa of a rose full of dead canes and whippy live ones, rising out of a sea of last year's grass, in the middle of the hill. I rammed it with all the force of my trusty steed and overconfident personality.

And got stuck right in the middle of it.

Stuck. As in can't really back up out of it.

Then I smelled smoke.

And realized that the dried grass had been rammed up into the muffler of the mower and was now beginning to burn.

Crap.

So I backed up harder and finally got free. But by then the middle of the rosebush was on fire, so I turned off the mower so I could jump off and go put the fire out.

Except the mower wouldn't turn off.

As in, wouldn't turn off.

Wouldn't. Turn. Off. Even after I took the key out. Apparently the fire had burned out some important wiring in the mower.

And speaking of the fire, it was getting bigger.

So I jumped off the mower, praying that since it's got one of those seat sensors that it would go off. And it did. Whew.

So, I went to fight the fire with my.....feet. And gloved hands. Because I'm brave like that and have actually beaten out a field fire with my feet and a carpet, but I didn't have a carpet, so I was going to use my gloves if I had to.

But it's kind of impossible to stomp out a fire in the middle of a rosebush.

And you know how it's kind of breezy in the spring and sometimes kind of windy? This was one of those days.

In no time flat, the breeze had whipped that fire into a frenzy and that rosebush belched flames in every direction and it was clear that it was way bigger than me. So I jumped on the mower to get it out of the way and to get to the house to call 911.

But the mower wouldn't start.

As in, Would. Not. Start.

So I left it there on the hill with the fire and I took off for the house, which I reached a couple of minutes later, gasping for air and clutching the cramp in my side. [I'm not much of a runner, you see. At. All. I don't think I've run, even once, since that day.]

And I called 911 because by then I was scared spitless that I had just started the fire that would burn down my house and most of Greene County. It was terrifying.

And 911 said they'd get someone out there right away.

Right away is a really long time.

We live almost exactly 4 miles away from the fire station. It felt like forever.

So to kill time, I called my husband to fill him in on the action. Because nothing says, 'I love you', like sharing the joy of a field fire on a dry windy day. When he's too far away to help.

The truth is I was sort of hysterical. And we were waiting and waiting and waiting.  It felt like the fire trucks would never get there. And I was really scared that the fire would reach last year's leaves in the woods and really get going. And that it would jump the creek and get to the house. And that once it got to the woods, it would get my neighbors' houses, too. Talk about bad karma.

So I hung up from Eric and wrangled the 15 feet of garden hose that we had and was determined to defend my house and children against the fiery beast.

And the fire trucks still hadn't come, so I called 911 again. Just to remind them that we had a fire and I was scared it was going to get the house. In case they had forgotten. [I'm not kidding.]

She assured me that they were on their way. [And not very nicely, as I recall. Geez.]

In the meantime, Eric had called the neighbors, who came down the other hill from their place bearing shovels. They promptly began to regale me with stories of how they had set their fields on fire, too. They assured me everything would be OK.

God bless them.

About that time the first volunteer fireman showed up with a tank on the back of his truck. Halleluia. Except it was empty. I showed him where to get trucks up to the hill and he said, 'They'll be here soon. We just got done putting one of these out at my house.' I didn't know whether to be comforted or not.

Finally, finally the other trucks got there. You know, the ones with actual water in them.

And soon the field was full of firefighters with water tanks and sprayers on their backs and neighbors with shovels. They walked around the fire and sprayed and stomped and pounded it out. I'd like to say that I was up there helping them out, but the truth is I was trying to keep my kids calm. And my neighbors were trying to keep me calm. And some time during this part, Eric called me back, or I called him back and I was giving him a blow by blow account of what was happening.

It took a while for them to get the fire under control, though I must say that all those paths I mowed did indeed help them get to stuff.  When the fire was out around the edges, all the firefighters moved toward the center of the burned site, where sat my mower.  Smoking.

Slowly they circled the mower, spraying, watching, waiting.

There was a moment of stillness and I swear one of them crossed himself and they gave that mower the last rites. 

Then they packed their gear and said good bye and I said thank you about five million times and they left.

And then the fire started burning again. [I'm not kidding] The edge on the bottom side wasn't quite out.

So, I panicked and started screeching. And my completely implacable neighbor just looked at me, then picked up his shovel and went up the hill to pound it out. I vaguely remember feeling pretty bad about not helping fight the big fire and feeling like I ought to at least help pound a little, since I had started the fire, so I grabbed my shovel and ran up to help. Remember how I told you I don't really run? By the time I 'ran' up that hill, I was huffing and puffing and my neighbor looked at me like he was afraid I might have a coronary right there and said, 'Are you all right? I've got this. It's nothing much' And he pounded it out.

When I asked him if it was going to stay out, he looked at me and said, 'Yes.'

And he walked back down the hill to collect his family and go back home.

In the end, the fire burned up pretty much the entire east side of our big hill - a few acres.  When Eric got home we went to look at the mower, reigning supreme in the middle of a big black hill.   The mower was in remarkably good shape considering that the wiring was completely burned up and the tires were melted.

Unfortunately, most of the windows in the house face that view. So does the road. For a week that blackened hill and dead mower mocked me every time I looked out the window. It was awful. Finally, I begged Eric to at least pull the mower off the hill so I and everyone who drove by wouldn't be reminded of my stupidity.

We hid the mower behind a willow tree where it sat until another neighbor bought it for scrap. I was never so grateful as the day he hauled that away.

The hill recovered quite nicely - as you'd expect. In a week or so new green shoots came up and it would have been really pretty if it hadn't been so humiliating.

One good thing though. That rose bush?

Toast.

Bluebells

Not far from us, on the sandy shore of a creek that regularly floods, there is a wood full of bluebells - Mertensia viginica.   

For a very short time in April or early May, the bluebells bloom and it's as if the sky has come down to drink at the water's edge.

And then they are gone until next year.

The Fiber Event at Greencastle

This weekend is The Fiber Event at Greencastle, Indiana.    Putnam County Fairgrounds.

April 20-21, 2012
Friday 10:30-7
Saturday 9-5

Free admission.   Loads of vendors of all kinds of products for knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, felting, hooking, etc.    Animals to look at.  Good food to eat.   This is one of our favorite shows of the year.

A bonus is that the weather is usually cooler, so everyone is wearing the beautiful things they've been making lately.   It's a constant fashion show. 

Come see us in our booth in the Community Building!   We'll be selling hand dyed yarns and some gorgeous alpaca batts with all sorts of sparkling surprises in them.    I'll also have a box of white cones that I'm ready to let go of - some nice fine rayon seed and a natural fluffy, cotton boucle.   They'll go fast, so if you're interested, come early.

If you want me to bring something special for you, email me [email on the sidebar] and I'll have it ready and waiting for you.

See you there!

Yellow Violets

Most of the violets we get are the regular purple kind.

I love them.

A lot.

But in the Spring, deep in the woods, up from the leaf litter, under the trees we find these.

I love them, too.

Bees - Day 12 check

We were so excited to do our first real check of the hives.   This time we put on our veils because we weren't sure how docile the bees would be. 

And we used the smoker.    Can I just say right now that so far the hardest thing about beekeeping is keeping the stupid smoker lit?   Geez. 

The first hive we checked was the Tardis.    We took out two empty frames on the far end so we'd have room to move things around and put them on the frame holder outside the hive.    Then we took out each frame in turn to see how things were going.  When we were done looking at it, we put it back in the hive scooted over to the side so we could pull out the next one.

We were happy to find 6 frames partially filled with comb.

It was beautiful.

White, white comb.   Covered with bees.   The bees on this comb were thick and we had to brush them off to see anything.

See that bright red pollen cell in the center?  They keep some  pollens separate.  Some is red, most is yellow, some is creamy.

So we brushed them gently into the hive.   And underneath, on the bottom halfs of the combs we found lots of eggs.

If you blow the pic up you can see what look like grains of rice in the cells.  Those are eggs.

That yellow thing?   Pollen.

At the top of each comb we found glistening stores of uncapped honey and below that loads of pollen.

Honey is concentrated by evaporation, eventually it will reach the right concentration and then the bees cap it so that it doesn't become diluted by the humid air.    Cool, huh.

We saw lots of different pollens on the bees.


Here's some white.   Look at the size of those baskets.

And here's some yellow.

I wanted to get some better pictures, but the bees move constantly and quickly and it was really hard to get anything decent.  I'll keep trying.   You wouldn't believe the size some of the pollen baskets get.


Anyway, we looked carefully through all 6 frames for the queen, but never found her.    I wasn't surprised.   It takes a certain skill to be a queenspotter and I imagine that will take time.

When we were done, we put the frames back where they were, pushed them tightly together, put the lid back on and moved to the Flower Lang.

We lit the smoker, again.   Opened it up and the first thing we saw was a bit of burr comb on the south side.

That comb running perpendicular from the frames to the side of the box, doesn't belong there.

Rookie mistake.   When the frames are all in the box, there's still about an inch of wiggle room.   You need to push the frames together to one side or in the center so that you won't get burr comb.

I pushed them to one side - the north side.   But the bees like the warmer, south side to put their brood against so, they built comb where they wanted it.

The bees will do what they want and not what you want.

We started at the other end of the hive and left the burr comb for last.   I removed 3 frames from the other side and started looking at what the bees were doing.

Interesting.    The first frame I pulled out had this in it.   A lovely little piece of comb on the edge of the frame, with bee space behind it and between it and a bigger piece of comb on the other side.

Not going to work. 

And sure enough when I put the frame back in, it fell right off.

Not to worry.   I knew how to fix it.

I put rubber bands around an empty frame like this.



Then I tucked the comb in the frame with the rubber bands to support it.

Neat trick, huh!   I learned that by watching vids on the forum at beemaster.com.   

The comb will stay there quite nicely and the bees will fill in around it, where I want them to.

Now that comb on the other side of the first frame we pulled out was too far to the other side. 

So I took a knife and carved it down level with the top of the frame so it wouldn't bump out.

I was afraid that these two combs were wonky because all the others were first, but when we looked, the ones in the middle were just fine. 

Lucky.

We took out all the other frames and looked at them and they all had plenty of eggs, pollen and uncapped honey.   Then we got to the last one with the burr comb.  

I cut the burr off the last frame so we could take it out.  And this is what we found behind it. 

An entire comb on the wall of the super.   With bee space behind it.

It had to come out.    So I put my gloves on because there was no way I was going to get all those bees out of there first,  and I wanted to concentrate on getting the comb out not not getting stung because I crowded the bees.

I cut straight down the side of the super and was happy to see that it was connected by only 3 inches or so of wax.  

You can see the section that was connected.   It looks like the bottom stroke of a capital Q in the pic.

This frame was all pollen and honey.  No eggs.  No surprise.  No room to move around much.  Plus, the bees typically keep the stores to the outer edge of the hive and the brood in the middle.

I repaired this comb the same way I did the other, by tucking it between rubber bands in a frame.   Then I put that frame back on that side of the hive, only I pushed the frames tight together on that south side this time.   Hopefully the bees will get the hint.

When the bees fill this frame in, they'll chew the rubber bands off, or when I go back in, if there's plenty of comb around this one supporting it and connecting it to the frame, I can clip them off and get them out of the bees' way.


All in all, it was a very interesting inspection.    We found no capped honey or brood yet in either hive, but it's only been 12 days.   We'll do another frame inspection next weekend and we hope to find plenty of capped brood and capped honey.  

In the meantime, I have got to spend some quality time with the smoker practicing keeping it lit. 

Margaritas Towel

I saw towels like these in a catalog and fell in love with them.

In love.

They were called 'One too many margaritas'.   Which made me laugh.

And made me want to make them even more.   It took a while to figure out exactly what colors to start with because I was going from a pic, but by trial and error I figured it out. 

I love them.    I like to just sit in front of them and stare.  

Here are the details: 
Handwoven by me of 100% cotton. $20 each.   I do them in sets of four if you want a set.  Machine washed and dried.   16"x24" right out of the dryer.   Email me if you want them before they go up on etsy.   robin at morenna dot com

Feeding the bees

Feeding the bees has been really interesting.  

First of all, let me reiterate:  Do not feed your bees honey unless you know exactly what hive it came from and that that hive is disease [AFB] free.   

So now we're feeding sugar water in a 1:1 ratio.   It's cheap.   It's relatively easy.    Since we have two hive types, we are feeding in two locations, using jar feeders.   Jar feeders have lids with holes poked in them.   You turn them upside down and the bees will drink it.   Easy. 

This is a jar feeder in a boardman feeder setup.   The base fits under the edge of the hive, then we can put in an entrance board that restricts the rest of the opening down there to keep robbers out. 

Robbers are bees from other hives that steal from an easy target.   There are guard bees posted to keep robbers away.  

This is what it looks like when the guard bees deal with a robber.  It isn't pretty.

The bee in the middle didn't last long. 

Because robbing can be such a problem, experienced beeks recommend that whenever possible you put the feeder inside the hive. 

This is how we do it on the lang.  

We take the telescoping cover off, then set the jar upside down on the inner cover [no base needed], then set another super around it, then put the telescoping cover back on.

We put the inner cover with notch down.   The bees can get in and out without going past the feeder.

The hive looks like this with the extra super on it.   The top level is empty except for the feeder.   

This totally eliminates robbing from the feeder and helps keep it warm, too.  

Once we get smaller covers for the Tardis hive, we'll put that feeder in the top, too.