Tag Archives: bee keeping

Anarchy or Order

Posted on by
3

Reading over some of these four hundred pages of farm notes the other day and the saying “the more things change the more they stay the same” crossed my mind. Certain themes are recurrent: food, labor, the seasons, community and chaos.

Last night after a long and productive day as we watched raw sewage bubble up through the access cap to the septic line the latter theme was on my mind. The day started with Caleb and me trudging up to the back for a five hour session of mending fences. Hard but gratifying work under blue skies and cool fall temperatures is not the worst way to spend a portion of one’s day. Around one o’clock we headed back home, put our tools away and went in the house. Caleb departed soon after for home and Cindy caught me up on her morning.

She had made a trip to town for livestock feed, got her haircut, made yogurt and put an errant steer up… three times. She gave up on him after the fourth escape. So, tired and ready for my beauty rest we instead both put on our boots and went in search of him. Easily found standing in our neighbor’s yard we put him back up and moved the herd to a new pasture. Well, at least we tried numerous times. The herd was not in a cooperative mood. We gave up.

Back in the house Cindy napped while I renewed my knowledge on honey extraction. She arose after an hour refreshed and we headed out and spent a couple of hours raiding the hives for honey. Twelve quarts of honey later, a few thousand aggrieved bees and we were done except for the clean-up.

We walked back in the house, satisfied but weary, for coffee. It was my night to cook so I pulled out a rooster that had been thawing in the fridge and got to work. Cindy pulled her boots back on, got the dogs, and moved the cattle up to the back forty. Hopefully they will all be satisfied with the menu of fescue and stay within our property lines.

She finished up the chores while I finished a dish of chicken mole poblano with a side of rice and a salad of rocket greens. We dined, mostly in silence, tired from a long day with some unexpected detours. An hour or so before bed, after an excursion to the bathroom, it was discovered that the commode was unresponsive: Cue standing out in the dark watching the sewage fountain.

Up at dawn I pulled out our electric auger and cleared the drain to the septic system. Anarchy or Order: some days all we do is hold the one at bay.

A Fall Update

Posted on by
Reply

That first real hint of the winter to come rolled in yesterday. We were in the middle of conducting a workshop for fifteen participants on how to raise a homestead hog when we all felt the temperature drop. Felt more keenly since all were dressed for a sunny sixty plus degree day. What we received instead was an overcast windy day with temps dropping into the mid-fifties.

Odd how our bodies adapt, soon a day with the temperature rising to 55 will remind us of the warmth to come in spring and summer. For now the change has us reaching for cups of hot tea and thinking of warm hearty foods.

Lambs: The lamb, injured by a dog, is recovering nicely. Her appetite is strong and she is very active with no trace of a limp. She is still confined in the hospital ward, aka the dog pen, and receives a shot of penicillin twice daily. No recurrence of maggots, thankfully. The old injured flesh has fallen away leaving large circle, perhaps 12 inches in diameter of new pink flesh. A smaller area of about four inches is still scabbed over. But consider where she started and you will agree she has come a long way.

The other lambs are healthy and close to 100 pounds each. A date with the processor has been set and they will make the fateful truck journey the week of Thanksgiving; A cruel irony for the lambs and for the customers plenty to be thankful. The injured lamb will remain and join the other ewe lambs as breeding stock.

Gardening: I love fall and winter gardening. The bugs are at a minimum, the weeds are sluggish and whatever you plant seems to thrive. A bonus is the absolute thrill and joy to walk out on a cool morning and harvest beautiful ten pound Hubbard squashes.

Hubbards

The squash patch has another fifty to harvest in the next four weeks as long as we can avoid a heavy frost. Perfect for stews, we love our winter squash!

The turnips and the collards are all up and thriving. The mustard greens were the first to reach a harvestable size this past week. Sweet potatoes are still holding out and will not be harvested until the leaves begin to die back.

Bees and horses: If the weather warms enough today we will complete our fall harvest of honey. We hope to be able to get forty pounds of rich dark honey, more than enough to see us through to next fall. Having your own honey in the cupboard is real food security. Like Tolkien’s character Beorn in The Hobbit, we feel capable of shape shifting and accomplishing mighty deeds with our honey surplus.

Last night after a nourishing stew of roast pork, greens and potatoes we had delivery of a new draft horse to the farm. A Haflinger named “Candy”, an eight year old mare, Amish trained for farm work. An absolute beauty in appearance and temperament, she offloaded easily and we secured her in the corral before turning into bed.

Well, the animals are signaling by bleats, whinnies, meows, crows, cackles, snorts and honks that our presence is requested outside. Everyone have a great week.

Bee Swarms

Posted on by
Reply

Tickner Edwardes in The Lore of the Honey-Bee, calls a swarm “one short hour of joyousness and madcap frolic after a lifetime of order, commendable toil, chill and maidenly propriety”.

Why bees swarm is still more guesswork than science. But the principle reason seems to be based on a need to preserve hive health and to federate the colony. Swarms typically occur in the spring and happen suddenly, as we now know. The bees that leave the colony take off with the old queen. In the remaining hive a new queen cell is being produced. The bees, when they realize they are overcrowded begin to slow down brood production and begin to pack-up to leave by eating surplus honey.

Scout bees begin to fan out in the neighborhood looking for an acceptable site. When all the environmental factors are ripe the signal is sent and they all take off; leaving half the hive behind, the new pioneers settle on a branch or on a building. This is where we found them last week, in a pear tree.

Once they are out of the hive and bunched the scouts come back to the swarm and try and convince the others that their location is best. Bees fly off and visit the prospective homes. Basically the home that attracts the most visitors wins in a sort of bee democracy. At that point the rest of the swarm moves to the new home.

That decision could take hours or as much as a week. Our swarm was still in the pear tree on Sunday evening and unlikely to move during the chill of the night. Monday morning, while still dark, we suited up in our bee suits. Using flashlights and a tree saw we made preparations to capture the swarm. Cindy held the branch from just above and below the swarm while I sawed.

Once the branch was cut Cindy handed the swarm to me. We had a hive body (bee box) positioned on the ground with a piece of plywood underneath and a window screen to cover. Holding the branch I gave it a firm shake and promptly 90% of the bees fell into the box. After a moment we put the screen on top with a bottle of sugar water for food and then we both left for work.

We were still short a number of items that would allow us to set up a new hive: namely new frames to hold the hive. Cindy stopped after work at the farmer’s co-op for the supplies needed. We spent a couple of hours assembling the frames. Once they were complete back on went the bee suits and out we went. I picked up the box of bees and moved it to the new location. Using the smoker to quiet them I then took off the screen. Cindy began to move the frames into place.

Imagine a box that seems to be 50% full of bees. Now imagine squeezing ten frames in that box so that they sit side by side into that swarming mass. Can’t be done, right? Actually it went smoothly. As Cindy eased the frames into place the bees either moved out of the way or got to work building a new home on each frame. By the time the tenth frame was slid in the box the bees were home. A number of bees were still outside the new hive and were bunched up against the wall. They gradually began entering through the front door.

One day after the swarm we now had a third hive with free bees. We plan on keeping a spare hive body and frames for future swarms.