Neglected but not forgotten

This poor little blog has been extremely neglected; however, things in my life are settling down a bit and blogging on a regular basis  may be possible again.  Well the much needed, dreaded move is finished. Whew...I am to old for that mess.  The next move will be out of state back to New England.  I can't wait.  Everything I love is there.  The culture, the houses, the smell of fall leaves, the snow....and of course my parent's.  Not to mention beaucoup yarn stores, festivals, the ability to state hop, drivability to NYC, etc.   The girls and I will be flying up there in October (best time of the year:)  to visit my parent's and go to Rhinebeck, NY for the big Sheep and Wool festival.  Abby is going to take a tour of CIA  while we are in NY because that's the school she wants to go to.   We'll do some Boston sight seeing, of course Salem (where my parent's live), and maybe drive to the White Mountains in New Hampshire.   Counting down the days!

Well Abby and I had our first small honey harvest on Sunday.  We actually only took 6 frames out of a shallow super and got 24 8 ounce jars and two large mason jars of honey.  I couldn't believe it!!  It went smoothly.  We didn't even use any chemicals to drive the bees down.  Just brushed them off and loaded the capped honey frames into a rubber made tote, then drove back to the honey house (which happens to be our enclosed back porch:)

 Since I don't have a fancy extractor, we did the crush and strain method that worked wonderfully.  I have a large plate full of beeswax that I am going to melt outside in a redneck solar wax melter and use for either candles or lipgloss.  Probably both.  Even Addy was helping at the end with the beeswax.

 Boy did she love the honey!

Spring Cleaning

My beehives kind of took the back burner for awhile when I wasn't feeling good and worried about other things.  Abby and I went out and did complete hive check ups a few days ago.  We added 2 new supers to two of the hives.....the one that was supposed to get the super was queenless!  Ughhh!  We took a frame of brood from my hive and placed it into the queenless hive, in hopes they will rear a queen on their own.  There are still bees flying into the hive, but it looks pitiful in comparison to the others. I may have to order a new queen.  I will open it up in a few weeks and monitor the activity.

We painted the new supers so they can better distinguish their hives.  My hive is thriving!  The queen is obviously still going strong.

Plays With Bees

I haven't opened the hives for awhile. Either the weather is bad or Abby is at school and the list goes on. When I watch them they seem to be doing well. Still bringing back pollen on their pollen baskets. Not as active at times, probably due to the cooler weather. Abby is my little bee charmer. They like her. She talks to them. She picked up this little girl in our flowering weeds. She danced on her arm and then she put her back.

Relocated..finally

Well, the last beehive was moved last night.  It really was quite a struggle.  It's the biggest hive,  I swear it weighed about 150#.  Abby and I rushed over at 6pm and started getting it ready.  Along with being the biggest, it was the most temperamental...yes, it is my hive.  After we strapped it down and smoked the girls, they were really pissed.  I didn't think we could lift it, but dh is afraid to work with the bees, so it was just me and Abby.  He man strength took over and in the truck they went.

It was almost dark when we got them back to the new beeyard.  There were ALOT of stragglers that crawled under the hive.  We had to use a little smoke to calm them down.  Somehow one of the girls managed to get inside my veil!  So I ripped that off.  When I got back to the house I heard some buzzing near my head and realized they were in my hair!   DH was laughing and  I was doing the freak out dance.  He did help me get them out though.  He did ask me how someone so scared of bugs decides to get three beehives...and then shook his head and said only you:)

Farwell Country

Up until a week ago we lived on 5 acres in the country. I wanted that. The old farmhouse and all. Well I got it. I grew up in a small town in Pa, but in the city. I've lived all over in big cities. Boston, San Fran, San Diego, Seattle, Washington DC, Hartford, Phoenix, etc.
The culture and convenience was awesome, but the grass is always greener.

The country life enthralled me. I am an animal person, so naturally the thought of having a vast amount of space to have all of my critters was intoxicating. 5 years people. I lived my dream for 5 years. Within that 5 years I sadly realized that I am a city girl at heart. I hated all the bugs, the upkeep of the property was a chore, the isolation and quiet sometimes got to me and it was pitch dark at night.

I finally had it with everything and threw in the towel. We moved one block from downtown in a quiet residential neighborhood. Yes, once agin I have neighbors. I can decorate and pass candy out to trick or treaters. I can walk to the quaint restaurants near by. I can see at night.

My new house is an old house, built in 1942. 2 stories with a charming upstairs balcony/porch that reminds me of a Parisian apt. It has a picket fence...yeah...and a little over an acre of property. Just enough for a garden, my beehives(they are city dwellers now), my dogs, bunnies and will house 2-3 chickens when I get my eggloo. I am what you would term an urban farmer.

So my love affair with the country has ended...sniff....it's bittersweet, but my love for the city has been rekindled... with a country flair:)

Comandos in the beeyard

Sam said it time and time again...."You won't want the girls once you get stung. You'll freak out and be scared. You hate bugs." Yada yada yada. Truth be told, he is somewhat right. I hate bugs. They make my skin crawl. That's why this beeventure is so crazy wild for me. BUT I passed the test. The girls are staying and not being sent to the gas chamber.   Let me shed some light on this situation. Somehow in the past 2 months my docile hive bees have turned into angry bitches. Mother freak...Wholly hell...they're satans spawn I tell you. It all started when Sam was doing a good deed one night a month ago and decided to weed the beeyard. The other hives were obliviously. God's docile creatures. That is until he started in front my hive. He said was was weeding, minding his business, when a guard bee sat and looked at him, suited up in armor, and made a straight beeline into his eye! She was a tough little solider, followed him all the way to the barn.

A few other incidents happened when they reared their evil heads and sowed their true color.  Red being theirs ...Red with horns and pitchforks! However, last night frosted the cake. I went out to feed the girls while Sam was mowing back near our beeyard. Probably not the smartest timing. Took the top jars off without a glich on the first two hives. Took a breath and went in for mine. Removed the jar and went to quickly replace the lid when all of a sudden five little warriors started flying at me.  Well I had no protective wear on, so I started walking quickly, more came flying out and then what did I do but start running....Sam was off the mower trying to avoid me, the bee prey, when I felt them crawling and stinging in my shirt...so the logical thing was to strip off my shirt which I did, along with flinging off my glasses and loosing  a new earring.  What a site for the people driving by.  A crazy women running around the yard in her bra!  The little bee soldiers followed me all the way back to my house!  5 stings...5....they burned like hell....When bees sting they give off pheromones to the others that you are the target...the enemy...so I sent the girls out to collect the strewn stuff.  There were still 2 bees twenty minutes later on my discarded shirt, encircling the air above looking for me.  Those little trackers!  The real point of this post is that I still am smitten with bees, and Sam was wrong:)

What the buzz???

"What made you decide to get bees?" someone asked with a slightly horrified expression...a very natural question seeing that 30,000 honeybees can envoke fear even in the manliest man around.  They're an insect....a flying insect that buzzes around causing us to swat and run in fear to avoid their potentially painful STINGER.   But folks, these are amazing little creatures that essentially run a neat and tidy community hidden deep within their hive.  Fascinating, really fascinating.  They have a leader...long live the Queen! She has her groupies (aka.attendants) that follow her around and attend to her every need. She employs housekeepers (for free) that keep her home tidy and clean.  She has numerous nurse maids that feed and watch her babies.  She employs guard bees to keep her home free of intruders.  Trust me folks, they are fearless and fierce, just ask Sam.  While trying make their landing pathway less cluttered by weeds...a guard bee flew off the landing path and !*BAM*!...stinger right on the eye! However, the guard bees are  sure to let the Queens personal shoppers into the hive, but only after a thourough check that they aren't intruders. .the shoppers bring home the bacon, honey!  Pollen to give to the cooks to make wonderfully glorious, liquid gold, natures sugar.... HONEY. Need I say more.

Of course going into this I knew nothing of their little communal compound.  It wasn't until one night while watching Sue Monk Kidds  The Secret Life of Bees

that the girls started to intrigue me.  I could feel it coming on...the sponaneous thought that I could be a beekeeper...how fun would that be?  I could enlist the chicks and we could do it together, creating our own little bee empire.  The crazy thought was solidified when Sam and I went to Savannah and visited the Savannah Bee Company

"I want bees", I said sheepishly.

"The first time you get stung you won't want them anymore," he stated matter of factly.   "You hate bugs, don't forget."

"I want bees.  I can do this," I replied firmly.

With a sigh of defeat he said, "Okay, whatever you want."

Ha!  I win....(again:)

To be continued.....................................................................................................................