Friday, December 29, 2017

Happy New Year

As I sit here, with a hot coffee in my cold hands, I am glad I don't really have to go outside anymore today. The last couple days has been cold and I hope our bees are keeping warm all clustered together in their house.
As the year is winding down, i reflect on what a year it was.  It was a year of ups and downs. Last winter was a long one that didn't ever seem to want to end. But it did and everything after that was a blurr.  Once it warmed up, it stayed hot and dry. BC seen one of the worst forest fire seasons in years. Highways were closed, 1000 of people was evacuated and we had smoke like you wouldn't believe.

Crazy smokey morning

But the Bees handled the smoke like little troopers. They continued to pull in pollen and nectar even though some days you could hardly see across the field. The days were also very hot and dry and it occurred to me (with my vast knowledge of beekeeping hahaha) that the amount of honey could be low because of the nectar drying up. . But we managed to get a decent amount of honey. We also have lots of honey to give back to the bees in the spring.

In September, our local Wannabee beekeepers club, decided to come to the motel and have a pot luck bbq and have our meeting next to the bee yard. It was a splendid evening. Good food and  great conversation. I am so thankful for our club, i have learned so much from them.

Sadly we went into winter with only 2 out of our 4 hives. Sad as it was to lose some, i always learn so much. And this time it  was no different.

So whats new for 2018
I have signed up for a Webinar in late Feb, put on by the Ministry of Agriculture. I am really hoping i am able to attend it and not cleaning endless rooms.
Big plans are in the works in hopes of the motel sale going thru and moving back to our home in Dome. We have purchased a good electric fencer, solar panels and have decided on which building we have, will be the new bee workshop.
I have ordered a nuc and all going well our bees will survive the winter and perhaps be able to split one of them in June.
I have also purchased a "new to us" electric 4 frame extractor. Im really excited about trying it out.
So keep your fingers crossed, the motel sells, and we get to retire and move back home.
Riverside Apiary will be officially up and running and i will be able to spend more time with my bees.


Happy New Year everyone.






Saturday, December 9, 2017

2017 A year of highs and lows, part 2

Oct 14
Panic set in...its really started to feel like winter today. Wrapping up the girls for winter was going to be challenging this year. It wasn't just a case of wrapping them up and wishing them well. There is a chance we could be retiring this winter and heading home. So that means the bees will be going on a road trip. So with that in mind....we had to do some prep work before they were wrapped. James cut strips of wood and we screwed all the hive boxes together, so in case we moved, the boxes wouldn't. Then we had to make sure, come moving day, the pallet they sit on wasn't frozen to the ground . So we stacked a second pallet on top. Then wouldn't you know it, the hives couldn't be sitting close to each other, nooooo they had to be at each end of the bee yard.  This was going to be fun! But somehow we managed to get the first one moved over and lifted onto the 2 stacked pallets and place. The next hive moved equally as easy. Then we wrapped them as usual and put them to bed. Our hives each have 3 boxes, a brood chamber, a deep honey super and candy board and a deep attic box.
Oct 20
Holy moly...we go from chilly wintery temperatures to a balmy warm day. The bees took advantage of that and did some house cleaning.
Dec 9
So far, the winter has been kind. The winds have been nuts but thankfully no deep freezes yet.  I stuck my finger in the upper vent holes the other day and could feel warm air. So for now, i know they are still ok.


Bee jackets put away for the winter


Friday, December 8, 2017

2017 A year of highs and lows and smokey days

March 24
It was a cold winter that seemed to go on and on. But by March 27 we knew all 4 hives had survived it. It had warmed up by the 24th enough to slip pollen patties in each hive and to see that the big hive had completely eaten their candy board. (all 5lbs of sugar)
April 8
Wow the bees are pulling in pollen, spring is finally coming. Some was yellow some orange.
April 21
Bees seem to be doing good. They all have honey leftover from the winter. Found new brood in hive 3.
May 2
Finally removed the winter wraps.
May 19
Need to check out the hive with my Russian queen. They don't seem to be very robust. Will tear hive apart tomorrow and check
May 20
Opened up the Russian queen hive and found lots of  pollen and nectar but no brood.  Queen Anna must of died, I couldn't find her. So I Robbed a frame of uncapped and capped brood from one of the other hives. Hopefully they will build a new queen.
June 1
Did a hive inspection to see if there was any queen cells in the russian hive. All the brood i put in there had hatched, so lots of bees, but still no queen. I will try one more time giving them uncapped brood from another hive. Checked all the other hives and everyone else looks good except for the "nuc" hive, it had way too many drones, and drone cells. We will replace the queen in that hive.
June 5
No sign of queen cells in the Russian hive, so out of desperation, we combined that hive with the "swarm hive".
Checked the nuc hive again, it had produced too many drone cells last time so wanted to check them again. Lots of new worker cells, everything looked good inside it.
June14
All hives out working. The combo hive is doing good, the paper has been chewed thru, so they are combined now.
July 31
Smokey days in McBride

Smokey days

Too busy at the motel to do any inspections inside hives. Bees appear to be doing good. During the weeks of the forest fire smoke they are very slow. Not sure how much honey we will get with all the smoke in the valley. It has also been a very hot dry summer.
Aug 1
Pulled 9 frames of honey. Looks like we will get more honey than i had thought.
Aug 15
I had ordered a bucket with gate valve and 3 filters so when it arrived we extracted the 9 frames of honey. To our surprise we got 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket full!
Aug 26
Pulled 6 more frames of honey, but will extract them later.
Sept 10
Finally got around to testing for mites. I had big plans to do a sugar roll to test for them but jeepers we were still so busy at the motel. So i made sticky boards. I also made up some syrup and will put
it in the hives tomorrow. I used 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water for this time of year.
Sept 12
Decided I needed to treat the mites. I was surprised to see how many mites were in one of the hives, not a ton but enough to treat.
Sept 14
Compressed all the hives down to 1 brood box and 1 honey super (plus the attic box with syrup feeders in it) added pollen patties in each hive also.
Sept 28
The weather has been incredibly warm and the bees are still bringing in  yellow and greyish pollen. I am still feeding syrup. (probably til early 0ct)
Oct 5. Bad day. Lost most of one hive, not exactly sure what went on. Some robbing going on, cant find a queen and not many bees left. The remaining bees were busy working still in the upper honey super. No time to waste, winter is almost here, i can't lose anymore of the bees so combined them into the next hive, so they have a chance to survive..
Oct 7
Made 2 candy boards yesterday and put them in the 2 hives today. (8lbs of sugar this time) Got the attic box all ready. Will insulate soon.
Oct 10
Put tarps up on fence to block the wind. Snowed hard, very damp out.
Oct 12
Insulated the attic boxes
Oct 14
Cold and windy. Panic set in that winter has arrived. Insulated the hives and got them all wrapped and ready for winter.

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









Friday, December 1, 2017

Very Creamy

So on Sept 7 of this year, i decided i wanted to play around with making creamed honey. Since then i have  made 3 batches.
The difference between regular honey and creamed honey,(also called whipped honey or spun honey) is the size and shape of the crystals in it. When honey naturally crystallizes the crystals are fairly large and sharp. You can definitely feel them when the honey coats your tongue. In creamed honey the crystals are oval and smooth, hence giving it a creamy mouth feel.  Under the right conditions, you can make creamed honey in a week or two depending on the temperature. Mine is taking longer as its been warmer in the room i have it stored.
So since this is the first time i ever made creamed honey, i had to buy seed. (fancy name for bought creamed honey). But next year i will be able to use my own. Make sure you start with clear crystal free honey.
Anyways in a jar of honey i removed a heaping spoonful of honey, then i Incorporated the same amount of seed honey. Stir to mix completely, you will see the white steaks when you first start stirring.
Once blended in, put the lid on and leave in a cooler place. Once set you can try it and feel the difference in the size of the crystals. Either way, both honey's are delish.




Friday, November 3, 2017

Bye bye summer, part 2

After our little snow storm and 3-4 inches of snow on the 10th, i thought i better get the bees wrapped for winter.
Oct 14
Panic set in, not sure if it was because today i turned 60 or whether it is the cold and wintery day. But i felt the urgency to get the bees put to bed. This year it involved more work than usual. The reason for that is, there is a chance the motel could be sold and we will get to go home mid winter. So we had to think about that when wrapping. If we were to move, the bees would have to be picked up and placed in our truck and taken almost 100km away. So we wanted to strap the boxes together so they wouldn't separate while moving them. James cut long strips of plywood that would be screwed from the top box to the bottom box, we put them on all 4 sides of each hive. Then we had to consider, what if there is ice and the pallet is froze to the ground and we cant pick it up. So we placed another pallet on top of the existing one. Then we set out to slowly move one hive at a time, up a ramp on to the top pallet. It worked really good and was way easier than we thought. The odd bee stuck its head out to see what we were doing, but all and all, they were pretty laid back.
Once the 2 hives were side by side on the pallet, we wrapped them up. So each hive this winter, have one deep super full of honey, whatever they had in the brood box for honey and a 8lb candy board. So all going well, that will keep them happy for the winter.
Oct 20
Beautiful mild day. The bees have been busy dragging out all the dead summer bees. Lots were out flying around too.
Oct 21
Winter has returned.
Hang in there bees...spring is only 5 months away.



Saturday, October 28, 2017

Playing with wax

For me, one of my favorite things to do is playing with the wax the bees make. For some its all about the honey but I love the wax.
Bees are amazing little creatures, and the  fact that they make so many by products is genius. Did you know that the glands of worker bees convert the sugar contents of honey into wax , which oozes through the bee's small pores to produce tiny flakes of wax on their abdomens. Workers chew these pieces of wax until they become soft and moldable, and then add the chewed wax to the honeycomb construction. Like how did they come up with that???
So when i scrape off the burr comb or cappings when taking honey, i wash it and let it dry. I throw the bits and pieces in a bucket and leave it until i get enough to melt down.
Just recently i tried a new method of melting it down. I looked at the way a solar melter works and applied it to the oven. It worked like a charm. Next year i am hoping to make a solar melter so then i can do it outside.
So basically what i did was put a oven proof dish in the oven, i added some water in the bottom of that, oh maybe a inch. On top of the oven proof dish i placed a old cooling rack (you wont be able to cool your cookies on it anymore so make sure its a old one) Then i laid a couple sheets of paper towel over top the rack and spread out the wax bits.
Place in a low oven, i normally turn the oven on to somewhere between 200 and 225 degrees. It will take a while to melt all the wax.  Once all the wax melts it filters thru the paper towel  and lands in the water. Remove from the oven and let cool til the wax solidifies. Here's a few pictures


Add water in bottom of dish
                                               
                       Paper towel filter over dish with melted clean wax floating on the water
 This is what to expect the paper towel to look like, but it depends on how clean your wax is when you start

Being frugal I hate to waste things, so after the paper towel had dried out, i broke it into pieces and we use to to start fires with. It works really good and its not gone to waste.
Have fun.


   

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Bye bye summer

Well it is October 17th. All signs of summer have gone and fall is definitely here. (even hints of winter are appearing)
I have managed to blunder through another season of beekeeping with hopes of having more time to care for the bees. But with all the forest fires and extreme heat, and a really busy tourist season, the motel kept me way to busy.
With the heat and smoke I didn't really expect the bees to do as well, honey wise, as they did. Such little troopers they are.

After we got the hives ready for winter, except for the wraps, the weather turned warm again at the end of Sept. The bees were busy collecting a few different kinds of pollen. By Oct 5th the weather started to turn cooler. Lots of frosts overnight. While checking on the bees one day, we noticed fighting going on with the hive we had combined during the summer. I also noticed the odd wasp just walking right in the front door. So that afternoon we tore the hive apart and was sad to find quite a few dead bees, no queen and not much honey in the lower box. There was still lots in the super and the extra attic box which housed a few frames of honey. Most of what was left of the bees were in the attic box, tending to those frames of honey.
I was sick. Was it robbing? Guess we won't know for sure. So once again we packed up what was left and deposited the remaining bees into a neighbouring hive.
Oct 6th
Went to work making 2-8lb candy boards. James was so nice to make me extra frames this year for all the hives.
Oct 10th
Put the tarps around the north and east sides of the fence enclosures. It was such a cold windy day and was snowing like crazy. We had gotten about 3-4 inches. Jeepers I guess winter is really coming......
To be continued


Saturday, September 16, 2017

Takin care of business

Oh my goodness, I swore last year I would do better and get things done earlier. But alas....here it is Sept 12 and I am so far behind I think I am first.
The good new is, the honey is done. The bad news is I am not making too much headway on getting ready for winter.
Now I am sweating bullets that the weather won't warm up enough so compress the bees down into one box. I know it will but still, I do worry.
Today however I managed to get out there and treat for mites and get the sugar syrup inside for the girls.

Sept 14
Well I finally made it.
My mum gave James a bee jacket and gloves for his birthday this year, so I had a helper. It was great.
Mother nature was on our side, even though it froze overnight last night, it warmed up during the day. So once our motel chores were done, we made a bee-line out to the bee yard and got down to business. We managed to get all 3 hives compressed into one brood box, with their deep honey super on top. I left a empty super on top of the honey, as a attic box. This will be filled with insulation later for winter. But for now, it holds the jars of syrup and pollen patties.
Even though it only took an hour to do all 3 hives, it took all afternoon and into the evening to finish. The bees don't want to leave their frames of honey so they have to be coaxed off before it cools down for the night. I learnt this last year and lost a few handful of bees cause they stayed with the frames all night and it was too cold. Poor girls.
Anyways, they say we learn from our mistakes, which leads me to think I should be a genius by now...ummmm
So for now, the bees are all set until its time to wrap them up for winter.  So over the next 2 days, I have been experimenting with making "creamed" honey. I will let you know how that goes in a couple weeks..I should know by then. I also melted down the last of the cappings, which is one of my favorite jobs.
But for now, that's it. Will chat again soon.
Bee Happy!
                                                    Bumble Bee resting on a Marigold

                                                       Beautiful piece of honey comb

Friday, September 1, 2017

The new toy

Well here it is Sept 1 and summer is still hanging in there. Tomorrow will be a fine day to check on taking the last of the honey off.
While checking the hives last week I noticed lots of frames that were partially capped. I was hoping this week they would be ready to pull. The problem is uncapped honey, if the moisture content is too high, will ferment and will not keep. The bees will cap their honey with the moisture content is down around 17%, clever little girls aren't they!
So I started reading up on refractometers. These tools read the moisture content honey, along with things.
The neat thing about a refractometer is if you check the uncapped honey in your hives and it is around 17% you can pull it and extract it. Not only does it work out good for you and saves you time, it saves time and energy for the bees. They don't have to go to all  the work of making wax and capping it. They can go back to collecting nectar or whatever their job happens to be.    
Its a win win situation.
So once the decision was made to purchase one I started to research it. They ranged from a few bucks up to 100's of dollars. It didn't make sense to me to spends tons being a non commercial beekeeper but on the other hand I didn't want to buy something that was too cheap. I settled on one that was highly recommended and was very affordable.
I tried it out tonight and it proved to be very simple to use. Tomorrow we are going out to the hives and check the uncapped frames and hopefully we can pull them and get them extracted.
                                                                   The new toy


                                                              A beautiful frame of honey

Sunday, August 20, 2017

How sweet it is.

Well as usual August is like a whirlwind. Here it is the 20th already and I am so far behind I think I am first.
Its been a very unusual year. Started with a long cold winter that seemed like it was never going to end. Spring finally showed up fashionally late but showed up never the less. Then the heat came. Hot and dry and that played havoc on the forest fires which are still going strong. They say we may see the smoke until winter. We had what seemed like a couple weeks of smoke covered mountains. You could smell it. The bees weren't too impressed either. When we stood there watching them during those smokey days, it was like they were moving in slo-mo. It was bazaar.
Because we were so busy with the motel work and then the evacuees, I thought how clever I would bee if I would removed frames of during the summer, instead of all at once. It worked for a while. I took 9 frames and put them aside. They looked nice and even though it had been so hot and smokey, it appeared we may get a little for ourselves.
So a few days ago, we decided there was enough time to extract the honey. We are so not set up for honey production here at the motel but we were going to make it work. Last year we did it in the kitchen and didn't cover the top of the extractor while spinning it off. Jeepers I swear I was cleaning up honey for a month. So this year we made a cover for it (a sheet of plastic). I had also bought a 36.00 free standing laundry sink and made it into a uncapping  tub. It worked really good. Except I needed a piece of screen or perforated metal for the bottom of it to stop the cappings from going into the bucket below.
So what I did was lay an old rack out of a fridge across the top of the sink, then when I cut off the capping's they would fall thru the rack and lie on the bottom of the sink. The honey then drained thru all the mess and fill up the bucket below (which had a sieve on top of it). I also raised the back of the sink so the honey would drain. The total cost of my uncapping tub was 36.00. I got the fridge rack from the local transfer station for nothing.
Below is our very vintage 2 frame extractor. It isn't pretty but she still works fine. I do have plans on buying a new once we sell out and head back home
Also new this year is this bucket which I splurged on. I love it. It came with the gate valve and 3 filters. Once the honey is run through the finest filter it is so clear. Well worth the money. 

Well that's it for now. Chat soon.





Saturday, August 5, 2017

The smokey days of summer

Holy moly, where is the summer going. One minute we are removing the winter wraps, the next we are getting ready to take off the honey.
Its been a whirlwind summer. Things have been crazy around here since the beginning of June.
Last year after having a busy summer at the motel, I didn't get the honey off till the end of August and swore I would never leave it that late again. So Aug 1st came, the rooms were cleaned, laundry was on the go and I said,  that's it, I am going to go pull some frames of honey...well at least start anyways.
So I went out and pulled 6 frames and it looked so nice. I think we will get more than I had thought.

Its been a weird summer. Because of all the forest fires in BC we were smoked in for a long time. When I would go out to the bee yard, it was like the bees were flying in slow motion. They were still going out foraging but were slow. So when I opened up the hive I was surprised.
Today I went out again, I ended up only pulling one frame. There was lots of new honey but some was not capped yet, so would imagine in this heat, it wont be long.
I got to say, our bees are pretty relaxed, even when taking honey...or maybe I am getting used to them giving me heck for opening the hive.  Because I haven't mastered the smoker yet...I don't use it.
I can't wait to get in that hive we combined and get it sorted out. Because we have been so busy, I didn't make the time to organize the hive after they got settled in. So because of my neglect...I have get it in order once the honey comes off. But all the hives seem to be doing good. I have no doubt there will be enough honey for them to eat during the winter and for us to enjoy also.

In my next blog, I will be chatting about the capping tub I am going to build on a budget and talk about our bee club meeting we are having here at the motel.
Take care, I will bee back in a few weeks.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

RIP Queen Anna

May 19 2017
Note to self:
I need to check  Hive 2,  They don't seen to be as robust as they should be. All the other hives are busy with lots of bees coming  and going. Hive 2 were going through the motions but didn't seem as active as I thought they should be. I had noticed some very dark old dead bees outside the entrance so I decided tomorrow I would check it out.
May 20
So once my chores were done, I geared up and went out to do an inspection. I looked in the top box and found lots of pollen and a fair amount of nectar...that's good. However I found no brood in the top box but that was not unusual for this time of year. Once that box was done, I moved into the lower box. I found no brood.....I was sick. No brood = No queen.
I removed the bottom box and found lots of dead bees, some had been there for quite some time and the others were fairly new. Queen Anna must of been in there with the other dead.  I suddenly went in to rescue mode. I threw aside the bottom board and grabbed a fresh on, then placed the frames into a new brood box, then I opened the hive next to it and searched it until I found some capped and uncapped brood and robbed that and placed it in the lower box. I closed it up and hoped for the best.
May 21
I had decided to go in search of at least one more frame of brood, so I went into Hive 1 and robbed one from there. In about a week I should be able to see a queen cell starting so would check back then
June 1
Barb came over and we decided to check in the hive to see if we could see a queen cell. As we were looking through the hive we noticed most all the brood had hatched. But we found no queen cell. Once again we took a few more frames of brood from Hive 1 and hoped for the best. We noticed though, that hive 1 is doing awesome...they are a crazy hive, tons of bees, tons of brood and tons of attitude!  Love that hive.
June 5
 Checked in and found no sign at all of the bees in Hive 2 making a new queen. So after some discussion it was decided we were going to combine the bees with our little swarm hive (Hive 4) So before dark we went out there while most of the bees were inside, we removed the inside cover of Hive 4 and laid down 2 layers of newspaper then placed on top of that, the 2 boxes from the hive who lost their queen. We put the lids on and that was it. In a couple days the bees will have chewed through the newspaper and they will become one hive. I am told doing it this way, it gives the bees with no queen time to accept their new queen.
June 8
I can only assume the bees are all together now, today I noticed way more action than there had been. Next week we will go in and remove some of the boxes and frames and get them moved down into 2 brood boxes.  At that point we will decide if we will do a split later. I'm thinking it can wait til next year but we will see. I'm just glad we could save this hive.

Notice the newspaper still in place, this will be removed once we condense the bees into a couple boxes. The top 2 boxes was the hive who lost Queen Anna


Saturday, May 13, 2017

Getting down to business

May 6 2017

Judging by the temperature outside its hard to believe its May. While having my morning coffee I looked out so see what the thermometer said. It was a balmy 5C. So  I got up and turned on the furnace.
Barb and I had decided today we would try out my new toy. Yes I took the plunge and bought a Varrox Vaporizer to treat Varroa mites.
 

I had read up quite a few articles and talked to fellow beekeepers to the point I am sure they thought I was a real dim wit. Why is making a decision on how best to treat Mites so difficult. I can't seem to get it thru my head, when the right time is, can I treat with the honey left on, can I treat when there is brood, so on and so on.
So after much discussions  I decided to purchase a vaporizer. I never plan on having tons of hives but do want to expand out to maybe 10 once retired. I wanted something easy and fairly quick (and inexpensive) and this was the way to go. After the initial purchase of 200.00, the acid is cheap. A 6.00 container of Oxalic Acid will treat 80 colonies!
Anyways, after watching all the You Tube videos and reading the instructions numerous times I was pretty darn confident I knew what to do. This was going to be easy and we would have it done in no time.
So armed with the vaporizer, a respirator, towels and small bucket of water, we marched out there. James had brought a battery out for us to hook the vaporizer too, as its 12V. We went over the plan and set to work. We waited for the vapors to come out of the hive...its suppose to take 2 1/2 minutes. Nothing. I reset the clamps on the battery and tried again. Nothing. Stupid battery must be dead. So went in the house and asked James to bring another one. Battery 2. Dead. So he brought the truck over and we preceded to use it. It worked great. James came out and moved the truck. We continued on to treat the 3rd hive, I pulled out the vaporizer while Barb covered the entrance with a towel. I dipped it into the bucket of water to cool it down and was about to add the acid when I realize it was still hot, so I plunged it into the cool water again and again. Oh ooops I forgot to unplug it. As I turned I realized the truck was parked in a way that you couldn't get out of the bee yard. We were trapped in the fenced enclosure. Now what to do. What a gong show. Yelling was certainly not going to work, but thankfully Barb had her phone so she called James who was in the Motel.
After what should of taken maybe a half an hour...took us, what felt like hours. Anyways, its all done for now. In another week we start again.



Friday, April 21, 2017

Is it spring yet (again i ask)

Man...its been chilly. However the bees have been flying and collecting pollen now since the 8th of April. The last few days they have working really hard, bringing in bright yellow and a little orange pollen. We don't have any flowers out yet so I can only assume its mostly tree pollen. The willows and some cottonwoods mostly.
Today the sun came out and the wind was quite calm so Barb suggested we take a peak inside and really check out their food stores.
I had only glanced at one frame in a couple hives and didn't see much honey so last week I had put in feeders of syrup in all the hives.
So we started with the big bad hive (hive 1) It was tough removing the frames...they were glued down well. But we did manage to get several out and we found honey, so was very happy. I did put in a full frame of honey I had saved from last fall to give them a little more since its the biggest colony.
We saw lots of bees and lots of pollen being stored. They had emptied the syrup bottle and we noticed "nectar" in some cells. What the heck, then decided they were probably storing the syrup. So we closed that up and preceeded to hive 2. Everything looked good in there, lots of honey. When we removed some of the frames from hive 3, we found a really big area of capped pollen and some uncapped brood. Wow brood in the second box. The queen must of gone on a walk about. Hive 4 was all good in there too.
So we were happy that they all have enough honey left until the flowers start blooming. I was happy that we know that the queen is laying in hive 3 and can only assume that all the queens are laying now.
Anyways, all going well, the warmer weather will keep up and spring has arrived. In a week or two we should be able to remove the winter wraps. Then we will have to get ready for swarm season by having a box ready incase.
But for now....we wait.+



Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Ooops

March 22 2017
Had a busy morning, so didn't get out to check on the girls til about 2pm. Lots of activity outside of all but one hive. There was no sign of any life in front of  Hive 3. We had seen life last week, so what happened?
It was quite warm out so I decided around 3, I would go put pollen patties out in a couple of the hives today and do the other 2 tomorrow.
Since there had been no activity in front of Hive 3 it was first. I removed the winter roof, cover, attic box and inside cover and low and behold, there they were. They were feasting on the stored honey. All happy and content. Guess they would rather stay indoors then come out.  Weird.
So I put in a pollen patty and closed it back up. I completed the next hive (hive 4) also. And while adjusting the Styrofoam back around the hive bodies, I noticed that it had slipped down a bit and covered off the entrance of hive 3. Guess the wind must of moved it and blocked their door way, hence why they hadn't been outside for a few days.
I was so happy an hour later when I wandered over to see them again and they were all outside. Judging by the poop on my gloves and coat....they must of really had to go


March 14 2017
Well the winter is finally giving us a bit of a break. The mercury is above 0 now and today the bees were all out flying. It was great seeing all 4 hives made it through the long cold winter. I decided since it was mild this morning when we first got up, it might be a good day to see bees.
So I wandered out around noon. There was evidence of major housecleaning in hive #1. Lots of dead bees on the front porch, so I decided to pop off the entrance reducer and sweep out  the bottom board.
They instantly reminded me why I call them the cranky hive. Then I did the same to hive 2. I was kneeling on the ground and I guess one of the girls crawed up my boot and up my pant let. So my first sting of 2017 happened today.
I felt awful since these girls fought to survive the winter and had to die getting pinched in my pant leg.
Later this afternoon I wandered out several more time to watch them, and on the 3rd trip out, hive 4 (aka the swarm hive) was out flying. Yeah 3 out of 4.
About an hour ago I wandered out once again, this time lots of activity in front of hive 3 (aka the Nuc) So I feel pretty good.
So now to wait until it warms up so I can look inside and check the queens. But that will have to wait a few more weeks I think. As the weather is so unstable right now.
Anyways that's it for now.

Monday, January 30, 2017

Honey garlic pork ribs

Is there anything better than gooey sticky ribs. I don't think so. Here's a recipe that is both those things. And if you can make it with your own honey...that makes it even better.
Here is the recipe:

4 pounds of pork ribs
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoon soya sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon grown ginger
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

Cut the ribs into whatever length you like, I normally cut them about 4 bones long. Then place all the ingredients into a large ziplok bag then add place ribs. Close the bag and mush the marinade all over the ribs, then put in the fridge overnight or at least a few hours.
Drain and reserve the sauce and place back into the fridge. Place the ribs on a greased baking pan.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees for about 1 1/2 hours
Pour the reserved sauce over the ribs and leave uncovered and bake for about 45 more minutes. Hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of them,

Monday, January 16, 2017

Is it spring yet?

Well we are barely half way thru January and I am itching to get started working with the bees again. But we are still months away. All I can do is prepare for spring by reading all I can on beekeeping.
I got thinking about feeding the bees first thing in the spring. Its important to give them Pollen Patties, whether it's real pollen or a pollen substitute. This helps stimulate the queen into start laying and gives them a jump start since its going to be another month or so yet until there is any pollen out there naturally.
Last year I decided to try making my own patties. I found a recipe and gave it a try. They turned out good.
Here is the recipe I used:

1 1/2 cups of soy flour
1 1/2 cups of white sugar
1/2 cup brewers yeast
1 1/2 cup sugar syrup (either 2:1 or 1:1) of you can use honey instead. I used the honey since I had some.
Mix the dry ingredients well, then add the syrup or honey. Mix until its almost like cookie dough. You may have to add a little more flour. Leave in a covered bowl over night.The next morning, put the dough on a piece of wax paper and cover with another sheet and roll out into a patty. You can either freeze it until you need it, or place it on top of the frames in the brood chamber.


Another alternative is to buy Bee Pro from Bee Maid Bee store and just mix it with a sugar syrup.
It really is a small price to pay to get your bees off to a good start in the spring.



Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Honey Graham Crackers

Happy New Year everyone.
So to welcome in the new year I am posting the third in my series of recipes using honey. This one is
Honey Graham Crackers. These ones are not as sweet as the store bought variety but they are equally as nummy.

2 cups of whole wheat flour
1/2 cup of white flour
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup of cool butter cut into pieces
1/4 cup honey

1. Place the flours, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the butter and honey and pulse until the dough fully comes together in a ball. Shape the dough into 2 discs, wrap with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours before rolling.
2. Pull the dough from the fridge 30 minutes before rolling. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, line 2 or 3 baking trays with parchment. (I didn't do this)
3. On a lightly floured work surface, lightly knead the first disc of dough to soften it (so it wont crack when rolling out). Roll the dough out into a 12 x 12 inch square that is just under 1/4 in thick. Use a knife to trim the edges straight, then cut into 16 squares. Save scraps to roll out later. Place crackers on cookie sheet and dock with fork then bake for 12 -14 minutes (mine were thinner so I baked them for 10 mins) until the crackers begin to brown at the edges a little. Immediately remove the crackers onto a cooling rack.
Store in airtight container.