Sheesh…..what a year

 Holy cow man, it’s been one of them years. You know….the ones that things never seem to go right.

I decided since I lost some weak hives this spring I would order a couple of New Zealand packages. In the past I have had such good luck with them. But I know nothing is written in gold. They  arrived and they were big beautiful active packages. Then things went downhill from there. One seemed to be doing better than the other. I went in to check inside only to discover…..too much drone brood. Matter a fact, mostly only drone brood. While talking to others who received packages, they were finding the same thing. Not just one or two packages…..lots.

So we went in search of new queens. BeeMaid told us they would reimburse us for the queens so that was great. While waiting for them to arrive, I went in and checked them again and was horrified to find the hatching drones all had deformed wing virus…..a result of varroa mites.

Both hives were dwindling away slowly and after talking to our bee inspector he suggested, removing the hive that was infected the worse, sliding the other hive in its place and dump out all the bees from the first hive, on the ground. The drones and any other bees with deformed wings can’t fly so they would just wander around and eventually die. Any flyers would fly back to “their” (new) hive. Then I took any drone brood that hadn’t  hatched yet and through them in the freezer to kill them. Then treated them combined hive.

A short time later, the queens arrived, so I killed off the old queen and dropped a new one in the combined hive and did a split on my wintered over hive and gave the new hive a queen.

The split is doing fantastic….the combined hive, not so good. I’m not sure it’s going to make it. But on the upside, there is brood in it, but now I see chalk brood. Sheesh

As some of you know, we have listed our place for sale and have been working on our new property, getting it ready for when this place sells.

I told the bees, they just need to survive this year. They have been slightly neglected and I am sure my one older hive swarmed at some point and  I missed that. 

But on the upside:

We have our new yard almost done, so it’s ready in case we do sell our place this year. The nice thing is, the bee yard is right by the house. I will be able to give them more attention. It will also house the garden area. The old building in the photo was once a generator shed then hen house….now the bee shed. We dragged it over last week and will set it up with the solar panels for the electric fence charger and water catchment system. More on that later

This year has been a bit of a write off…Between running back and forth to each property, keeping up the yards and doing lots of Reno’s and clean up, my poor bees have suffered. Right now, I make sure they have water and enough  room for the queen to lay and empty honey supers. And that seems like it’s the most I can handle right now.

Until next time…..

Fermenting with Honey

Other than Sauerkraut, I have never really messed around much with ferments. But a month or two ago I decided to try some honey ferments.

Touch wood, we haven’t had a cold for a couple years, but when we do I hate taking over the counter meds, but on the other hand, who wants to feel horrible,

Last year I was gifted two elderberry trees. They didn’t do very good in their new soil but I am hoping the soil improved and they will come back this year, I have read lots on elderberry syrup and the benefits it had to your immune system. So I will be making that once our trees start to produce.

In the past I have made mead…one gallon at a time. Some have turned out pretty good. I think the fermented product I am most proud of is the vinegar I made out of our honey four years ago.

Honey Vinegar 2020

Bochet Mead 2019

It sits in my cold room and every so often I try some and it’s so good. Like mead it takes quite a while before it’s good. So one has to bee patient.

But in the meantime I started with three simple ferments, all of which help improve the immune system along with gut health and many other things. I am no expert by any means, so starting with something easy is the way to go.

Left to right, garlic, ginger and lemon

Fermented Garlic

This stuff is incredible, not only does it helps boosts your immune system but it tastes good, the garlic gets very mild in the honey after time. If you get a cold, it’s recommended you take a clove a garlic and honey everyday. And we all know honey is good for us too.

Fermented Ginger

Oh my goodness, this stuff is so good. I love grabbing a piece of ginger right out of the jar and eating it. Ginger is known to ease a upset stomach but it is also chalked full of probiotics which helps boosts the  immune.

Fermented Lemons

Yum. This helps soothes coughs and sore throats. Also delicious in hot tea or added to hot water when sick. Equally delicious as a tangy dressing for a salad.

Until next time….cheers