Mead Mead and more Mead

Are you kiddin me! Is it really Nov 12. How did this happen.  Its been a long time since i wrote anything, but then nothing much was going on so i didn't want to bore you with a bunch of "fluff".
We finally got the bee yard cleaned up and the bees put to bed for the winter. Like last year we have made sure we could move them incase this never-ending motel sale goes through. We moved the hives onto 2 stacked pallets so if the bottom one freezes to the ground...we can pick up the top one.  We even wrapped them differently this year. I read a article about how someone from Prince George wraps their bees and did my version of his method. I hope it works. It has 3 layers. Pink fiberglass insulation, then a layer of silver bubble wrap insulation then a thicker plastic over top to keep the insulation dry. I have left them lots of honey, 8lbs of candy board and some fondant and hopefully that will keep them fed for the winter. Once again  i say a little prayer they will make it through our long unpredictable winter, and see them again in the spring.

So what am i up to this winter....... Mead Mead and more Mead
Mead is believed to be 1000's of years old and one of the oldest known alcohols. It is also know as Honey Wine. It is made simply of honey, water and yeast.

Only a couple weeks old.

 The latest project i have been working on is a new batch of Mead. This time i wanted to try a Bochet (pronounced Bow Shay) its made by caramelizing the honey for a long period of time.
The first batch I made i cooked the honey for 20 minutes, then a friend and i made a second batch cooking the honey for 30 minutes this time. We will do a taste test when we rack them off in about 4 weeks.  Earlier this year i had decided to make a gallon of Traditional mead. It has been resting since March so we decided it was time we try it again and holy cow it was good. I was sort of impressed. Not that i am counting or anything.... but only 11 more days until i get to sample the Bochet...yum.
Bye for now

Never give up

After coming out of winter with 2 dead hives and feeling like i was not a good beekeeper, i brushed myself off and got back up.
The place i had ordered a nuc from in the New Year had suffered losses also and couldn't supply me with bees. So i desperately searched for a new source. I found someone who was bringing up a large amount of nucs from the lower mainland. So i ordered 2.
To make a long story short, the bees weren't in very good shape. One hive was better than the other. One struggled since i got them, they hardly expanded their numbers, very little pollen was brought in and no capped honey.  I tried all i could to save them. We even sent some questionable larvae to the lab. A mite test showed they were infested big time. And even after treatment, nothing could be done to save them. The lab test showed nothing like AFB or EFB. The inspector figured it was a mite related virus. I felt sooo defeated.
Thankfully the other hive seems to be doing good.  And even though they still have chalk brood, the hive is large and vigorous. They have a good amount of capped honey and a good amount of bees so if there is a bee god...they will make it through the winter.
The summer has been a horrible one. It started off really hot, then it cooled down. Then we were socked in with smoke for a weeks. Now, here it is Sept 12 and we had snow today, yes you heard me SNOW. Although it was only mixed in with the rain, the snow is half way down the mountain. Last night on the weather we had heard of minus temperatures over the next couple days, so after the news i went out and gave the girls another frame of partially capped honey and wrapped the bottom 2 boxes with the silver bubble wrap insulation. This should keep them comfortable until better weather returns.  Winter can't possibly be coming already.....right?

Here it is Sept 29th now. Fall is definitely in the air. We have had many frosts, but yesterday and today we are blessed with having sunshine. Today the bees are out and about, scrambling to get ready for winter and kicking out the boys before they eat them out of house and home. Poor boys :(
Anyways, with the threat of minus temperatures arriving soon, its time to get the candy boards done and deciding on what form of winter wraps will be going on this winter.  Well....that's all for now, i am going outside to enjoy this beeutiful Autumn day.

The quirky things us beekeepers do

If anyone was to really take a look inside my car, they might wonder why i have 3 Rubbermaid containers stuffed full of frames of honey. The have taken up residency there for the past 3 months, it was yet another project i started and never completed.
Being a owner of a Motel...your time is never really your own and even a well laid out idea never goes as planned.
I saw on a facebook page i belong to,  a very clever beekeeper in Terrace would put his frames of honey in his wifes car to warm up so when he went to extract them, the honey would flow easier. I thought this was a brilliant idea. So thats when i brought out all the frames from my hives that had died during the winter and put them in the car to warm up. And there they sit and wait. I decided once things slowed down i would extract them.
In the mean time as summer went on, i noticed my 2 new nucs were struggling. Well one is doing better than the other one, but it got me thinking. I may need to add some frames of honey for the winter in the new boxes. So now they sit a little longer, but this time. I am thankful for those leftover frames of honey.
So here it is Sept 1st. My weak hive died and I am now down to 1 lonely hive. Thankfully they are doing good, and I am pretty sure they have a good supply of honey stored. Next week when i inspect them i will look through the honey super and make sure. If need bee i will add capped honey for the winter. I am so thankful to have these extra frames of honey.

A little of this....a little of that

After receiving a phone call from a fellow beekeeper regarding a swarm that had landed in his yard. I got to thinking how i would love to capture a swarm of (other than my own) honey bees. I normally have a empty box sitting in the bee yard for those "just in case" moments that happen to come along once in a while, but thought i should get a little more serious.
Earlier in the season i purchased a nuc box, with bottom board and inside cover, which sat in my bee yard empty. So after my friend captured his swarm, i went out and loaded it full of drawn out sticky frames...that should do it. I had also picked up some lemongrass essential oil,  from what i read its a similar smell to the pheromones the queens put off. So i baited the box with some lemongrass oil on a cotton ball.
In the mean time James and I started cleaning up the firewood area next to the bee yard and there was a stump from a bug kill pine still standing there. After a little discussion, we decided to put the swarm box on top of it. 

"Swarm box"

That night i was reading something on one of the beekeeping sites about swarm bait. This person mixed olive oil, beeswax and lemon grass oil together and made a swarm bait from that. The lemon grass doesn't evaporate as quick as it does if you just dribble it on a cotton ball. So i gave it a try.  

Ingrediants for the swarm lure

I might of added a little too much beeswax but its not a big deal, i just need to slightly warm in to make it spreadable.,

So i am bound and determined to "conquer" the smoker. I can get it lit but when i need it, its out. So because of that, i rarely i use it.  But there are times when a little smoke goes a long way. So after reading lots of articles, watching you tube videos, i have decided to try burlap.
Its old school but works great, they say. 
Well it just happens, down the road a few blocks is the home of a coffee roaster. Her coffee rocks and best of all, all her beans still come in burlap sacks. So i asked to buy 4 sacks, (which should last 2 life times). When i got them home i could feel coffee beans in a couple of the sack. So i poured them into a pan. They are odd looking little greenish colored things, they look or smell nothing like the coffee we all know so well.
Well that night, i wondered if I could roast these little green beans. Turns out its simple. So that night i roasted my beans (all 1 cup of them). The next day we ground some up and sampled them....and they were pretty darn good. So dark and oily....yum

Home roasted coffee beans

Anyways, its been a fun week of trying new things. The bees are happy, the queen is laying good, i am ready if a swarm happens by and while i sit and make notes, we can enjoy a cup of home roasted coffee. Enjoy your summer, will chat again soon
,

All a buzz

Things are a buzz once again at Riverside Apiary (or Bell Mountain Motel as everyone knows us by). The 2 Nucs finally arrived and they were big healthy looking hives. I was thrilled. 
No more am I making endless trips into the linen room to watch the bubbles in the mead. I can now wander over with coffee in hand and stare at the bees. (Much more acceptable than watching bubbles)

So last Sunday we picked the nucs up and I got to work putting them in their boxes right away.The weather had been so warm 2 weeks ago but the last little while, it has been chilly. I didnt even spend a lot of time searching for the queen. I just did a quick check and tucked them in their new houses.

The next day it was really cold and i felt bad for them so i went in the shop and found some silver bubble wrap insulation and made them little "sweaters" for their brood box. I think i am going to leave it until this crazy weather straightens out. In the box on top, is a empty super with a feeder for them until the weather improves.

So todays project was the Mead. My old friend who kept me occupied while waiting for the bees to arrive. I wanted to get it out of its gallon jug and into a clean one. There was lots of sludge in the bottom and the 10 raisins that were in there were kinda nasty looking. So i dug out the other jug and transferred it over there. I took the opportunity to have a wee nip of it and for only being 3 months old. It tasted pretty good. Anyways, that's about it for now. Chat again soon.

Mead 3 months, before i put in a clean bottle

Spring Clean Up

Spring Harvest

Spring a have finally made an appearance. The days are warmer and all the snow in the yard has melted. Some of the locals mentioned their bees are pulling in pollen now. (oh how i miss watching my bees do that) A few days ago i got up the nerve to pull the hives apart. I knew they were dead but i was putting off having to see them. It was a warm sunny day so i went out armed with what i needed to take them apart. If you remember, before winter set in we prep-ed the hives as if we were moving them. Since there was a chance our motel sale would go thru and we would have to load up everything and move. So James had strapped all the boxes together so they would shift while driving on them back roads to our house. Anyways i had to unscrew all the boards which took a bit to get them apart.
Once the attic box was gone, it exposed the candy board, there was a small cluster of bees on it. They almost looked alive. My heart jumped but once i put my finger down to pick it up, it was apparent it was dead. After removing that i was exposed to the honey super, there was a big cluster of dead bees there. They all looked so "fresh" like maybe they had walked away from the cluster to bring food back and got cold and died. There was very little mold in the big hive, and a small amount in the smaller one.

Anyways the hardest part was done. James had a small fire going in the fire pit and so i took advantage  of it and burnt a bunch of the frames. They were really old and it was a good excuse to start with new ones. I learnt during the winter that you should replace your brood frames and comb every 5 years. I hate to think how old these were.

A couple days later, i got the bee yard all organized and set up for the arrival of the new ones. I had ordered 2 nucs and I am hoping to get a local split.

On a happier note, i recovered the leftover honey from the dead hives. The honey was so cold and thick, it took days to get it warmed up so it would run. But i did and managed to get a nice little stash for this winter.
And if you read my blog you will know that  i LOVE the wax part of beekeeping.  I got quite a bit of wax bits so I spent part of the day washing and melting the wax down into a nice lump for future use.

Wax capping ready to be melted

Melting and filtering the wax in the oven

Anyways now i will pick up the pieces and carry on. The bee yard is cleaned up and ready to go, i just need the bees now and they should be here near the end of May. Onward and upward.
Bee Happy

Its the small things in life......

Here it is April 5th and i am sitting by the wood heater still feeling chilly. I look at the calendar and it says it should be spring, but when i look at the thermometer...it says something different.
I only have a month and a half before the new bees arrive. so i am trying to find something to fill my free time.  The mead is still bubbling away but the novelty of checking it  7 times a day has worn off. I check it 2 times a day now.
I haven't had much to write about lately since my bees died, but was concerned people may miss my mindless ramblings....so i decided i better write something.

Have you ever thought of something out of the blue and it turns out to be actually quite clever. Well it happened to me.
A few years ago i had a small  bag i would carry out to the bee yard with all my tools i thought i might need. It was never big enough. Then one day while browsing thru Home Hardwares flyer i saw a tool bag that hooks around a 5 gallon bucket. Wow thats genius. So i ordered one, convinced it was the perfect size. A week later it arrived. So i got a old laundry soap 5 gallon bucket and washed it out and connected the tool bag to it. Below is a photo of it.

It consists of a ton of different size pockets. The inside of the bucket its open, so I can store my smoker and fuel and whatever other bigger items i need to have handy. The pockets will hold your hive tool, a lighter, a note book and pencil, gloves and a ton of other things. I love it, i can load it down and carry it out to the bee yard, in one trip.
I also have another bag.  Us women seem to accumulate cutesy bags, this one i received free with garden tools in it when i placed a order with Staples. I discovered i needed something to store things in, that i only once in a while.  In my second bag i keep my vaporizer,  the acid and my respirator and the small towels i use to block the entrances when treating for mites. When i am ready to treat, i grab my little blue bag and i know i have everything i need. It also has numerous pockets in it for keeping other goodies.

Its the small things in life that make me the most happy. A well organized bucket and a little blue bag. Does it get any better than that.
(Oh man, those bees really need to get here soon, i am sounding even more bushed than in my last post.)
 Will chat again soon.