Its a new year

Happy New Years Everyone!
     Although i never make New Year resolutions, i always say to myself...you got to make this the year you do better and have some fun. Everyday you are getting older and you are the only one who can make changes and better your life. So as usual......this is it....this is the year!
     This year like last year, will be a busy one. But i am still hoping we can still sneak away and go on a little road trip to visit some bee people and their apiaries.

Bee yard in the snow

     We just came out of a very cold snap. And although it only lasted a week, it felt like forever. We haven't seen -40C for years now and it was brutal. Our house proved that we have a lot of work to do this year to make it warmer. The 1950's insulation and single pane windows gotta go. But we already planned those changes anyways but we didn't really think this "new to us" wood furnace would suck at heating this place so badly.
     So while we were clustering inside our house, all that everyone was talking about was...how their bees were doing. The cold lasted almost exactly a week and stayed between -30 to -40C.  Come Sunday the temperature began to rise and we hit zero.
I wandered over to the bee yard uttering a prayer all the way...please let me see life, please let me see life. And i did. One bee came out to say hi. There was sign that the other ones had made it too. So hopefully all going well, we will have bees this spring. But on the safe side i did order 1 more package of bees.

Having fun at -30C

So whats new for us this year, we are hoping the bees survive and if need bee we will maybe be able to do a split or two and expand out a bit. I am hoping we may be able to plant a couple more fruit trees in the bee yard. All going well the new trees we planted last year did ok during the winter. So as far as the bees goes thats about it, but with our place....there is tons going on. Hopefully the new windows will be installed and the new insulation and siding will be going up. We are planning a small addition on the back of the house which will house a summer kitchen and living area. Then of course replenish the firewood. The dream of a greenhouse and garden this year will be on the back burner until we get the real important stuff done first.
So another busy year for us. Well thats about it for now. Chat again soon.

Honey Caramels...yum! Merry Blogmas #4

By the time this comes out, it will only be a couple days until Christmas. I had big plans now that we are newly retired, that i would be more organized then ever. I would slowly decorate the house in early December, the gifts would already be bought and wrapped and the Christmas menu would be sorted out and planned. None of that happened. Here it is 5 days away and i am scrambling. At least i got my families box mailed off but that was about all i managed to get done.
But today, i have made headway, got the tree up and decorated, gifts are wrapped (most anyways), and I got the trees along the road on our property decorated with big red balls.
Then i remembered i wanted to make a batch of honey caramels. I had found a new recipe and wanted to try. They were pretty darn good and who doesn't love sweets at Christmas...so here it is.

Honey Caramels

3/4 cup cream, 1 cup honey, 6 Tbs butter and 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

In a heavy pot, add the honey and cream and bring to a boil,

you will need to boil it about 10 to 15 minutes until the temperature reaches 275F

Once up to temperature, remove from heat and add in the butter and vanilla. Stir well then pour into a 9x13 greased pan.

The good stuff

Cook until the temperature reaches 275F

Once up to temperature, add butter and vanilla, stir and pour into buttered pan

                                       

Once cool, cut into pieces and wrap in paper. Keep in fridge.

You can fancy them up with laying pecans down on the pan add the caramel then put some melted chocolate on top to make turtles.
Anyways i better go and finish off the last of the things on my list. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and may 2020 bee a great year.

These are a few of my favorite things.....Blogmas #3

These are a few of my favorite things, to do with Beekeeping.

You Tube Channels
Although there are lots of beekeeping videos on You Tube, these are my 2 favorites. One  of them lives in Tennessee the other in Manitoba 

Kamon Reynolds- Tennessee's Bees
I have been watching and following Kamon for quite some time. Although he is located in Tennessee and has a totally different climate then us, for me, that is only one part of beekeeping. He is so good at explaining things and can easily laugh at himself....no big ego there!
He takes a practical approach to beekeeping and has a great sense of humor. He posts new videos almost every day.

a Canadian Beekeeper's Blog
This is Ian Stepplers channel and he is located in Manitoba. He too is a awesome speaker and although he is what i would call a commercial beekeeper (along as a farmer), he is very passionate about his bees. What i really like about him is that he really cares about his bees and talks about them like us hobby beekeepers do.
Kamon often mentions Ian in his videos so its nice to know a guy who has 400 hives and a guy who has 1200 hives have a lot in common. I was so lucky to be able to  meet and listen to Ian speak this year at the BCHP's conference.

My favorite beekeeping chore
I am not sure i can only pick one but here goes

I love to go and just sit out at the hives with a cuppa and listen to the constant hum. I love the feel of when  a bee lands on our bare arm and walks around. It does feel pretty neat. (not sure that is considered a chore though)

I love the smell when you crack open a hive in the summer during the nectar flow.

But one of my favorite things to do is......dealing with the wax. Not sure why i like this so much but maybe its the smell. The smell that reminds me of when my Grampa first gave me a bowl full of beeswax.  Ummm ok so that wasn't just one thing.........

My Favorite beekeeping tool
Ummm that may be a tough one to narrow down to one.
I love my  J-tool.
I love my 5 gallon bucket with tool bag on it. It holds all my beekeeping tools and supplies.

But i think the #1 tool would be....the meter to test my electric fence, so i don't shock myself with 2.5 Joules of power on the inside of my leg crawling thru the fence (ouch)

Well thats it for now. Merry Blogmas everyone.

Telling the Bees.....Blogmas #2

It is said, if you tell your bees about the deaths in your family and kept them up to date on all family happenings, in return this would prevent terrible losses to happen with your bees. It was important to sit outside the hives and discuss things, not unlike you do to the bartender at the pub or your hair dresser.
So the other day we thought perhaps it was time to go have a chat with our bees. We have had a couple tough years with our bees, so we would try anything. So armed with a lawn chair and cup of coffee we brought them up to speed on what was happening in our world. I am hoping this prevents them from dying off during the winter. It was worth a try and besides there is something quite relaxing about sitting listening to the constant hum of a happy hive. (even though it was -15C and the plastic lawn chair was cold on the arse)

Having a chat with the bees

A Strange Tradition

There was a time when almost every rural British family who kept bees followed a strange tradition. Whenever there was a death in the family, someone had to go out to the hives and tell the bees of the terrible loss that had befallen the family. Failing to do so often resulted in further losses such as the bees leaving the hive, or not producing enough honey or even dying. Traditionally, the bees were kept abreast of not only deaths but all important family matters including births, marriages, and long absence due to journeys. If the bees were not told, all sorts of calamities were thought to happen. This peculiar custom is known as “telling the bees”.

Merry Blogmas everyone

Let it snow Let it snow Let it snow

Welcome to my very first Blogmas. I will be attempting to write a post once a week until Christmas. Not too much happening with the bees right now. But i will be writing about the winter, some honey recipes. some photos and other bee related "stuff". So here we go.......

I know...some of you will think i am crazy but i love snow. Always have....always will.  There is something really magical about it, (in my mind anyways). I can never be sad if its snowing.
Monday night (Dec 2) was our first snow warning of the winter.  And it began before we went to bed. I had to stop the urge to get up every hour and look out the door. But i wasn't disappointed when i got up and saw it was still snowing. All i wanted to do was curl up on the couch with a blanket and a good book. But instead we spent the day putting wall boards up in the loft but took lots of coffee breaks so we could sit and stare out the window.
The next day i thought i should wander over and make sure the snow hadn't piled up in front the hives. While crawling thru the electric fence, it dawned on my the last of the bears were probably denned up by now so tomorrow we are taking in the battery for the winter. The entrances were fine so i just cleaned up a bit and left.  With all the snow the spirit of Christmas is starting to set in.  In my next Blog i may make some Honey Fudge or some Honey Sponge toffee. I think it may also be time to start to decorate

Remembrance Day November 11, 2019

      It seemed only fitting that today was the day i found a box that hadn't been unpacked for years. When opening it i discovered 2 bottles i hadnt been able to find for a few years now. As i gazed down it brought back the memories of the day i got them.

     Grama and Poppa Forrest had put their farm up for sale and were having a big garage sale. It was an emotional day for me as that was where i spent many happy years growing up and helping them on the farm. Wood cutting, haying and just spending time exploring the fields. I remembered out in one of the fields the rock with fossils in it and the little skull with movable lower jaw that hung off a keychain, which was always kept in the glove box of the red Farm All Tractor. But one of my favorite things was  the old wooden cupboard that hung on the wall in the barn and kept all the cow medicines and teat cream. It had been built out of Dynamite crates. During the garage sale, Poppa asked me if i would like that old cupboard. We walked to the barn and took it off the wall. It is one of my prized possessions.

Also that day, he found a case of what i thought was canning jars, but on further inspection they were glass jars in the shape of bee skeps. Each jar still held honey, which at that time was close to 50 years old. He gave me a couple of those jars and also a bag full of old beeswax.
My Grampa and Great Grampa owned a commercial nursery when my Mum was a child. They also kept bees. Each summer they would attend the local fairs and the PNE and set up displays of their flowers, honey and wax. My Mum and her siblings were in charge of melting the wax and pouring it into little decorative molds. The molded wax was used as part of their displays at the fairs.

Grampa and Great Grampa's honey jars

     Anyways, today i found those 2 little jars. I removed the lids hoping to still be able to smell the golden honey that once filled it. But the scent of honey was gone. I filled the sink with hot soapy water and when dry i decided those cute little bottles would once again hold honey.  I am not sure if it was allergies or if i got soap in my eye, but i felt a tear run down my cheek. I miss my Grampa, but i think  he would of been happy that i put some of my honey in his jars


A little about the jars:
The Hazel-Atlas Glass Company of Wheeling, West Virginia started out at Washington, PA and later plants included Clarksburg, WV; Zanesville, OH; Ada, Oklahoma; Montgomery, Alabama; Oakland, California; Pomona, California and other locations (1902 – 1964).  Hazel-Atlas made the Beehive Jars and listed them in 1935 Bee Culture magazine. They were made in three sizes from ½ pound to two pounds.

Prepping for winter

Frosty leaves

    Well here it is October 31, and i have to ask myself...where has this year gone. I had always heard that the older you get the faster the time goes....but enough already! I am having trouble keeping up.
    Over the last month, we have been working hard getting ready for winter. I have been canning, James has been hunting and we are trying to get the insulation put  in here and there around the basement ceiling area.

Cold room is filling up

    The hunting so far has been unsuccessful but we are hoping that will change soon. We both enjoy game and its so rewarding to look down at your plate and most of the food on it is food you harvested yourself. So hopefully in the next week or so he will get us a moose or deer.
    We had no garden this year as there wasn't enough time, but this winter we will be planning out the new greenhouse. I did manage to buy fruit and was given some vegis out of our neighbors garden so I was able to put away a few things for the winter.
     Last week James moved a lot of the "stuff" that was laying around the yard, stuff that hadnt been put away since we got home. So we can rest knowing we won't be hitting anything while plowing the driveway this winter.  At the same time I worked on getting the bees ready for winter. I got them moved down into 2 boxes and gave them some Apipasta fondant as a treat. I had also made them 8lb candy boards for each hive. So along with their 2 boxes of honey, they should have more than enough food for winter.

Ready for winter

     So this winter, we will be keeping busy putting in the shower and vanity then organizing the basement more. Then on those real cold days we will be sitting with a steaming hot cuppa and drawing up plans for the new greenhouse. So this winter i will be updating you on whats going on inside the house, new plans for next year, how the bees are doing and the new batch of mead i plan on making.and maybe a few honey based recipes.
But for now....bee warm and have a safe winter.
,