1630

12 May 2012

First Two Hive Inspections

Two days after installing my girls into their new homes, Wasabi (the green hive) and Aubry (the purple hive), I opened the hives up to check to see if the queens had been released. Check–both queens were out of their cages. I closed the hives to let the girls get to it.

About a week later I opened up both of the hives again to check to see if the queens had started to lay eggs. When installing the bees, I used mostly drawn comb frames with the hope that the queens would start laying eggs faster (not having to wait for the working girls to draw out the comb first). I was able to spot sugar water (which I am feeding them until they no longer take it), pollen, and larvae in Wasabi. I did not see the queen in Wasabi. I had a little trouble finding larvae in Aubry, but did manage to see a few clusters of larvae, as well as pollen and sugar water. I was a little worried with the amount of larvae in Aubry but decided wait it out to see if the queen was just off to a slow start. Plus, bringing in pollen is a good sign that your queen is alive and laying eggs–the pollen is collected to feed the baby bees once they hatch. Before closing the hives, I feed the bees more sugar water since the feeder was complete dry.

Another week later I checked back again. I was able to spot quite a bit of capped larvae in Wasabi. Woot! However, the amount of larvae in Aubrey was still lacking (although, I did see larve). I decided to wait another week and check for change. If all else fails, I can take a frame of brood (larvae) from Wasabi and put it in Aubrey. If the queen in Aubrey is dead, the worker bees can feed lots of royal jelly to one of the larvae and hatch a new queen. If the queen is still alive, maybe just slow, the extra baby bees could help strengthen the hive. We’ll see–I plan to check on the girls sometime this weekend. Its going to be in the 70s!!

And for those who have been waiting patiently for “the video”, without further ado: Bee Installation 2012. DA-DA-DAAAA!

jennifer | No comments

23 Apr 2012

Bee Blog • Garden & Landscaping

“I’m not swatting them… I’m waving my hand, telling them: go to your queen.”

And thus begins a new bee year…

Yesterday, Tom and I picked up two packages of bees (just in from Northern California) to install in my two hives: Aubergine (Aubry for short) and Wasabi. Although the weather was gorgeous, we waited until Sunday to hive the bees since there were a number of people (newbees and old) who wanted to watch. Plus, Tom had to work.

Instead, I went down the the Bark Store and had five yards of bark delivered. Luckily for Tom, there was still work to be done when he arrived home. I think we made it through at least 3 yards of bark and no longer have to weed-whack the neighbor’s encroaching crab grass and blackberry bushes.

Today we installed the packages and all went well, unless you ask Mom, who was stung 5 or 6 times. When told not to swat the bees, she said “I’m not swatting them… I’m waving my hand, telling them: go to your queen.” Super-duper, awesome bee installation video to follow shortly. You may just pee your pants!

jennifer | No comments

19 Jan 2012

Announcement

The System Is Down

Due to problems with our old hosting provider, we have been forced to move this site, which means that content will be a bit light for a while. But don’t worry, we are OK and hope to have the site back up soon as well as news for you.

tom | No comments

11 Sep 2011

Bee Blog

First Honey Harvest

The actual harvesting actually took place at the beginning of August, but I have been a little busy–sorry. So, not wanting to purchase a $300 extractor, I decided to use the crush and strain method of extraction. It is pretty self-explanatory. First you crush the honeycomb and strain it through a sieve to filter out wax so all you are left with is beautiful, tasty-tasty honey. Here is my experience:

Overall, I ended up with about 3.5 pounds of honey from one medium frame. A week later I harvested about the same from another frame of honey. And, I am hoping to harvest about 10 or so more pounds before it starts cooling down. I hope anyway, since I only have one and a half jars of honey left for myself–if you want some honey, you need to put your name on the list!

PS – Tom says that shipping is free but handling will cost $83/jar.

jennifer | No comments

25 Jul 2011

Bee Blog • Ducks • Garden & Landscaping

Slow summer in Washington, but productive all the same.

Two weeks ago I removed the feeder and put my first honey super on the hive. The feeder had to go since I wanted yummy, yummy honey and not sugar water. The flowers seemed to be blooming in full force, but I was a little hesitant to take food away from my girls. But alas, last weekend I pulled two frames from the outsides of the honey super to find beautiful, golden honey. Although my girls had not capped the cells yet, I decided to steal a little taste. Oh my, was it delicious! The honey was much sweeter than I expected and since it is clover and blackberry flowering season, I expect that the honey is an amalgamation of clover and blackberry honey. The color was very light, but should darken a little after the bees cap it. Right now the honey has moisture in it. The bees will let the honey sit so the water can evaporate (they will probably expedite the process by fanning the honey with their wings) until it is ready to be capped. Later in the summer I will steal some of that beautiful capped honey and share it with all the people who love me and show it by commenting every once in a while.

Anyhoo, I have also been keeping busy by eating strawberries and weeding the garden. It looks like we may actually get a good harvest this year. Tom already picked the black currant bush clean (can you say mmm mmm black currant scones!). I just started snacking on the snap peas and it looks like we will have an eggplant to harvest here soon. Tom bought me a book called Pickles to Relish so I am going to pickle everything I can this year–mmm vinegar.

Our baby duckies are less baby sized now. A few of them are almost as big as momma duck.

jennifer | One comment

29 Jun 2011

Ducks

Did I forget to mention that we have duckies??

jennifer | No comments

21 Jun 2011

Bee Blog • DIY • Garden & Landscaping

First Day of Summer Is Here

I think that we reached a whopping 76 degrees! But don’t worry, sprinkles are forecasted for the rest of the week. We wouldn’t want Washingtonians to get spoiled. As for 1630 updates…

The bees are doing well. I have three boxes on the hive now and will probably need to add the first honey super in the next week or so. I haven’t seen the queen lately but I know that she is around since I have seen many newly laid eggs. Since I added the foundationless frames, the bees have been building their own comb and as a result, I have been seeing more drone brood. Apparently, approximately 20% of a hive is supposed to be drones and the bees are making up for the lack of drone sized cells in the frames with plasticell foundation. Check out the picture below–the drone brood bulges out from the frame due to the larger size of the drones.

Tom is extremely happy since we now have wheat coming up in our garden. If you recall, Tom planted his grandfather’s 27 year old hard red, spring wheat back in October 2009 (see Tom’s original rambling about it here). On Sunday Rick, Tom and I took a long hard look at the strange grasses growing in my potato bed and decided that it was indeed wheat. Now Tom has a newer specimen of seed to plant for future wheat crops. Do your worst apocalypse!

And finally, we have completed another step in Project Patio. No, wait apocalypse! Don’t–we just finished that!!

Last weekend we leveled, filled with gravel, and laid pavers on the dinning portion of our backyard patio. Tom woke up sore the next day and I am suffering from 27 mosquito bites. Its a good think that it turned out nice–I wouldn’t want my suffering to be in vain.

Whew! Now onto the next thing on our to-do list…

jennifer | One comment

03 Jun 2011

Miscellaneous

Woo! A non-warped rear wheel!

So does everybody remember in December 2009 when the Ford Focus tried to play smashie-smashie with Thomas? Yes? Well, so do I. And, with last month being bicycle awareness month, I was reminded even more. So, here was the problem: just before ‘the incident’, I had lent Thomas my rear wheel because his has popped apart (somehow). It just happened that my rear wheel was a bystander in ‘the incident’. At the time (actually 4 or 5 months later), the insurance company for the Focus paid for a new bike for Tom. However, my wheel was never replaced. And, although Joy Ride Bikes said the wheel would never function as a wheel again, I still used it as one. Anyway, flash forward to last month. Tom and I participated in the Thurston County bicycle commuter contest. And although I know I haven’t been cycling all that often (it gets damn rainy in Washington, people–and I am not hardcore like Tom–and I work 20 miles away), it was a lot of work to ride my bike the 5 days that I did ride last month. To make a long story a little less long, I finally have a new rear wheel. Woo! And, it is going to be super nice this weekend–perfect weather for biking.

jennifer | One comment

03 Jun 2011

Miscellaneous

Doesn’t anybody care??

That’s right. I’m talking about you. You just sit there and read all about my crazy, slightly social-less life. And do you comment? Do you say, “Hey Jenn, I really like what your doing to the place!” … “Good job with the bees!” … “Wow, how does Tom put up with you?” NO. Nothing. Zip. Nada! Where is the love for Jennifer? Somebody better say something before I start naming all of my bees, dammit.

jennifer | 4 comments

30 May 2011

DIY • Ducks • Garden & Landscaping

In other news…

Just in case you think that I may be turning into the crazy bee lady, here are some other things that Tom and I have been working on:

Our front lawn is almost completely filled in and is looking very bright and fluffy. Yea!

I have weeded and planted (and weeded) most our garden. Right now we have asparagus, artichokes, melons, lots of peppers (sweet and hot), four heirloom tomatoes, potatoes out our ears, corn, squash, peas, green beans, onions, onions, onions, and strawberries. Also, our salmonberries, thimbleberries, medlar, currants, huckleberry, and cherry trees are all fruting this year. I am not sure, but I hope that our kiwis will also produce.

Little by little we have been working on our back patio area. We built up the area to be leveled for our table set and have been adding pavers to the rest of the patio every now and then. This last weekend we started building our earth oven. Here is a good visual example of what we will be doing. Tom leveled three layers of the stones that will be the base of the oven. In the next few weeks, we plan to add four more levels to finish the base. Then, we will have to wait for a good solid stretch of warm weather to build the actual oven. Here is what we have done so far (the cinder blocks are not permanent–they serve as a duck barrier for the time being):