More bees coming

This week, May 14th, I'll pick up more bees. I had ordered this Nuc back in January I believe...and paid for it which is always a plus. A Nuc is five frames of bees with brood and queen.  I will then put them into their permanent home in a hive right next to the active one.

I was just out watching the bees at the first hive and they were beginning to bring in light yellow and orange pollen in the little sacs on each side of their tiny bodies.  Dandelions are in bloom so I expect the orangey pollen is from them.  Daffodils and lots of lawn flowers that are beautiful before the first mowing I saw some bugle weed in bloom and lots of other flowers but don't know their names.  The weather today is in the high 70's and we're in a warm spell right now so I should see a lot of activity in terms of bees and nature in general. I love spring.

I will get into the hive this week since I've had the current hive for almost three weeks.  I'll see how they have filled the frames in their hive.  Because this first hive was a "package of bees", they came with no frames or brood.  And the queen had to be introduced to them.  So it'll be interesting to see how they're doing in there.  From the outside looking in, it looks like they're doing well.  Stay tuned!

I keep thinking of winter

I've probably mentioned this before about my winter plan this year.  But it bears repeating, if only to get it out of my system.  I am determined to not lose my bees this coming winter.  So I will make cedar shavings pillows!  I have one bale of cedar shavings and I will be making pillows that will fit into a super (this is the box where you collect the honey in the summer). This year, we'll also put a few into use in the winter.  The super will have a screen stapled to the bottom so no bees can get into the box. The shavings will catch any condensation that drips down onto the bees and freezes them during the winter months.  I'm convinced that's what happened to my bees this past winter. So I will be making the cedar pillows this summer to be ready for them later.

A great day for foraging

May 4, 2014
This afternoon, I headed to my favorite spot for fiddleheads here in Southern Vermont and after a slow start, I found a great patch and picked a little from each bunch.  I do that so that more will come next year.

As I was leaving, I saw a group of people in a nearby area and so I hurried away from my spot, hoping they didn't see where I had been or what I had been picking. I worry so about patches of ferns going extinct from overpicking so I at least try to do my part by taking just a little.  Although you can see in the photo that I picked plenty!  More than I ever have at one time.  The timing was perfect.  Some that I saw had already grown too tall and were closer to ferns than fiddleheads.

Then I decided to go check out the ramps that grow nearby.  I had checked on them a week or so ago and they hadn't formed bulbs yet so I checked with some expects on the yahoo group, Northeast Mushrooms and they advised me to make good use of the leaves which are just as good as the bulbs.  I love the bulbs sauteed and then cooked in cream with parmesan cheese over the top. They are delicious.

But I will try sauteing the greens like I would spinach or chard only I won't need to add garlic to these leaves!  They already have a garlic flavor, for those of you who have never had ramps or wild leeks.

All in all, a great day for foraging!  Bon Appetit!

April 24 - Bee package installed

I picked up my package of bees at 7AM today at New Hampshire Honeybee in Gilsum, NH. I was the first customer to arrive so I had my pick of the litter. 

I was told that I should choose a package that had the bees all clustered together, rather than spread out within the screened box they come in.  So I chose a nice cluster and they sat on the floor of the car back to Vermont.

The queen is a marked Italian.  I'm not sure if all the bees are Italian but they are nice, gentle bees.  I didn't get stung at all but I was in my beekeeper's full suit so they didn't have the opportunity to get me!

I had never installed a package so I did some things backwards rather than the order written in Beekeeping for Dummies.  For example, the queen cage didn't have nails to hang it between the frames so I had to go find nails and a rock to do it.  I had never removed the cork from the candy side of the cage either so had to go find something to pry it off with. Next time, I'd be more prepared with these items.

I also dumped the bees into the hive before the queen cage was found inside the travel box.  When I opened the  traveling box, I couldn't find the queen cage because bees were all around it, hiding it.  So I dumped the bees into the new hive...at least as many as possible.  Some refused to come out of the box.  They will find their way into the new hive with all their friends I expect.

I'm back in business!!

April 18th and spring is here and bees are coming soon

Another month has gone by and we are finally...almost....out of the cold weather.  I say that but it's cold this morning but will warm up later today.  The next several days will be spring-like weather. I see tulips, daffodils and hyacinths poking up from the ground now although nothing is blooming yet.  Even the forsythia has not flowered yet but it's coming.  The magnolia tree out front is not showing me anything yet. I don't see the buds on it. I do hope it blooms because it's just a beautiful start to spring. 

The bees will be coming next week...the first batch. The two hives are set up in the yard.  The electric fence is in place and working too.  I had to put it up because last week a bear came through and rummaged through one of the hives last weekend.  Thankfully he/she didn't destroy it, probably because there were no larvae and no honey there right now. But frames and top were tossed around. It's all put back together and protected now so I'm ready for the girls to show up!

Originally I was getting them on Monday, the 21st.  Now it will be Thursday, the 24th.  That will be a 3lb. package of bees.  I will also be picking up a Nuc (5 frames of bees) sometime soon too but I haven't a date yet.

What was interesting is that earlier this week, we had 70 degree weather and my greenhouse was full of bees!!! They must have wintered over in there where I had stored some hives and frames. So I guess I didn't lose all my bees ...most of them were lost to the cold though.  That was a sad day in January.

I do hope to plant some cold weather crops this weekend in the garden...lettuce, peas, kale, chard. Soon we'll see red buds on the trees and we'll be off and running with our summer season.

I see lots of work to be done outside.  I think I am going to hire someone to mow the lawn this year so that I have more time to do fun things in my time off. I'd rather be growing things, picking flowers, taking walks, hunting mushrooms and generally enjoying life than keeping up with the maintenance of a lawn. Plus, there's plenty of work to be done beyond the mowing.

But don't get me wrong.  My "lawn" is whatever is green and growing.  I do not use pesticides, or any other fertilizer on the lawn other than maybe a bit of compost here and there.  Mostly I just let whatever wants to grow grow.  I like putting down clover because the bees love it and like letting anything else flower that wants to.  Again the bees like it...and so do I.  I often will mow around anything flowering.

I hope to keep these bees well beyond the year.  It's too heartbreaking to lose them.  Wish me luck!!

At least one bee survived

Yesterday, March 16th, I went into the greenhouse to finish cleaning up my bee supplies and to move the hives outside to their spot in the yard.  Yes, I'm getting ready for the bees to arrive next month.  And getting ready to plant seeds in the greenhouse so I needed the room. 

On a table, at the end of my mission, I saw a bee thrashing about.  I think I must have knocked her from wherever she was living onto the table.  So I placed her on a frame that I had just cleaned off, and added another frame over her.  She was the only one I saw but it was a welcome sight to see that one of my bees survived the winter!  Not that she'll do anything until there's a queen and you can't make a queen with one bee so I just hope she survives until the other bees arrive.

It makes me wonder if I should winter my bees in the greenhouse.  It has a dutch door so I could keep that door open so that the bees can get out whenever they want.  Otherwise they would be protected from the cold on all four sides...better protection than they get outside.  I had asked about that once and was told the fluctuation of temperature would be an issue (probably due to the condensation within the hive).  I will do some research to see if other beekeepers keep bees in a greenhouse through the winter.

mid March 2014 - doesn't feel much like spring yet

It's tough to write about beekeeping during these cold months.  I am supposed to get my first package of bees in another 6 weeks and I sure hope it is warm enough by then.  That first package is a 3 pound one.
The next bees to come will be a nuc that will be bees and brood and a queen on 5 frames.

These two packages will go into two separate hives that I have ready to go and I will do my very best to keep them alive and thriving this season...and throughout next winter.

Today, it's 40 degrees. I suppose it's melting some of the snow, but not fast enough for me.  I am ready for daffodils and crocuses and hyacinths and tulips...to be followed by forsythia and then lilacs, and all the other flowering spring shrubs. 

I was needing some flowers in the house so picked up a few tulips in a pot that I'm enjoying now and will plant later in hopes that they'll  bloom for me next spring.

Meanwhile, I grew some basil that I'm trying to keep alive until I can plant it outside at the end of May.  But the aphids have found it and I'm at war with them at the moment, picking them or washing them off almost daily.  Today I threw out one of the plants...it was too far gone.  But I have another 3 that are still doing good and will be watching them closely.

I'm anxious to see how the blueberry bushes do this year.  They were large bushes that came from next door and last year, they did pretty well even though they were shocked from the move and replanting. 

I also planted Apple, pear, cherry and peach trees that will hopefully at least bloom this year and maybe even provide fruit.  The peach tree gave me some peaches last year but that is a year older than the others.  Time will tell.  Half the fun of gardening is seeing what the season brings!

Happy gardening!

Getting ready for spring

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since my last posting.  I've pretty much been dealing with splitting wood, stacking wood, moving wood from one place to the other, loading wood into the masonry heater and building fires.  That's my life this winter :).

But there have been a few sunny days here and there where I've gone into the greenhouse where I'm storing my supers and deeps, many of which had dead bees embedding in the comb.  So I've been removing the dead bees, and cleaning the propolis off the sides of the frames and hives...all this to get ready for spring. By the way, after picking out bees with tweezers, I read that you don't need to.  The bees will do all this cleaning for me.  But there were so many bees, that it seems like it would distract them from gathering pollen and making brood so I'm going to finish the job for them this year.

I had also ordered some new frames that need to be assembled; and new super and deep which are now primed and will be painted within the next few days.  I have some turquoise paint that I'll use this time if it's still good.  I'm trying to get rid of some old paint and this will use up just a little bit of it.

Along with getting ready for the bees coming this spring, I have also started some plants that need 8-12 weeks before going outside.  I will start more flowers and vegetables (and herbs) later on as well as buy some.  I do like to use the greenhouse for this but need to wait until later since it's not heated.  I do have a propane heater in there but haven't hooked it up since moving to Vermont. It's too expensive.  I would love to try solar panels for the greenhouse but for now, I will use it as it is.

One other item I want to do this winter is to make cedar pillows to add to the hives in the fall so that I don't lose my hives next winter.  I will need to make 4 of them.  One for each of the hive and one spare for each hive so that I can swap them out as they get wet.  This should take care of any moisture problem in the hive.

Now just hurry up and come, spring! I'm more than ready!