Bees arrived

Two Nucs installed this morning, each with top hive feeders and sugar syrup.  I added some screens to the feeder to hopefully get less drowning, giving the bees something to stand on.  Not sure how they'll work so will keep a pretty close eye on them.

I noticed after the installation was done, that the back of the fence was in disarray.  The fence was fine but I have roofing shingles under the fence to keep weeds down, and then cover with hay.  I see the shingle a few feet away and the hay that was on top of it in a pile behind that.  Hmmm. So I walked around to put it back in place and noticed that some animal was trying to dig under the fence.  They didn't get far (thank goodness for clay soil) and hopefully they were zapped pretty hard.  The fence has a good charge.

All this was before the bees actually arrived.  Their empty hives were there, however, with 5 frames in each and so I bet it was a bear and he could smell the honeycomb.

I just hope I'll be able to sleep at night knowing my hives are being stalked by  a bear.

Picking up bees in 5 days

I am investing in more bees this year so that I have two hives.  I'm hoping that I can keep them both going. It's been a difficult few years because I haven't been able to keep a hive from year to year.  But with two, I'm hoping to have one of the hives doing okay to help boost a hive that  might be falling behind for one reason or another.  And to compare behaviors would be interesting and hopefully insightful into bee behavior.

Clearly, these are expensive jars of honey!  I haven't sold any yet.  I've had enough for myself and immediate family, which is good and delicious.  But I lose money on them every day.  So it's not about the money.  It's about the bees and thriving crops, which is, from a long range perspective, even more important than the honey they produce.

Anyway...off to another year of beekeeping. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

My goal is to have these same two hives thriving a year from now!

Raindrops and gophers - signs of spring

This morning, I'm happy to hear it rain on my roof.  Let it wash the snow away.  I' want to see green again.

Yesterday I went down to the rain garden where a gopher lives.  In front of the gopher hole was a prickly shrub that was spreading and hiding the gopher(s) when they come out of the hole.  I cut it down.  Later I will burn the branches in the rain garden along with the old Christmas tree and other debris I find in the yard after the winter.

I was going to go buy another portable fence to keep out the gophers from my garden.  But I decided to poison them instead using the pellets.  So I need to be able to get to their active entrance and once the pellets arrive, I will use them.  Last year, in the early spring, there was a family of gophers.  Over the summer the family either disbanded or something else.  By the end of the season, I think there were only one left.  But he/she was big.

Last week, I looked out and saw the gopher so I know I have at least one.  He wandered up near the pond and started munching on a shrub.  This one isn't huge...maybe the size of a cat.  Last year, one was the size of a pig!  Almost.  But it was huge.  I tried to shoot this one with the BB gun but missed. Of course.  Then I loaded up the 22 rifle.  By the time I finished, the gopher had disappeared and I haven't seen it since.  But I'm sure it's around. But now the gun is loaded...if the pellets don't work.

At least I've started the process of getting the gopher(s).  The taking down of the shrub was my second step.  Ordering the pellets was the first step.  Wish me luck!

I want to tackle some of the other spring work before the bees come. I have at least another  month before needing the bee yard set up. So much fun to come.

Meanwhile seeds have been started in the greenhouse.  I bought more seeds yesterday so will plant them over the new few days.  Flowers and vegetables.

Happy spring 2017.

Coyotes and spring

Last night at just about this time, it was dusk, and I looked out the kitchen window which looks down beyond the pond where the woods meets the lawn, and see two coyotes.  One of them went into the woods to the right, into the pines.  The other sat down beyond a small woodpile of useless hemlock and waited for the other one it seemed.  I think that was correct because finally the other one came out of the pines and headed down the hill away from his companion and me.

By that time, I was wondering if there was any communication between them.  I thought that because one night a few years back, I listened as two coyotes signaled each other.  First they were very far away, and they would answer each other from opposite sides of the little canyon beyond my house.  I listened to them get closer and closer until there was silence again.  I figured they found each other.  It was so beautiful.

So I opened the window to hear something like that.  But there was silence.  As I closed the window, the sitting and waiting pup heard me.  And he or she took off like lightening!  In the opposite direction from the companion.

I sort of figured, afterwards, that it was a mother and child.  The mother sat by the logs waiting for the other to do a bit of wandering on its own.  Perhaps the "child" was hunting in there.  The "mother's" attention appeared to be so very watchful.

Seeing and hearing wildlife is such fun.

2/12/17 - snowstorms and downtime

What I like about the winter is that it's a time when you can snuggle up with a book or a movie or a game and wile away the day guilt free!  If I get one or two chores done, know what's for dinner and had my shower, and make the bed, then I feel like I can do that for the rest of the day.  But that's about the only thing I like about the winter.

I'm a summer gal/lady/old lady/grandma lady...through and through.  This week, I began the process of 'thinking summer'.  I planted some seeds.

Someone sent a link about starting seeds outside in January and February in empty plastic jugs that have been cut in half and had holes drilled for drainage.  Then fill them with dirt, plant your seeds, water thoroughly and put the cover back on and tape it shut a bit and put outside.  I put them on  my patio table.  I need more jugs, but have one more to use this week.

Today I finished cleaning my last hive part and painting the outside of the last super.  Others are all done and waiting to go out in late April to be ready for bees to come in early May. I like starting the year with cleaned hive parts. It's easy to do if you lose your bees because it's starting fresh.  Not really what we want but it happens very often. If all the parts are outside being used, it's more difficult to get them all cleaned each year.

I'm excited about this year because I will start with two Nucs.  That will give me two hives where I can compare them and also use them to supplement the other hive, if needed.  It would be great to have two fully functioning hives.

I will treat for varroa mites this year and will not allow bee robbing which is what happened this year. I allowed my hive too many entrances and this gave robbers another avenue in.  Plus my hive wasn't strong enough to fend them off.

I just saw a notice in the Brattleboro Beekeepers Facebook page that some mushrooms are being used (experimentally) to control varroa mites!  That would be wonderful.  Another tool in the toolbox.  It seems that they just made a solution with it and let the bees drink. That would be easy for the beekeeper to manage.

Mid February is all about getting through it.  Today is our second snowstorm in a week...or is it the third? It might be the third.  But who's counting?

Soon....a new year and a new season

A few days before Christmas, 2016, I'm thinking forward to spring and the bees that have been ordered.  Next year, I will have two hives.  I ordered two Nucs so that I'm sure I'll have two.  I tried to increase the number of hives for a few years and lost the hives for one reason or another.

Once I have two hives, I do hope it helps me to fix problems before they are too large to be fixed.  If one hive becomes weak, and the other strong, I can move bees from one to the other to help strengthen the hive, as one example.  It just is good to have at least one other hive to compare.

I have the equipment for two hives  and some extra frames.  I'm looking forward to a new year.

Bear visits early Nov. 2016

Ok, I've had enough of this!

Last week, a bear broke into my shed where I had some honey frames waiting to go to the dump.  My shed door has one of those 1/2" steel pins that goes into the floor to keep the door in place.  The bear bent it sideways and got in.  He scattered all the frames over my vegetable garden until he was done, knocking over anything in his way.  The garden fence was flattened as he made what looks to be his exit.

He also got into my compost bin on the other side of the yard.  He had to dig deep to find the household compost stuff...I had it all covered with  mowed leaves.

He came back at some point and went through the garden looking for frames he left behind but we had since taken them to the dump. He lifted a fake rock that goes over my propane tank cover, tossed it aside, looking for goodies under there.

Then yesterday at about 5PM, he sauntered into  my yard, rested on my front lawn and generally acted like he'd been here before.  In fact, he acted like he owned the place.

I took these shots and a video.

Here he was about 20 feet from the front porch. Then he came to the tree and lied down for a bit.  That's when I shut the door loudly so he'd take off.

This morning, I see he's been back and has broken into the greenhouse.  He broke into it last year around this time as well, but I have nothing stored in there anymore, other than empty flower pots.  Looks like he never made it inside but he tore off one of the panels to get in ...a potting bench that runs the length of the greenhouse was in his way however.

Then I happened to look outside at my pond.  It's practically empty!  And I see Butterfly bushes growing beside it flattened.  I need to go see if he ate the water lilies too! (he didn't.) I'm assuming his claws have punctured a hole into the lining.  Yet another fix-it job perhaps I also wonder if he didn't jump and splash around to cause the water to spill out..  I'll fill  it and then see what happens. I had just removed the pump and hose that goes to little waterfall a few weeks ago.  Otherwise, he'd have probably ruined at least the hose.

One last point.  He didn't go anywhere near the electric fence around the beehives. I won't remove that until I'm sure he's gone into hibernation.