Denial or Distraction

Today I had a ton of things to do. Tomorrow the weather  is turning more winter like with a cold rain moving in, and so we needed to get the coops padded down with extra straw and all of the outside chores completed.
I made candy boards for the bees and needed to get those placed on hives as well.
So I woke up feeling rather overwhelmed and did what I thought would be the best thing to do.

I spent the morning making candles.

I figure I was either in denial of all that I needed to accomplish or I was simply too distracted with more fun projects.
I bought some soy wax flakes and decided to melt them to make these simply wonderful jar candles. I plan to store a small book of matches under the lids and have a nice set of emergency candles ready to go in the event of a power outage. These will burn about 40 hours each.
Since I was in full candle making mode I pulled out my bees wax too and made even more candles.

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I make candy boards for the hives each year and get them on the hives by Dec. 22nd.  Today I am happy to say all of the boards are in place and my hives all looked great...I even got a couple of stings through my bee suit:-)

Candy boards are simply a piece of wood similar to the hive inner cover that I cover with a sugar syrup that is boiled to the hard crack stage. I place them candy side down on the hives so the bees have a little extra food to see them through Jan and Feb.

I usually spend about 6 hours in the kitchen boiling syrup to make the boards but this year I tried a no cook method.
I mixed together granulated sugar, honey (I had some goldenrod honey here that came from my father in law. You can use water if you do not have honey.) and some Honey Bee Healthy stimulant. I mixed it until it looked like wet sand.

I placed a pollen patty in the center of the board and then placed the sugar on there. I pressed it down so that it was more compact.

Once the board was covered I placed it in the oven at 200 degrees and let it bake for about 20 minutes. My goal was to just liquefy it a tiny bit. Once it was done, I carefully set it out to cool.

I stacked the boards with some wood shims between them and allowed them to harden. It took about 24 hours and they were ready to be placed on hives.
This will be much needed food for the bees. The winter has been mild so far and so the bees are more active and eating lots more of their food reserves.

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I did get all of my chores completed so I will spend tomorrow wrapping up a few errands then I plan to be home, home, home. The cold weather and the holidays really should be spent watching movies and relaxing. I plan to do as much of both as I am able.

What are your plans this week? Are you ready for Christmas or are you a last minute planner?

Tis the Season

It's that time of year when we parents traumatize the little ones with a visit to see Santa. Zeb would not even get on his lap. Indiana had to hold him in a chair while he cried and screamed. Ahhh....warm Christmas memories.

It has been extra cold here the last few days, I mean "this ain't the South, ya'll" type of frigid cold. It always makes me nervous for the bee hives. There is no sure way to gage how much honey the bees need for winter.
So...we made candy boards this year.
The theory is to get these boards on by December 22nd and it will assist the bees through the rest of winter. Start with an inner cover board that is not notched and has a 1/2 inch lip all around.

What you will do is boil 2 cups of water and then add 5 pounds of sugar. Cook it to 240 degrees (soft ball stage)

Remove it from the heat and let it cool to 200 degrees.

I added Honey B Healthy when it cooled to 200 degrees. I intend for it to attract the bees more readily to the candy. Now you pour the mixture onto the board and let it set.

I am hoping the weather will be decent enough Friday to put these on the hives. I will take the inner covers off and replace them with these boards, candy side down.
You can learn more about these boards if you visit David Burns HERE

Here's hoping it will soon feel like the South again real soon!