The Honey Bee Blues

I was too emotionally and physically exhausted to take pictures. I really don't need to relive the tale in color anyway. Perhaps I will fill in with other farm and family photos.

                             ****Yum-Yum, our 1 year old jersey steer****

Today was like any other crazy busy day. I had farm chores out the wadzoo and on that list of chores was bee hive inspection.

It's been a tough year for bee keeping here this year. I am sure you have read some headlines about the potential peril we all face without the little yellow critters flying around to pollinate our food.

There have been countless bee keepers losing their bees, especially through the winter months.

It's. Been. Tough.

Today was no different. My heart sank when I came upon my main apiary and did not see a single bee flying from a few hives.

                                ****Indiana's photography debut on the blog. She loves Athena****


Three hives dead. Three hives totally empty. Nothing. Nada.

Three hives succumbed to Colony Collapse Disorder, and my strongest hive was one of the victims.

It just plain stinks.

I spent an hour pulling hives parts down and stacking them half heartedly into my storage building, as I was not in the frame of mind to complete any sort of organizing of hive components.

The cause of the incredible loss could really be any number of things. We do not spray chemicals here, but what about the farm down the road? I am fairly certain they do use harsh chemicals, and that could well have played it's role in the CCD of these hives.

           ****Willow and Bumpit. Bumpit can be a rascal, but she is sometimes very sweet too****


Ironic that a farm that wishes to get a high crop yield would kill off bees when these same bees are needed for the pollination of such crops. Organic pesticides are just as deadly too.

1/3 of our food is dependent upon the pollination of the honey bee. That's a huge chunk of our food.

I emptied my smoker, hung my bee suit and veil up and then decided to work on a different chore. All of the chores needed to be finished today before the rain started, despite my disappointment and frustration.

There is a saying I have had to repeat many times this wet, soggy summer.


"It could always be worse."

Right?

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?

Overwhelmed and Overjoyed

I knew this calf and the cow and the chickens and the bees and the house full of children would keep me busy. Yes I did.
This week has been extra busy with the new calf and cow chores especially.
I also have several quilt and crochet and sewing projects that stare at me throughout the day. It's a reminiscent feeling of when I had three little ones running around the house and my days were consumed with diapers, naps, play dates, and meals.
The projects can wait because there will be a week down the road when I have a few less chores to accomplish.

Feeding the calf has been a great experience for the young girls, and it helps me out tremendously.  We fill his bottle up right after the milking is finished so that it is still warm.

It tends to be a very slobbery event and we are usually covered in milk and calf saliva by the time the bottle is empty.

Lucy has again proven herself to not only be an expert at hiding in the trees and brush, but also to be a champion milking cow. She's back to a twice a day milking routine that goes smoothly and yields a total of 6 gallons of milk a day.
She has the classic dairy cow temperament of being easy going, friendly and curious. She has adjusted very well to our family.

We have more honey to extract! It's not much but I think it will be enough to sell at the local Farmers Market here. I plan to utilize a booth to not only sell honey but to round up some folks for a mailing list for pasture chickens next year. It will be a day of marketing.
This weekend we plan to process our chickens, but some have not grown as well as others. I blame the extremely high temperatures. We will likely process only half and let the others grow a couple more weeks.

This year of raising pastured poultry has been very helpful by showing me how much food they consume. It will allow me to estimate and plan better and even buy the feed in bulk next year for a discount.

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My second oldest daughter, Quinn, is using her art skills to try and win a contest. There is an organization here locally that provides food, shelter, clothing, education, etc to people in need. This organization was donated a large van so that they can transport people who have no transportation of their own. Here's where the contest starts. They asked local artists to come up with a design that will be painted on the van and Quinn is currently in second place!
If you feel inclined, will you please hop over there and give her a vote? You can only vote one time and voting ends in a couple of days. 
I really like the theme of her design which is titled "City of Families." Her van is blue with a rainbow.

Thank you. It's a great organization and I love to see that they invited young, local artists to participate.

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It's another hot, muggy day in Georgia and I feel sorry for those kids who are starting school. It's still summer, folks.
We start after Labor Day, so I still have a few weeks to get ready. Yes, I have lots to prepare but for now we are still enjoying summer.

When do you start school?

March Madness

It is our version around here...an anniversary and several birthdays within a week's time.

Yesterday was my second born daughter's birthday. She turned 14. Happy birthday Quinn!

Our weekend was spent having parties and eating tons of food. It was a great weekend...the way it should be when you have so many reasons to celebrate.

                                                                     *Quinn age 3*

A friend of mine posted on FB lastnight about the fallacy of a large family. Sometimes people say that two parents could not possibly have enough love within themselves to love so many children. It is a fallacy indeed. In fact that statement would only be stated by someone who has never been around a large family.

And what about the love between siblings?

                                                              *Journee age 5, Quinn age 3*

I feel sorry for those kids who do not have lots of siblings to pal around with and bond, and home schooling only strengthens that bond. You home educating, large families know exactly what I am talking about.

                                                              *Journee age 16, Quinn age 13*

These two girls are still hanging out and goofing off together and I suspect they always will.

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On another note, my honey bees have been very busy! A frost last week zapped my plum trees that were blooming but my peach trees are still going strong!

Did you know about 1/3 of all the fruits and veggies we eat are pollinated by the honey bee? I know who to thank when we have peaches this year! Thank you my bee ladies!

Hope everyone has a great week! We have yet another time change (we moved one hour forward Sat. night) to get adjusted to and it stinks. It always messes us up for about a week and the little ones are a bit cranky. Okay, I get a little cranky too. Time for more coffee.

Happy Monday!!!!

Spring Storms

What a day yesterday!!! There was a time when we would get the occasional tornado warnings, but we never really feared because we are located in a valley that is surrounded by mountains. Last year everyone's worst nightmare came true when tornadoes ripped through our little town and the surrounding Chattanooga area.

Here we are again this year...tornado alley. We spent all day yesterday listening to the radio and weather reports and hanging out in the basement as our very warm 75 degree day was the pre-cursor to wild spring weather, tornadoes included. Today it is 20 degrees cooler outside, the sun is shining, and people in the Chattanooga area are assessing the damage from the tornadoes. Fortunately we were not affected personally, but I have a few friends who were. No injuries to my friends, thankfully.


Spring has sprung!

 We are spending more and more of our time outside, playing and cleaning up the yard.

 The children are digging up their shorts and counting the days until summer is here so they can dig out swim suits.

 My peach trees are blooming and I have noticed the bees are out more and more, collecting nectar and pollen.

 Even the bull dogs are soaking up the warmth and sun and seem to enjoy laying around and hanging out with the kids.

Who am I kidding? American Bull Dogs are a wonderful breed for kids. I put them right up there with Boxers, another family friendly dog.

 The warm weather has not only begged the bees to come work the plum trees in the orchard.....

 But it has also encouraged me to pull out my macro lens and start taking pictures of them.

It will soon be time to put honey supers on the hives and start making needed splits.

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Sliders are a hit for dinner around here. I discovered an easy way to make them and thought I would share.

Take your meat, ground beef or turkey, and roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on it, and chopped onions if you wish. Bake it at 350 for about 12-15 minutes, until cooked. Soak up and grease with paper towels and then cut the sheet of meat into squares to fit your rolls or buns. It was an easy meal for this large family and would work well for a party too.

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What are your plans this weekend?

Go out and make the day special!!!!!

Celebrate Good Times

Today we celebrated. Sort of. We ate off dishes that were breakable and we lit a candle for the table.
Devin was home all day with NO WORK RELATED matters to interrupt the day. This is a rare treat here lately, SO I celebrated.

I cooked a huge dinner and now we are all stuffed, as in after Thanksgiving stuffed. It was a good day.

 A celebration dinner is not complete either without dessert.

 I do enjoy baking from scratch but I had so many items on my "to do" list that I decided to go with a family favorite.

 It starts with a cake mix. In fact, it's a doctored up cake mix.

 But it is so delicious and easy and fancy...all at the same time.

Here you go, because I know you want to whip one up tomorrow.

Breakfast Bundt Cake

1/2 C chopped pecans, divided
1 yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
3/4 C oil
3/4 C water
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 C sugar mixed with 2 tsp cinnamon
1 C powder sugar
1 Tb milk


Grease a bundt pan and sprinkle some nuts on bottom. Mix next 6 ingredients together in large bowl until smooth. Spread half of this batter into bundt pan. Sprinkle some nuts and sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. Pour rest of batter in bundt pan and top with more nuts and sugar/cinnamon mixture. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes, or until done. Let cool 10 minutes and turn from pan. Mix up a glaze with powder sugar and milk. Drizzle glaze over cake and allow to cool.

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We are trying to finish our basement up for more family living area, but we have an issue with tools and bee equipment. The issue is that we have a ton of both, so we decided we would need an outdoor building for storage.
We've been looking around at several options, but you know my man likes to save a buck and build himself so...

 He spent the day building the floor for the outdoor storage building. Love, love, LOVE a man with tools who can build things:-)

I am glad that it will hide those chicken pens once it is finished. Those cages look a wee bit tacky, but they are useful to lock up hens when it is needed.

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Fall is here and so that means it is time to check on bees again and see if they are all ready for winter.

 The Goldenrod is blooming everywhere and it is the last bloom of food before winter.

 The Goldenrod is covered with my bees, and that is a very good thing. It is so abundant this year, it looks like a sea of yellow.

Today I treated a few more hives for mites. I also checked brood patterns to make sure the queens were all laying well and then I put little metal entrance reducers on the fronts. Bee keeping season is slowing down.

 Loo at the very full pollen baskets on this worker bee! She is loaded with pollen and about to enter the hive and deposit the load.

You can see here how many bees are loaded with pollen. They are hard workers, for sure.
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 We adopted a mother hen and her babies from a good friend. I am happy to say that they were out and about loving the weather this afternoon. They are the sweetest little things to watch with their mamma.

Thank you to everyone who voted for me on Circle of Moms. I am happy to say that I landed in the Top 25 with some remarkable women and families. It is a true honor.

Now what is in store for tomorrow? I am not sure. Devin will be back at work so we will see. Let me know how much you love the Breakfast Bundt Cake. Yes, I do think the name of it implies that you may eat it for breakfast!

Celebrate something too this week!

Bee Wrangling

 Last week Devin and I went a friend's house and removed a bee hive that was living in the side of her house. We were happy to get a chance to try out a new bee vacuum Devin built. When we arrived bees were flying out the exterior corner here. Her husband sprayed expansion foam all around hoping it would keep the bees inside the wall and then they would die. Bees are clever and just chewed a hole through the foam.

 After a bit we figured out where the hive body was and Devin used his saw to cut a square out through that part of the house. BINGO! The hive was above the basement ceiling (finished basement) and below the floor joists to the main floor.

 It was not a HUGE hive, but they had several combs drawn down. These combs you see are actually attached up higher, so it was difficult to remove them in whole pieces.  the comb was full of brood, eggs and honey.

 Since my hand was smallest, I pulled the comb out and also tried to vacuum up as many bees as possible.
 The bee vacuum was attached to a  bucket. When we were done, we took the vacuum part off top and placed a screened lid on the bucket.

 We collected a box full of comb. Sadly, we were not able to find a queen. I am sure she was smooshed in the process. I threw this comb out in my apiary and let all the bees rob it of honey.

  I tried to get all the comb out. there were still field bees flying in, but the homeowner was going to spray them down with water that evening. The bees were actually very docile considering we were ripping their home apart.

They had some repairs left but at least the bees were gone and we got to a new hive. I put the bees in a 5 frame nuc and gave them a frame of eggs from another hive in the apiary.
I will check on them in one month and see if they have a new queen.