Home & Garden

Oh look at the beautiful sunset honey. *sigh*

Wow, that cloud is changing shape rapidly. Let's take a closer look.

Dear lord! I think that may be a forest fire!

Yes, that *is* what a forest fire looks like from about 100 miles away (actually I think it’s closer to 40-50 miles upon closer inspection of the map.).  At least I *think* it’s 100 miles or so.  Apparently the Olympic Mountains are so vast that even Google maps can’t calculate the distance.

From what I read a small fire was started on August 5th by lightning.  Rain kept the fire small.  Yesterday, the hot, dry and windy(yes…  I said dry) conditions gave the fire a real boost, up to 120 acres or so.  Today it looks like this.  I’m unsure of the exact details as of this evening other than what I can see out my window.

Now that’s a real life education on fire!

News Story on the Fire

Info on Mt. Hopper

Everyone always asks us if it’s raining here.  As it turns out in the summer, it gets so incredibly dry here that there are burn bans everywhere!  Our grass is almost completely dead!  When the kids turn on the sprinkler, the bugs and the bees come out on full force looking for a drink!

The Queen is dead.  Or at least we think she is dead.  A few inspections ago we noticed a Queen cell had formed on the top corner of one of the frames. It’s sort of hard to tell from this picture, but everything we researched told us this was most definitely a Queen cell.

The colony might rear a new Queen, if the current Queen is old, and not laying.  When the Queen mates with the drones, she has the ability to lay a certain amount of fertilized eggs.  Toward the end of her life, she runs out of eggs.  She only mates once.  In order for the colony to survive a new Queen must be born.

What we think we know: A supercedure cell is a large peanut shaped cell that is usually at the top of the frame out of the direct path of the current Queen.  If they are at the bottom of the frame, in the direct path of the Queen and the bees, then those cells might suggest they are going to swarm.

We like to be very hands off with our bees,  it was suggested to us that we rip off and destroy the Queen cell.  However, we decided to leave it.  If we were to take away a supercedure cell, we risk the colony becoming Queenless when the old Queen runs out of eggs or dies.  When TJ did his last inspection we found out that our instincts were right.  The Queen cell was empty and  it has appeared that the  colony has invited new royalty to rule them. Our instincts were right!

Old Queen

New Queen

So, you can tell the difference right?  If you can tell, let us know because we can’t!  Some people mark their Queens, but we’ve decided on using the least invasive and least reliable route to identify our new Queen, our eyesight.  We’re going purely by what we observe.  This week egg production has slowed down which is characteristic of a new virgin Queen.  Once she has her rendezvous with the drones, she will work double time laying eggs for awhile.  Or so we think.

That’s the exciting news from the hive.  Other then the fact that we’ve put on our first honey super!  At the rate they’ve been growing and working, we’ll need the second one in no time.  Those extra honey supers are for our honey. It’s so close I can almost taste it!

Our first year colony will be giving us honey.  That’s fairly uncommon.  First of all, our swarm was huge!  About 6.5 lbs if I remember right.  25,000 bees or so.  Coupled with the fact that we purchased used hives that were already loaded with honeycomb.  That means ours bees didn’t have to spend time building comb, they only had to make repairs to what was there.

Our busy bees.

Is it strange that I’ve come to love the smell of propolis?  Propolis is “bee glue”.  They use it to glue things together and fill in cracks and make repairs.  After TJ does an inspection I always love the way he smells.  I guess I’ll always know what a bee hive smells like now.

Yesterday was Inspection #4.  (I think)  TJ is enjoying his new hobby a lot; and who wouldn’t?  These bees are fascinating.  I haven’t had the pleasure of doing an inspection with him yet.  Partially because I am chicken and partially because I have no bee suit.  Yes, I realize that bee suits aren’t necessary.  However, I need one.  Period.

Supersedure Queen Cell Photo Credit: Garth Vest

We believe the Queen in this cell is meant to supersede the existing Queen.  We’ve read and been told that Queen Cells placed on the top and out of the regular path of the Queen are most like Supersedure Queen Cells.  Possibly our Queen is getting old and they are looking to replace her.  A few things could happen here.

• If the existing Queen messes with the cell, or with the new Queen, the other bees will terminate her.
• The colony will allow the existing Queen to stay until the new Queen gets up to speed in her egg laying
• I’ve read that some beekeepers have had two Queens in their hive until the old Queen dies.

Bee Chain Photo Credit: Garth Vest

This “bee chain” is to me, one of the most fascinating things that bees do.  The hang on each other leg to leg, or hold hands, and form a chain across the hive.

Close up of the bee chain. Photo Credit: Garth Vest

The Nova documentary, Tales From the Hive, says they are actually measuring.  This is also one of first things they do when a swarm finds a new home.

Skylar holding a frame of bees for the very first time.

This amazes me.  Not only do I think he is incredibly brave, but he’s been stung in the face a couple times when he was little.  Way to conquer your fears, Skylar!  Um…  that is if you have any fear at all.

Adding the Second Super

And then, there were two.  Inspections are about to get a little trickier.

Cell phone pic of our swarm before it was captured.

This is a really big swarm.  That’s a dryer vent in the photo if that gives you any perspective.  It was also about 5 inches deep.

Installing the bees into the hive.

We got all the kids together and invited our neighbor, who brought his friend.  Everyone was in awe of how truly amazing this was.  Please notice the painted hive.  It’s not OUR hive.  It’s a borrowed super. but the bottom board is ours and painted.  Our hives are in the process of being painted and we wanted to give a few days for the fumes to dissipate.  When Ren and Kelly and Molly say paint your hive, you better paint your stinking hive.

Cleaning up the spillage.

We heard you should install your bees on a mild day with no wind.  Naturally, we did it on an extremely windy and cold evening.  Still, they spilled over the sides like molasses not wanting to leave their Queen.

What roughly 26,000 honeybees looks like.

Some female worker bees.

You know.  They are actually kind of cute.  Seriously.  I know, that’s coming from me, “she-who-runs-from-bee”.

What roughly 26,000 bees REALLY looks like.

That’s a lot of fucking bees.

Bee butts.

Slowly they filtered into the hive, but not before we got some amazing shots.

First morning in the new digs.

When I woke up this morning, the first thing I did was check the hive.  They are a rambunctious sort, and it seemed a bit chaotic to me today with bees flying around everywhere.  I checked on them from above, on the deck, one landed on me.  Of course, I did a funny dance and ran away.

We will do our first thorough inspection in one week.

Enjoy this awesome video that Skylar made.  I love hearing his voice when he is excited.  This whole experience so far has been so representative of how humans learn.  More on that later.

It’s been wildlife central here lately.  Last week, my indoor cat accidentally snuck out the door.  I head down the steps in the front yard where she has paused to smell something, and scooped her up by the neck.  Just as I looked up, I spotted no more than 15 feet from me, a coyote crossing the yard.  Damn, am I glad I caught my cat before she had time to disappear into the blackberry, I may have never seen her again.  Just today there were several reports of found dead kitty remains not too far away.

Our property is ridiculously overgrown.  I’m sure the neighbors are thrilled.  Unfortunately, this is the way is was when we got here.  I love yard work, but I can only move so fast.  There’s a lot of ivy and blackberry out there!  In the mornings, I tend to hop on the trampoline (pun not intended) and lay down and stare at the the tree tops and the sky.  I’ve seen at least 4 red tail hawks in flight.  They *could* be the same one, but I like big numbers.  Among my favorite yard birds are the Western Tanager and the Northern Flicker.  I’ve got a thing for bright colors, too.

After our honeybee swarm experience, we all became awestruck with the honeybee and decided to get a hive. Setting up with a new hive and equipment can run between 200 and 400 dollars.  I ended up finding an ad on craigslist for someone who was moving away and selling A LOT of hives.  We picked this up for about 50 dollars.

Lucky for us and the bees, the frames already have comb.  What this means, is that when a new swarm moves into our hive, they will have a lot less work to do.  All they will have to do is clean up, clear out the unwanted, and make repairs.  That’s going to free up a lot of time to build up their stores.

The comb is absolutely amazing.  Each hexagon is exactly the same size.  They are also multipurpose.  The Queen lays her precious eggs in the comb, and they store honey in there.  Hence the name, honeycomb.

Each frame must be a certain space apart from each other or the bees will glue them all together with propolis.  That’s bee glue, and it’s freaking strong too!  In the picture there are reddish dots around the frame, that’s the propolis and they use it to fill in gaps and holes and well, glue stuff together!

The boys helped TJ prepare the area where the hive is going to go.  It’s amazing what happens when one develops an interest.  Skylar wanted bees like, yesterday!  He’s been doing research and yard work, and being attentive to any conversation about beekeeping.  He filmed the bee swarm we had and the beekeeper catching the swarm.  He even went with TJ, 1.5 hours away to pick out a hive and instead of running around with the 7 kids that lived there, he chose to stay with TJ and discuss bees.

Here it is.  It’s not pretty, but it’s there.  It’s possible that a swarm moves in on it’s own considering there are probably lingering Queen pheremones but we’re not betting on it.  So hopefully we’ll find a swarm soon and not have to purchase one.  Luckily for us, we happen to know a beekeeper now.

Sunday morning I got up bright and early to do some yard work before the feral bees (bumble, honey and otherwise) hit the bushes.  They are none too happy when I start pruning their favorite trees.  I didn’t get much pruning done due to an uninvited visitor.

You can see the bees flying around the fireplace chimney and the bush. They are just beginning their swarm!

The funny part is, my neighbor had just dropped by after seeing me with my new weed eater.  The same owner owns his home and mine, and the vegetation has been out of control for years.  We shared yard work stories, and he shared the story of the bee swarm his wife witnessed last summer.  No less than 2 hours later, Phoenix and I found ourselves standing in the middle of it.

The swarm at about 7am this morning.

The kids and I all piled into my bedroom to watch out our window.  The buzzing was so incredibly loud we could hear it through the window.  Slowly thousands upon thousands of bees crossed our small yard and starting swarming around our outdoor fireplace.  I thought they were going to take up residence in the chimneys, but instead they found a nearby bush.  By the end of the day, they were packed tightly into a little, OK, BIG swarm.

Local beekeeper Brad attempting to drop the swarm into the box.

I called a local beekeeper who was more than willing to come on over and capture the bees.  It’s his first year capturing swarms and he seems to really like his work.  He answered some of our questions and amazed us with his bravery!  Look mom!  No gloves!

Success!

The job seemed relatively easy for him.  I’m so happy we called him.  He closed up the box and put a weight on top.  It seems that he was successful in capturing the Queen since all the bees have now left the branches.

The bee box. Waiting for Brad to pick it up this evening.

I have this nagging feeling to open the box and look inside!  But I won’t.  I’ll wait for Brad to come this evening and pick up his new bees.  This has certainly sparked an interest in all of us, and we may be setting up to keep bees in the very near future.  If anyone has suggestions on books, websites, beginner supplies, or anything else they’d like to share, please do!

Enjoy! I think.