Friday, August 2, 2013

August 2, 2013


when the fruit gets ripe, we pick and freeze it....then we set a weekend
aside to turn it into jelly.....this past weekend was a rainy one so we played
in the kitchen...


here are the freezer bags of strawberries, black raspberries,
cherries (tart and sweet) and blackberries


Strawberries: 6 pints
Black Raspberries: 12 pints & 10 half pints
Blackberries: 9 pints & 11 half pints


Cherry (we mix the tart and sweet together) : 15 pints & 11 half pints


one of the plum trees in the orchard, that has never given fruit before...gave us a whole basket of plums


from this......


to this...... Plum Jelly: 17 pints & 12 half pints

so.......103 jars total.....not bad considering that we haven't
started doing anything with the apples, pears or peaches yet!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Thursday, August 1, 2013

August 1, 2013

Week 12 - BEE Inspection

we are 3 months in and having a blast!!!!


here is my new frame holder...it is very helpful


here is one of Ross' frame...it has capped honey, bee larva that are capped
and eggs...so we know that his queen is alive and active!!!

we were really pleased with Ross' hive this week....we found both
Queens...and both hives were very busy....still no honey in the honey
supers on either hive......we have decided that we wont be doing
such an in depth look at the BEEs every week...we love to see the
progress weekly, but we also know that we can cause damage each
time we do the inspections.


just gotta LOVE all the Bee's...there are upwards to 80 thousand
 between the 2 hives.....INCREDIBLE!!!!


AMAZING...how there is so much work going on in these
2 small boxes!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Friday, July 26, 2013

July 26, 2013

Week 11 - BEE Inspection

we went to Dadant ( Bee Supply Place) and picked up some supplies...


9 Frame Spacer....allows the spacing in the Honey Supers
to be exact.


we also purchased this FRAME HOLDER...it attaches to
the Brood Box and allows you to put up to 3 frames on
it so you have room to check the boxes for activity (babies)


we found my queen this week...she is doing a FANTASTIC job!!!


we couldn't pull out the frames in my bottom brood box, so
we just tilted up the box to look underneath...everything
looks great!!!


here is a honeybee taking a drink

~~~~~~~~~  Overall my hive is doing wonderfully....lots of baby
bee larva and eggs....there was no activity at all in the Honey Super
 (meaning that they had not started making any honey for us yet)...we will
see what happens this coming week ~~~~~~~~~~~

Now to Ross' hive.....
we were very pleased to see a ton of activity in the top brood box
because last week there was almost none....
  

here is ross' queen....she isn't as big (healthy) as the one in
my hive.....we did see lots of baby larva and eggs though....so we know that she
is doing her job...but just not as strong as she could be.



then we opened up the bottom brood box and we found this....
we didn't know what it was...so we cut it off,
unfortunately it was on several of the frames....we believe
it is WAX MOTH larva...


here is a side shot...now this is what we found out...keeping in
mind that we are brand new to this....a female WAX MOTH will
enter a hive if there is a problem in it.....ie...a weak queen or a hive
infected with mites or something like that.....we did notice that last
week that there was not much difference in ross' hive.....so clearly
that is when they entered the hive and started producing WAX MOTH
babies.....there is no product that can be put on them because it will
soak into the beeswax and then into the honey....so when we go out
to do the next inspection, we are hoping to not see any new moths.

OK if any beekeeper that has been doing this for awhile comes across
this blog, please tell me why all of the discussion about WAX MOTHS is
about how you cannot control them with any spray, what a frame looks like
 once it has been completely destroyed by the moths and what to do
with the frames at the end of the year....but nothing at all about what to
do NOW.... so we are a bit frustrated about the lack of that kind of
info out there....but as I said we are learning as we go.



we did add the Honey Super on the top of ross' hive this week,
because 8 of the 10 frames in the 2nd box had been drawn on...

you can see in the box.....the queen excluder is placed on there so
the queen can't come up into this box and lay any eggs....this is the
box where they make the honey for us.....we are trying these honeycomb
starters on a few of the frames.....the bees are supposed to work
 off of the little bit of beeswax already on the frame and work
down and build a nice thick beeswax and fill it with honey....then we can
extract the honey and use the beeswax for candles, soaps and chapstick.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

all in all it has been a great experience for us.....we are still hoping
for the best...I read a quote the other day .....it said you are either
a BEEKEEPER or a BEEHAVER.....we are very excited about
being BEEKEEPERS...working with the bees, watching them, sitting
back by the hive and listening to the HUGE noise they make, watching them
make a literal BEE-LINE to the back of the property in search of anything
flowering...not just HAVING them in the back yard and going back in the
fall to see if they made us any honey.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Friday, July 19, 2013

July 19, 2013

Week 9... BEE Inspection

we did this on July 7th....everything seemed to be fine.....nothing
new to report...just one week closer to HONEY...WooHoo!!!!

Week 10... BEE Inspection

we did this on July 13th.....we started with my hive .....now that there
are 2 brooding boxes.....there is more to check....we opened the top
box and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a bunch of
activity on 8 of the frames.....


here is larvae in several stages...so my Queen is doing
a fine job...we did not find her on any of the pictures this week though.



the 2 brood chamber boxes are getting full....which means it is now time to add another box
on top....this is exciting because the next box we add is the HONEY Super.....which is the
box that will hold the honey we get to keep.....first we have to add this piece of equipment
called the QUEEN EXCLUDING....this piece is placed on top of the 2nd brood chamber
box to keep the QUEEN in the bottom 2 boxes so she doesn't lay eggs in our honey...



 
so this is what the Hive consists of now.....the Bottom Board...
2 Brood Boxes...with 10 frames each...then the Queen Excluder....and NOW
the HONEY Super.....this has 9 frames in it .....the inner lid and the outer lid

we then opened up Ross' hive.....even though his 2nd brood box got installed
1 week earlier than mine...there wasn't much activity at all in his....we took pictures
but were not able to locate his QUEEN either....hope she is still alive....we took
the entrance reducers out on both hives.....so now the entrance at the
bottom is wide open.

Looking forward to Week 11 Inspection...hopefully Ross'
hive is very busy and the Queen is still alive.....we will also
get to see in my hive how much Honey they actually make in a week.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Monday, July 1, 2013

July 1, 2013

Week 8 - BEE Inspection...

it has been a rainy week...with this being our first year of beekeeping,
we didn't know how that would affect them.


we changed the REDUCER from the small entrance to the larger
one this week....just way too many BEE's coming in from that
little hole....and YES that is the only way into and out of the hive....
the purpose for keeping it on the smaller one is so that the BEE's
can grow in number to defend the hive.


the QUEEN from my hive....hiding in the corner of a frame


the QUEEN from Ross' hive is on this frame....I thought I would
give you the entire picture first to see if you can spot her....


here she is.....


one of the frames with a BURR COMB on the bottom,
these get taken off with each inspection...


putting everything back together....you can see the SMOKER
in the bottom left of the picture....our dog JOY who loves the BEE's
right by my side.....the burr comb we removed on the rag and the
the top BROOD CHAMBER sitting on the lid.

Overall this week...we saw some action on 3 of the frames in the
top brood chamber of mine....but nothing on ross' hive...

the ADVENTURE continues!!!!

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Monday, June 24, 2013

June 24, 2013

Week 7 - Bee Inspection


lots of larva in my hive...we didn't go through every frame
in mine this week....there was no comb being formed on any
of the frames in the 2nd brood box.....we hope for more next week.


here is Ross' QUEEN....doing a fine job!!!


here is burr comb formed on the bottom of his frame #6...
this has to be removed before it is place back into the brood box


this frame is almost completely filled with capped larva...this is
frame #8...so that is exciting that they are working on almost all 10 frames


putting the hive back together

Pleasant Dreams!!!



Saturday, June 15, 2013

June 15, 2013

Week 6 - Bee Inspection

we started with my hive....and there was comb on over 80% of the
frames so we added another brood box to mine this week....

you can see the eggs in this frame....so my QUEEN is
very active...woohoo!!!



lots of larva in the bottom of this frame waiting to be capped....
lots of Bees being born!!!
 

here is my QUEEN this week....

we noticed that the frames were sticking badly this week, we found out why
when I pulled up this frame.... it has BURR COMB at the top and the bottom,
we scraped it all off and replaced the frame.


Ross' QUEEN...she looks very healthy



Both HIVES with 2 brood boxes on them...we are now one step closer
to adding the honey supers on top....this should happen in about 4 weeks,
once we add those,  the Bees start making the HONEY that we get to keep.

Pleasant Dreams!!!

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

June 12, 2013

we had read that the Bees would increase the fruit on our trees in the
orchard as long as a spring frost didn't take them.... and boy were they
 correct...we have fruit on trees that have never produced before....


this is a HARVEST apple tree...it was here when we
bought the farm and is at least 75 years old


this is one of the PLUM trees...we planted them 6 years ago
and until this year it has have never produced anything


this is one of the PEAR trees....we have never seen this much
fruit on this tree before...YEAH BEES!!!!


this is the PEACH tree that was planted as a joke when we moved in,
we told our son to throw his peach pits in the weedy area on the side of the house
and completely forgot about it....about 12 years later Ross was mowing
that area and I heard the mower stop...he came to the house with a bunch
of something wrapped in his shirt...PEACHES...gotta love it!!!


this is the RED DELICIOUS apple tree...this one has never
produced like this before either.


even the GRAPES are doing better....each one of these is a huge
bundle of grapes.....or I say when I pass the GRAPE VINES...
jelly...jelly...jelly!!!


and because the vegetable garden didn't want to be outdone....
these are the RADISHES we pulled out today to add to
our potato salad.... That is the only bummer about a long winter.....
by June we are so ready to eat fresh fruit and veggies grown here on the farm.

Pleasant Dreams!!! 

Sunday, June 9, 2013

June 9, 2013

had a wonderful day at church.....check out www.h-hcc.org

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this year we will have FRUIT.....most of our trees have survived the
spring.....Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums and Cherries....


the Cherries are starting to turn red....so it is time
to put on the netting so the birds don't get them before we can.


this is the sweet cherry tree


here is the HERB garden...I tried planting a bunch of each type,
but the weather this year has been too cold.....so I put them all into
one container....I put the plants that had come up by the nametag and
 then planted some more seeds of each type...we will see what happens!!!


here are some of the BEANS that we planted....


we planted these big - jack and the beanstalk - looking beans right
next to the water well tower....hoping that they will grow up the
legs of the tower...apparently this type of bean has a HUGE flower,
we will keep posting pictures throughout the season.


here is part of the garden...I still don't have all of the plants
in yet....it has been too cold and they still aren't big enough


the corn is coming up nicely...

Pleasant Dreams!!!