First Beekeeper Bee-sting

It was bound to happen sooner or later, right?  I got into the hive the other day to feed the bees and add the second super.  Some poor bee got under my veil somehow and in my collar and left half it's ass in my neck.

 

Here it is on the bathroom sink after Jeff pulled it out for me. 

My neck and baking soda. 

So it looks like I'm not allergic, that's a plus.  I can' remember the last time I got a beesting, but I think i was in my early teens.  Possible still tweens.  

It didn't hurt that bad though, and it only hurt for a minute.  then it got a litlle itchy a day or two later.

Crow baby

I was doing the dishes the other evening when there was a huge commotion of crows in the backyard.  They seemed increasingly agitated so I went to investigate.  Rosie was at the side of the yard, obviously intrigued by something and being dive bombed by crows.  Turns out there was a little fledgeling on the ground she was after.  We got her inside and I asked Jeff to get a box from the basement.  I got on my garden gloves, sorta herded the crow into the corner, and picked it up.  While picking it up I thought it was certainly injured, it was covered in Rosie slobber and I thought it's wing was messed up.  I could have sworn I saw a bone.  So I put the baby in a box, and called the Humane Society, who gave me the phone number for the Audobon Society, who weren't open but wisely have very detailed messages as to what to do with an injured bird and lots of good information on fledgeling birds.  So this baby bird spent the night in a box in our basement under a laundry crate and weighted down with a paint can.  I provided a towel, water in a jar lid, some raw sunflower seeds, a bite of cantaloupe and a heat pad under part of the box as recommended by the Audobon Society answering machine.  

It's amazing, baby birds have blue eyes!  just like other baby animals!

Did you know that crows are very familial?  The young live with their parents for around 2 years and help raise the next brood.  

The next morning I took the baby to the Audobon society, where I waited around for the vet to examine it.  They took it out, gave it a flight test, determined that it was uninjured and had probably been on the ground learning to fly for a few days.  Fledgeling birds can spend 2-5 days on eh ground learning to fly and hunt for food.  So what often looks like an "abandoned" baby bird is not so.  

They said what I thought was a bone was a feather shaft or something and that yes, they look scared to death and broken after an experience like being attacked by a dog.  Baby crow's parents were looking for him that morning, flying around our yard and cawing.  It was heartbreaking.  So I was very happy to hear that I should take it back home and release it under the tree where it's nest is.  Which is in our neighbors yard, not ours!  

I opened the lid and it sat there, then I went to give it some help out of the box and away it flew!  All the way into the park across the street!

This would have been titled "Rosie strikes again"  But it turned out she didn't really strike.  She scared the baby, but didn't actually hurt it. 

Narrow Escape

I just got excused from jury duty based on discretionary standards.  Whoo!  That's a relief!

Worm Bin

When my mom was here about a week ago we left my house to walk to the Waffle hut for lunch. From there we decided to go to the elementary school o see if Emme was out on the playground.  We walked past a house that was getting some work done, and there was a trailer full of garbage with a great big wood box on top.  I said "That would be the perfect worm bin!". We found the owner and asked him if we could have it, he said sure and got it out of the trash for us.  It has big metal wheels and metal handles on the ends too.  So I hooked Rosie to it and she towed it home!

We got out the drill and drilled some big holes in the sides for ventilation.  I covered them with that permeable ground cloth that I've ben pulling up from everywhere in our yard.  I hate that stuff, it's the worst temporary fix.  Put cloth down everywhere and cover it with barkamulch, so the weeds can just grow on top instead.  But at least I found one good use for it.  It should keep the worms from crawling out the ventilation holes anyway!

We shredded a bunch of newspaper and wet it down and added peat moss as well for the worms bedding.  We went to my favorite local nursery and bought half a pound of red wigglers.  1 pound is supposedly 1000 worms (no that anyone counts them!) so I should have about 500.

1 pound of worms can eat 7 pounds of scraps a week!  

There it is in all its worm bin glory:

One lucky afternoon and I now have a functioning worm bin.  Soon I will have fabulous compost!  

Wading Pools and Slip N' Slides

I love summer heat

Bees Update

The other day it got warm and the bees went crazy!  They were very busy bees.  But it was only a great big swarm for about 20 minutes, then they went back to normal.  

I had to get in the hive again on Wednesday to take out the bee box they came in and to put in more frames and feed them more sugar syrup.  This time AL was m brave photog.

Here's the smoker and the hive and the pot of sugar syrup.  The sugar syrup is 2 parts sugar to one cup water.  I think i did 6 cups of sugar this time. 

The smoker totally works!  I was truly amazed.  They run right back into the depths between the frames.

Moving the frames around.....

Buzz buzz bees

I think I found my queen.  She's a little longer than the others.  She was sort of at the end of my finger when this picture was taken, but I can't find her in the pic.  Even when I try to zoom in.

Reclaiming the Yard

Our backyard had been lost under butterfly bush branches for too long!
AL helped me reclaim my yard, she stacked all teh branches and we mowed. and I've been weeding....

BEFORE

AFTER

I'm a Beekeeper now!

I picked up my 3 lbs of bees today.

Here are some stacks of bee boxes at the bee supply place.  My bees were actually in much larger stacks! 


Here they are in the back of my trunk, along with a few other bee necessities.  Like a bee suit, and a hat.  (The home fax/copier/scanner is not for the bees.)  The lady at the bee place said "You DO NOT want to let them tip over in your car."  The sound of them buzzing was pretty intense.

Hanging out in their box in my garage.

One big mass of bees in a box.

They're really really pretty.....  The pics just don't do them justice.  They're amazingly yellow and kind of glow.  I took SO MANY pictures and just couldn't quite get it.  My bees are Italian bees, they're supposed to be less aggressive then the Carniolans, black bees, which were the other option.  The Italians are yellow, the usual honey bee, and of course they like pasta and wine.

Got the suit!  Got the hat!  Got the veil!  Got the gloves!  Got the BEES!

When I tilt the box back and forth, the bee mass tilts too.....

First you get your hive ready.  Then you pull out the can of bee food which is also the box stopper.  It was really hard to get out, and my gloves are way too big.  So I had to take a glove off.  

I had to put the glove back on REALLY FAST because once I got that plug out those bees started flying everywhere!

Lucky for me, Tina was nice enough and brave enough to get and stay close enough to take all these pictures.  Here's the rest of the audience.  As soon as those bees started flying they decided that a further vantage point was probably a better idea!

Checking on the queen...... She's in her own little box.  I had to pull the cork out and plug the hole with marshmallows.  The bees will eat the marshmallows to release their queen.

Unplugging the bee box again!

Putting the box in the hive.....  I read 3 different sets of directions on how to deal with package bees, and each said different things.  I decided I liked the one that said to put the whole box in and leave it in for a week instead of the ones that say to shake all the bees out.  

Putting in the feeder tray.  I made lots of sugar syrup to fill the feeder tray.  2 parts sugar to one part water.  Now I have to go by more sugar and make even more!  I also put little wood chunks in it for the bees to float on, to prevent them from drowning in their food.

Then you dump the bee food all over the inside of the hive.

There's the bee box in the hive with 5 frames and the feeder frame.

Pretty sugar syrup everywhere!

Putting on the cover.

Yay!  All done!

That was pretty intense.  I had a bee inside my veil right away.  But I didn't get stung!  Neither did Tina, and she was only about 4 or 5 feet away from me.  One landed on her arm and just hung out for a minute.  When I pulled that plug and they started flying everywhere my heart started beating a little bit faster.  It was pretty neat though, dealing with all those bees.  I'm excited to have my own pet honeybees!
Now according to some directions I'm supposed to leave them for a week and not get in the hive at all, according to others I'm supposed to get in there after 24 hours and THEN let them release the queen, then get in there in another 24 and find the queen, and all this other stuff.  I think I'll get in there in a few days to take out the queen box and maybe the bee box and check and make sure they have enough food.  I'll compromise somewhere in the middle of all the varying directions.

Wedding blog

I started a wedding blog for all pertinent wedding info and updates if anyone wants to check it out

Things are growing

The sun came out for day, so I went out in the garden.
Our backyard is still under a pile of butterfly bush branches. I have borrowed a chipper from the neighbors twice, and both times it didn't work. First time it was broken and she didn't know, second it still wasn't working right and just wouldn't stay running.
I worked on weeding the front yard and pulling up the nasty horrible annoying weed fabric that seems to be hiding EVERYWHERE in our yard.

Exciting coming alongs:

First dahlia shoot!



the strawberries are getting crazy!



Still no sign of asparagus.......

Bees!

I took a little bee keeping class..... the last class was last night. It was all really interesting, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to go ahead and do it or not. For one thing, the equipment is kind of expensive and the whole thing is a little intimidating. But then I dreamed about bees all night. I woke up and knew I wanted a backyard beehive. So today I ordered bees! 3 pounds of bees and they arrive on May 5th. So I have until then to collect my supplies and set up a hive. I have been checking craigslist for used supplies and so far I have some good leads. I may be able to set it all up for quite a lot less than I feared! I'm also comforted by the fact that I don't HAVE to set it up to harvest honey and if I do I can't do it until next summer anyway! The thing I find the most intimidating about the hive management is that every spring you're supposed to find your queen bee, kill her and smear her on the front of the baseboard of the hive. Then get a new queen be to put in the hive after 24 hours...... Something about that just really bothers me! Poor queen, works hard for you all year and then you smear her! How rude! It's so brutal!

Easter Arrivals

My brother has a new companion.




We made a mad dash trip down to the Eug for Easter festivities and to meet the new addition to our family. World, drool over Baxter. Our new little fuzzy guy friend. He is way too painfully cute, and I just don't think I can post enough pictures of him to really do it justice..... but I'll try.








the best part for me was that Rosie was very nice to the puppy, they even played a little bit!






We did fun Easter Stuff too. The egg hunt, the dyeing of eggs, the making and eating of good food.....