Spring #TBT 4/29/15

Ah, Spring!  The warm sunny days of spring are so wonderful!

Here my Man took a picture of me gathering our first "crop" Violets for  Violet jelly!

We noticed an abundance of honeybees on our pear tree.  Having "lost" our bees last year, we moved the hive under the tree hoping that a scout bee would see it and bring his swarm over.  I even slathered it up with essential oil:Lemon Grass (101 list) because it says on the internet that Lemon Grass is one on the favorite scents of honey bees.

We ended up not catching any :(

It's going to be a great Blackberry Year

Our blackberry bushes are absolutely loaded with flowers this year!  It's going to be a great blackberry harvest...as long as I get to them before the chickens...

More BEEZZZZZ

This morning, my DH said that he thought all my bees were gone.  Couldn't hear anything.  Bummer.

Then they left for the first fishing trip of the spring/summer and left me home with my cold.  Yes, isn't that fun!  My new anti-seizure meds lower my immunity and make me more likely to get...well....anything, it seems.

Anyway, as I lay on the couch feeling like a slug...I though..let's go check on the bees.  There are some flying in and out....ones with "saddlebags".  When a bee is heavy with pollen, it is all on their back thighs looking like yellow, orange saddlebags.  They are neat to see and the color seems to depend on what kind of pollen they are finding.  The weather channels pollen report says there is no pollen currently...my bees do NOT agree.

So, let's crack it open and take a look.  Crack is literal, because bees make a glue that glues all the wood together and you have to use a tool to break the seal.  The top "hive body" is basically empty with a dozen or so bees....hmm....I'm not so sure about this...

Bottom body....full of bees!

I was slightly impressed with myself as I had only planned to peek, so I didn't take the smoker or my veil.  And I sat down with a chair and went through each frame pulling it out to look for the queen.  I couldn't find her, so I may need to find me a queen soon.  I'll give it a few more days and check again.  There were a few clusters that she may have been in. 

With no veil!  There was buzzing in my ears and them flying all around me.  I kept calm and just slowly went about what I was doing being VERY careful not to kill any of them.  That's what sets off the alarm that makes 'em ALL mad.  Danny, the dog, was not as successful as I think he was stung a few times for sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

I tried to get a picture of a "saddlebag'ed" bee, but it was quick to get busy loading it into the hive.
And what we always want....

HONEY!!!

So now I am back inside, reading some of my bee books and getting excited and wanting to make bee soap (honey soap) and candles, and eating bread made from our fresh ground wheat, eggs from the back yard, and honey from the front yard.  WHAT FUN!

BEES...

I know for a lot of people the reality of bees in the spring is just something to avoid and deal with...that was me a few years ago...

Now...for me it is spring because I see bees!  OUR bees.  My hive made it through the winter!  WOOHOO.  I saw where they had cleaned out all the little bee bodies of the non-survivors (read:dead) and dumped them right outside the hive door and I was sure that there was no one left in my little box.  But zooming in and out of the box in the past few days are those wonderful worker bees.  And that means...

SOMEWHERE SOMETHING IS BLOOMING!  Hooray!  Spring is here!

And as for the weather guy who said there was going to be 3-4 inches of snow later this week....
"LA-la-LA...not listening!!"  (Besides, we're out of firewood...so we're out of heat!!)

Another rite of spring is planned for later this afternoon...the official count of the animals on the farmstead....and a trip to the feed store to buy chicks!! Stay tuned for pictures.

Is it a SWARM...

After have our bees for 2 weeks, we discovered them doing this.....

Scared that they were getting ready to swarm and take off, I called my "bee mentor".  He said they were "hanging out on the porch because it is hot."  I took the extruder board off my box and they were happy bees again.  It was my first time truly "working Arby's".  It was just a bit nervewracking!

I also discovered that it looked like I had lost my queen, so I went over to my mentor's house and he had me help "inspect" his hives so I would actually know what I was looking for and gave me a new queen cell to add to my frame.  I'll have to go back in after Monday to see that she has hatched and also a few days later to look for eggs.  Do you know how small bee eggs are???

REALLY REALLY small!

1/2 grain of rice.

Arby's.....OUR BEES

Since February we have been talking about Arby's.....that was my Birthday present and my Mom's day present....

OUR BEES...

Some of the equipment that we also got....another "Deep Super Hive Body", a veil, gloves, smoker, smoker fuel, and a hive tool.

Kristl "working" the Bees.