Random Thoughts: Little known facts about me

For a change, I thought I would write up a bunch of things that people might not know about me. I don't know if anyone cares, but here they are:

1. I never heat up leftovers. I eat them all the time, but I just can't be bothered heating them up. I have been known to eat cold pasta, soup, steak, and anything else you might consider eating as a leftover. 
2. And on the subject of food, I eat really strange stuff sometimes. I don't know why. Part of it is laziness. Most of it is cravings for certain things. This morning, I ate leftover (yes, cold) fettuccine with tomato sauce in a high-fiber wrap. Two days ago, I ate 3 hard boiled eggs in a wrap with cheese, mayo and yellow mustard. One time, I ate a whole head of red cabbage in a small room with two other people. Another time, I ate a jar of spaghetti sauce for dinner.
3. On a non-food related note, I walk through at least 3 spiderwebs every day. Every morning I walk out to the chicken coop and open the door. I walk through a corridor between my asparagus and my blueberries for the first web. The second one gets me between the deck and the coop. The third one is between the coop and the run. You would think I would learn and take a stick or something.
4. When I walk into the aforementioned spiderwebs, I am usually in my underwear. I used to open the chicken coop after I showered and dressed for work. As it got lighter in the mornings, the kids started waking up earlier. Rather than trying to open the pop door, fill the feeder and swish out the waterer while holding a struggling 1.5 year old, I opted to do all that before my shower. Large evergreens, shed, garage and fence pretty much conceal my shame (or lack thereof).
5. My brain contains a random assortment of some of the most bizarre thoughts and facts ever. I constantly think about all sorts of crazy crap. I don't know if it's a curse or a blessing. Given my level of retention, I'm inclined to think it's a curse. For instance, did you know that Greg Brady (from the Brady Bunch) saved up $109 dollars to buy his first car. He paid $100 for a busted down clunker. The episode did not mention what he did with the extra $9 which bugged me. The last time I saw the Brady Bunch was almost 20 years ago. 
6. I don't play any instruments. I always loved the piano. Something about the sound; the black and white keys; the shiny gloss of the case; always made me fascinated by it. I know the notes the keys make. I can play a couple random things with 1 finger. That's all. If I had limitless money, I would quit my job and take lessons. But I don't have limitless money...So, given that I don't play any instruments, why are there 3 guitars, a banjo and clarinet in my house?
7. I really like musicals. Bucking the stereotype, I'm not gay or even metro. I just really like the fun music and dancing and whatnot. I don't like all musicals. Whether they are stage productions or movies, they have to be fun and entertaining. I like Annie, The Sound of Music, Sweeny Todd, and many others. I just think it's a great thing to combine a good story, a great musical score and the energy that goes along with all of that.

Well, is 7 things enough? It is for me right now. I'm tired and want to go to bed.

Bees: My hands smell like honey

OK, more accurately, my hands smell like beeswax and propolis which have a slight smell of honey. I did a hive inspection today (June 18th) and all the frames were stuck together. As things stand right now, the last inspection was two weeks ago. I also added a third box a week ago. In hindsight, I wish I hadn't added the third box.

The bees seemed to slow down with our rain and cool/cold weather. We had one day where the temperature never crossed 60 and a couple others where it only just barely got above that point. As such, the bees were only minimally flying and trying to draw comb and everything else that they do. They seemed to have only just barely started to draw out the top box. I know it's only been a week, but they hadn't even drawn out a full frame. What they had drawn out was totally empty. In addition, the last frames in the second box were almost in the same condition as they were two weeks prior.

One interesting thing I noticed in this inspection... During the last inspection, I found a bunch of burr comb connecting the top and bottom frames which was full of brood. It looks like the bees were making space for the larger cells needed by the drones. When using foundation, the cells are a certain size, based on the size of the embossed honeycomb shape. In nature, bees will build smaller cells for workers and some larger ones for drones. I'm guessing that the bees felt they needed the drone comb. In the bottom box half the foundation are pure wax. It appears that the bees removed the previously drawn comb, foundation and all, and reconfigured the comb as larger drone cells. The bottom inch or two is now bigger drone comb and there are now a couple gaps on the bottom of the frame.

I didn't see the queen, but I did see lots of young larvae. Looking back at the photos, there are also eggs, which means her majesty is doing just fine. There was lots of capped brood. In another 1-2 weeks, this hive will be boiling over with bees. Hopefully, the town will get ambitious and mow the field across the street which is full of clover. It will give me a second summer flow if they cut it down and it blooms again. At the very least, there is a ton of jewelweed in my yard which must have good nectar because the hummingbirds love it. Plus, there is a ton of purple loosestrife around the pond and brook near my house. Oh, and they have all those veggie and flower gardens which should be overflowing with blooms in a month or so. If they can build up the third and fourth boxes before the end of July, I think there is a chance of getting a fall flow of honey. A whole lot of ducks will have to line up for that though.

Here is some eye candy for those that are interested:

Get to work lazy bees!

That's more like it!

Capped brood and uncapped larvae

Now that's a good queen!

You can just barely see eggs in some cells

A new bee chewing her way out of her cell (top center)

Bees: What's in a name?

It seems that most backyard beekeepers give names to their hives. I'm not sure what compels people to anthropomorphize their possessions. It seems most prominent with pets. My chickens don't have names. My oldest daughter named one of them Big Bock and another Little Chicky. I couldn't even guess which is which at this point. Right now naming the hives is not really an issue. I only have 1 hive, so it's not tough to figure out which one I am referring to.

However, it seems that this hobby is self-replicating. Even though all sources highly recommend starting with 2 hives, I really only have "good" space for 1. With some clever screening and accepting neighbors, I could probably squeeze in a total of 5, but I think I would get complaints. There is always the possibility that I could install hives at my in-laws' house. So should I name my first hive so that I could differentiate them in the future?

My first inclination is to just call it "hive #: 1." It seems fitting, but it's a little long and doesn't really roll off the mouth. I could call it something bee-related like "Honey" or "Buzz" but that seems a bit too corny, even for me. How about "Polly" because I really got it primarily for pollination? Maybe... I like it, but I really want to commemorate its significance as my first hive. So, here's my decision... My hive is called "Prime". It is my first (primary) hive and it references my love of Transformers when I was a kid.

Small progress today. It was supposed to be really hot, so I removed the entrance reducer. Also, I added a third medium box. Here is a photo:

Bees: Action shots

One of the primary reasons I got bees was because I need more pollination for my fruits and vegetables. Getting them the first week of May meant that they didn't have enough of a population of foragers to be able to exploit the blueberries, apples and pears. That said, I have a large patch of black and red raspberries plus some blackberries. The bees have been gorging themselves on this close, easy nectar. If we get some rain here and there throughout the summer, I might just be lucky and harvest some honey from this first year hive. Anyway, here are some action shots I took of the bees on the brambles.

Sweet, sweet nectar.

Another one of my girls.

A cousin bee. Big, fuzzy bumblebees are fun too.

Chickens: 1 Year And Counting

Hard to believe we have had chickens for a full year. We went through the cute, fluffy stage all the way to the squawking, egg laying stage in a few months. Now, it's been mostly just feed-water-collect eggs. The funny thing is that it seems like we have always had them.We did lose one out of six. I did a quick post-mortem external check. From what I could tell, her neck was broken. My nearest guess is that she tried to jump down from the roost, landed on one of her sisters and slammed her head and neck into the wall. She had no signs of parasites, was laying well, and seemed active the day before. Oh well, no one lives forever.

Anyway, here are a couple photos I took yesterday in honor of their couple days belated birthday.

A birds eye view of birds.

Strutting her stuff.

The stink-eye because I fed them all the swiss chard I had.

Bees: Inspection - 04 June 2007

At four weeks after installation, it was time to do another inspection. I gathered my stuff together to start working. Right off the bat, I learned something. I really need to put a shelf in my shed with all the stuff (newspaper, dry kindling, matches, smoker fuel, smoker, and hive tool) I need for an inspection. It took me 10 minutes just to get ready to begin because I had to walk back and forth and in and out numerous times. Organization is key.

I am still having some trouble getting the smoker started. My fire-starting has always been in open or semi-open places like pits or fireplaces or grills. Starting a fire and keeping it lit at the bottom of a stainless steel tube is tough. It's made even more difficult when you consider our typical windy conditions. One good breeze across the top of the open smoker snuffs the fire quicker than water. I think I am going to preset the smoker up with a layer of paper, twigs, sticks, and slightly thicker sticks now, so it's ready for next time. That should eliminate the struggle to find dry stuff of appropriate size.Also, I'm still not confident that the smoker fuel is worth much of anything. It does burn smokey, but I'm not sure how it's better than leaves or grass or shavings or whatnot. Whatever the case, I got the smoker going eventually. I found that a terracotta flower pot saucer with some kids play sand in the bottom makes a great hot plate for the smoker. It fit perfectly inside and was stable and secure and didn't burn the grass or table.

I began, like always* by removing the outer and inner covers. checked for the unlikely scenario of the queen being on either cover. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect for drawn comb. I've read accounts where people add a second box, only to find that the bees have done nothing after a couple weeks. The first frame I pulled was totally empty. The second frame, however, was full of bees, larvae and capped brood. By the fourth frame, I convinced my father to come closer to see a frame of baby bees and larvae, when who should pop over the frame but her royal highness, the queen. Apparently, I missed her on the first side, which offended her royal sensibilities. She gave me a second chance to notice though, and I couldn't be happier with her grace and charm (and egg laying).

The queen sporting her paint.

Frame after frame of this inspection showed a really prolific queen laying as fast as she can. They had a bit of nectar and pollen, although little was capped. I can only guess that they are using it almost as fast as they can bring it in. Given what my allergies are doing, I would have expected more pollen. One problematic issue that I found was that they were building bridge comb between the top and bottom frames. The last inspection showed the same thing, except that there was only 1 box at that point. I can only think that there is some impetus which I can't see that tells them they need to close the gap between the top center frame of the bottom box and whatever is above it. Unfortunately, there was capped brood in this bridge comb which tore open when I pulled out the middle frame. I had only intended to inspect the top box of frames, but that meant that I had to pull the box and scrape that comb off to prevent it from becoming a problem later.

The bridge comb between the top and bottom frames.

Two different sized bee larvae which fell out of the scraped comb. Looks like good eating... for the chickens.

The bees had drawn out five out of the eight frames in the new box. In the lower box, they still hadn't touched the outer most frames though. I swapped the lower box outer frames with its neighbor. Hopefully, with drawn comb on either side, the bees will feel compelled to draw out these frames. If this is still the case at the next inspection, I might move drawn frames down and put the undrawn comb up in their places. Otherwise, I don't know if they will ever draw them out. I'm probably going to check them in another week to see if they need another box. It will probably just be a quick peek just to see.

A couple One last things... Today (05 June), I notice the bees seem to have found a major nectar source. You can tell if a bee is full of nectar by watching them come in for a landing. They are flying in a bit lower than usual, struggling to stay in the air and just barely (or not) make it to the bottom edge of the landing board. They walk the last couple inches to their hive. Also, I have noticed that my bees have started changing from predominantly dark striped bees to a bright yellow which is indicates that my queen's hatched brood are starting to take over for the original package. If only it were that easy to transition security over to the Afghan Police Force.

Gratuitous bee photo with eggs, pollen and nectar.

* - Always meaning "like last time" since I've only done this twice.

Garden: Playing Catch-up

I've been playing catch-up in the garden. There were a whole ton of things going on this year in March and April this year. I have spent all of May trying to get done all the things from those months plus May's work. I still have dozens of plants to plant plus corn, squash and beans. It is getting to a concern point now. Hopefully, I will be able to knock the planting out plus do some.weeding this weekend. On a plus note, everything I planted (aside from basil) has done really well.