May 5, 2009
Those blueberry plants that came yesterday were planted inside the fence today:
Highbush
4 Blue Crop
6 Blue Gold
2 Blue Jay
8 Blue Ray
2 Chippewa
2 Friendship
2 Jersey
2 Meader
8 North Blue
4 North Country
6 Northland
2 Polaris
2 Rubel
2 St. Cloud
Low Bush
4 North Sky
2 Ruby Carpet
2 Blue Boy
2 Little Crisp
2 Partridge Lake
2 Green elf
3 Blue Sunset
3 Leslie
3 Princess Jenny
2 Baby Blue
There are 2 high bush Bonus blueberry plants that are backordered.
Besides the blueberries, Hub and our eldest daughter planted the 2 Ben Lear and 2 WSU cranberries by the small pond in the southeastern corner of the fenced area. They also watered as the pump setup is working again as of yesterday! Yay! Thanks God!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Bees are Home Sweet Homin' It
May 4, 2009
Ok. Today's the day. I have to get those honeybees transferred into their new hive. Remember what the instructor said in the bee class? Sunny day...happy bees. Rain is in the forecast so it's now or never. Gulp. Before I head for the farm, UPS drops off our 86 blueberry and 14 raspberry plants. I bring them to the farm in case Hubby wants them but he'll probably be ready to wait for another day to plant any of them!
It IS sunny today but also windy. Thanks to Hubby Dear, the bee yard has a nice, tall (at least 12 feet!) windbreak.
I read my instructions once again. I suit up in my grey sweatpants, white inside-out sweatshirt, bee hat and gloves. Press the bottom grate down into place in the smoker. Break off a small amount of smoker fuel and place into the smoker. Light the smoker and give the bellows a few puffs. It's smokin'! Yay! Whoops. It's not smokin'. Relight the fuel. Now we're cookin'!
Remember, slow, deliberate movements. Calmness prevails. Hubby has already turned the electric fence off (3rd day running on deep cell battery with charger on it!) and opened the two strand handles for me. I approach the nuc box. The bees are buzzing. Are they happy (it is sunny!)? They sound a little fired up to me. I approach the box and see that the little door indeed did NOT stay open well and they are having a difficult time getting in and out. I puff a little smoke towards the door and gently pry the door open further. I puff more smoke into the box. They are a bit wilder than I like. I open the top of the box and puff a bit of smoke inside. It is my first glimpse into hive life in person. It's very active! Okay. I'm not experienced enough to know if they are happy or not but they feel a little upset so I walk away and let them simmer down and eat honey for a bit (that's what the smoke gets them to do and it calms them down). I need to do the transfer before I lose my nerve so I approach the box again. Some are still whizzing around and a few like my hat growing louder. I talk quietly to them, welcoming them to their new home, etc. I open the top of the box but it is attached to the box and doesn't just come off so I gently struggle to make it stay open without tossing the whole box around and upsetting the bees. The book said the frames inside the box will be stuck together with propolis so I need to gently pry with a little pressure until they loosen, being careful not to jar too hard. Hmmm. The first side comes off and then voila! The first frame is loosened. Put the tool down and now I gingerly stick my fingers into the box and pick up the first frame by the edges, slowly and carefully lifting it into the nearby hive. I do the same for all five frames and the transfer is complete, thank the Good Lord! Now I just gently slide the five frames from the nuc box together and place five frames from our new hive on the sides (2 on one edge and 3 on the other) to make a total of ten frames. I am supposed to gently turn the box over and "knock" the stragglers down into the hive. It doesn't work well for me but perhaps I am too dainty with it. I now have bees buzzing around me in earnest. I place a small patty of food on top of the frames, set the queen extruder over it (probably didn't have to leave it there), put the top and cover on. I prop the nuc box, as suggested in the book, near the hive entrance so the stragglers can find their new home. I make sure there is fresh water and sugar water near the hive entry and I slowly retreat to watch. I want to be sure the bees have found the entrance to their new home. I double check that we have the entrance reducer on the small opening and bring the five extra frames and my tools outside of the bee yard. I close up the fence and reset the switch. Whew! They are home! Thanks God! You're awesome. Those critters are very interesting. Welcome home, bees!
Hubby decides to stay longer and plant raspberries. He finds out they gave him an extra of two different types so we have 16 he planted inside the fence today. Autumn Bliss, Autumn Britten, Caroline, Anne, Polana. I wanted some inside the fencing since the deer have munched on Raspberry Lane recently. Thanks Dear. Hon.
Ok. Today's the day. I have to get those honeybees transferred into their new hive. Remember what the instructor said in the bee class? Sunny day...happy bees. Rain is in the forecast so it's now or never. Gulp. Before I head for the farm, UPS drops off our 86 blueberry and 14 raspberry plants. I bring them to the farm in case Hubby wants them but he'll probably be ready to wait for another day to plant any of them!
It IS sunny today but also windy. Thanks to Hubby Dear, the bee yard has a nice, tall (at least 12 feet!) windbreak.
I read my instructions once again. I suit up in my grey sweatpants, white inside-out sweatshirt, bee hat and gloves. Press the bottom grate down into place in the smoker. Break off a small amount of smoker fuel and place into the smoker. Light the smoker and give the bellows a few puffs. It's smokin'! Yay! Whoops. It's not smokin'. Relight the fuel. Now we're cookin'!
Remember, slow, deliberate movements. Calmness prevails. Hubby has already turned the electric fence off (3rd day running on deep cell battery with charger on it!) and opened the two strand handles for me. I approach the nuc box. The bees are buzzing. Are they happy (it is sunny!)? They sound a little fired up to me. I approach the box and see that the little door indeed did NOT stay open well and they are having a difficult time getting in and out. I puff a little smoke towards the door and gently pry the door open further. I puff more smoke into the box. They are a bit wilder than I like. I open the top of the box and puff a bit of smoke inside. It is my first glimpse into hive life in person. It's very active! Okay. I'm not experienced enough to know if they are happy or not but they feel a little upset so I walk away and let them simmer down and eat honey for a bit (that's what the smoke gets them to do and it calms them down). I need to do the transfer before I lose my nerve so I approach the box again. Some are still whizzing around and a few like my hat growing louder. I talk quietly to them, welcoming them to their new home, etc. I open the top of the box but it is attached to the box and doesn't just come off so I gently struggle to make it stay open without tossing the whole box around and upsetting the bees. The book said the frames inside the box will be stuck together with propolis so I need to gently pry with a little pressure until they loosen, being careful not to jar too hard. Hmmm. The first side comes off and then voila! The first frame is loosened. Put the tool down and now I gingerly stick my fingers into the box and pick up the first frame by the edges, slowly and carefully lifting it into the nearby hive. I do the same for all five frames and the transfer is complete, thank the Good Lord! Now I just gently slide the five frames from the nuc box together and place five frames from our new hive on the sides (2 on one edge and 3 on the other) to make a total of ten frames. I am supposed to gently turn the box over and "knock" the stragglers down into the hive. It doesn't work well for me but perhaps I am too dainty with it. I now have bees buzzing around me in earnest. I place a small patty of food on top of the frames, set the queen extruder over it (probably didn't have to leave it there), put the top and cover on. I prop the nuc box, as suggested in the book, near the hive entrance so the stragglers can find their new home. I make sure there is fresh water and sugar water near the hive entry and I slowly retreat to watch. I want to be sure the bees have found the entrance to their new home. I double check that we have the entrance reducer on the small opening and bring the five extra frames and my tools outside of the bee yard. I close up the fence and reset the switch. Whew! They are home! Thanks God! You're awesome. Those critters are very interesting. Welcome home, bees!
Hubby decides to stay longer and plant raspberries. He finds out they gave him an extra of two different types so we have 16 he planted inside the fence today. Autumn Bliss, Autumn Britten, Caroline, Anne, Polana. I wanted some inside the fencing since the deer have munched on Raspberry Lane recently. Thanks Dear. Hon.
The Bees Are Here!
April 3, 2009
Although it's the Sabbath and we normally refrain from work, the bees have arrived and we need to pick them up.
We picked the bees up about 45 minutes from the farm and so they had another jostling ride today after a very long ride yesterday from IL or somewhere way down yonder. We ordered 3 lbs of a new Minnesota variety in a nuc box and that's what we received. We brought the bees to the farm and followed the instructions in the book "Keeping Bees and Making Honey" by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum that our 8year old daughter had ordered from the library. It tells exactly and specifically what to expect and what to do, step-by-step! It was an excellent resource and greatly appreciated!!
I "suited up" in my plain white sweatshirt, bee hat and gloves and took my hive tool with me. I had grey sweatpants and white socks and shoes with my pants tucked into my socks. Hub turned off the electric fence and opened the two strands by their telltale yellow handles and hooked them onto the pole he conveniently placed for such a purpose. Then Hub and I went into the bee yard and set aside the hive cover and 10 frames on our extra pallet strategically placed for working with the hives. We set up the water bowl with a few twigs floating in it for a fresh water source nearby and placed the sugar water (1:1 sugar:water ratio) on the feeder. Then Hub handed me the nuc box and I slowly walked back down to the bee yard and placed the box on the hive bottom. The nuc box was too long for the bottom board of the hive so we just placed the hive right next to it on the pallet for easy transferring. Now for the nervewracking part. I gingerly began prying open the little cardboard door for the bees to become acquainted with their new home area. They were diving to get out! I spoke to them quietly telling them to hold on and finally got up the nerve to open the door so they could really get out. They came piling out! Pushing and shoving like little kids in line for ice cream! They even pushed some right up into the sugar feeder! I wasn't sure I had the door opened well but had also placed a clump of grass by it as suggested in the book to keep them from coming out too fast. I did wonder if they had a big enough opening but since there were many flying around, I didn't go back to recheck. I had quite a few sticking to me as I calmly (reminding myself to remain calm!) walked away. As I got close to the edge of the bee yard, they were all back to business. As of 2:24pm EDT, our Snowflake Farms honeybees are on site in our bee yard. Hubby went back later and redid the fence. So far so good!
As a side note, we also worked on getting the well pump running to water all those awesome strawberries but it wouldn't cooperate. So....guess who watered by hand again??
Although it's the Sabbath and we normally refrain from work, the bees have arrived and we need to pick them up.
We picked the bees up about 45 minutes from the farm and so they had another jostling ride today after a very long ride yesterday from IL or somewhere way down yonder. We ordered 3 lbs of a new Minnesota variety in a nuc box and that's what we received. We brought the bees to the farm and followed the instructions in the book "Keeping Bees and Making Honey" by Alison Benjamin and Brian McCallum that our 8year old daughter had ordered from the library. It tells exactly and specifically what to expect and what to do, step-by-step! It was an excellent resource and greatly appreciated!!
I "suited up" in my plain white sweatshirt, bee hat and gloves and took my hive tool with me. I had grey sweatpants and white socks and shoes with my pants tucked into my socks. Hub turned off the electric fence and opened the two strands by their telltale yellow handles and hooked them onto the pole he conveniently placed for such a purpose. Then Hub and I went into the bee yard and set aside the hive cover and 10 frames on our extra pallet strategically placed for working with the hives. We set up the water bowl with a few twigs floating in it for a fresh water source nearby and placed the sugar water (1:1 sugar:water ratio) on the feeder. Then Hub handed me the nuc box and I slowly walked back down to the bee yard and placed the box on the hive bottom. The nuc box was too long for the bottom board of the hive so we just placed the hive right next to it on the pallet for easy transferring. Now for the nervewracking part. I gingerly began prying open the little cardboard door for the bees to become acquainted with their new home area. They were diving to get out! I spoke to them quietly telling them to hold on and finally got up the nerve to open the door so they could really get out. They came piling out! Pushing and shoving like little kids in line for ice cream! They even pushed some right up into the sugar feeder! I wasn't sure I had the door opened well but had also placed a clump of grass by it as suggested in the book to keep them from coming out too fast. I did wonder if they had a big enough opening but since there were many flying around, I didn't go back to recheck. I had quite a few sticking to me as I calmly (reminding myself to remain calm!) walked away. As I got close to the edge of the bee yard, they were all back to business. As of 2:24pm EDT, our Snowflake Farms honeybees are on site in our bee yard. Hubby went back later and redid the fence. So far so good!
As a side note, we also worked on getting the well pump running to water all those awesome strawberries but it wouldn't cooperate. So....guess who watered by hand again??
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