August 13, 2015: I'm having to let ken do the beekeeping today, since I can't risk getting stung. I'm directing from afar. He's doing an excellent job, but this is killing me. The bees look good--nice brood pattern, plenty of honey.
Monday, August 29, 2016
August 13, 2015: check-in
August 13, 2015: I'm having to let ken do the beekeeping today, since I can't risk getting stung. I'm directing from afar. He's doing an excellent job, but this is killing me. The bees look good--nice brood pattern, plenty of honey.
July 16, 2015: check-in
7/16/15: Went to visit the bees: the first honey supers are mostly full of honey, with a bit capped already. I added another super on each, and took out the queen excluders.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Adventures in Chandlery
May 23rd:
I decided, in a multi-day, multi-hour project, to make something of the ruined comb from last year's hive. There was a lot. First, though, I had to cut it all off the frames and put it in a big bucket:
That took way too long, and left honey and wax all over the garage floor. It's impossible to clean up.
Then I took all this comb in and rinsed it off in a calendar in the sink. It was full of junk, including dead bees--so sad. I rinsed several times, then put it all in a big pot on the stove, topped off with water to about 2 inches above the level of the wax:
I heated this slowly, and used a kitchen strainer to skim off the gross dark matter (and more dead bees) that rose to the surface. This stuff is called "slumgum", and according to the all-wise internet, is good as a firestarter. I'll hold onto it for a year, and then I'll get sick of it and probably throw it out.
Eventually all the slumgum was skimmed off, and I turned off the heat and let the beeswax harden on the top as the whole mess cooled down over the course of about a day.
That top layer of wax became a sort of big puck:
That got melted and strained through cheesecloth about 8 times, each time producing a bundle of cheesecloth saturated with gunky bee stuff. I set that aside with the slumgum to serve as firestarter maybe someday.
Eventually it was clean enough for a final meltdown, and then I poured it carefully into a candle mold. There's a tricky step that involves waiting 45 minutes after the first pour, then going back to fill in a fissure that develops around the wick. But that went smoothly, and later after a very brief stint in the refrigerator, I was able to decant my candle!
The final result is undeniably quite lovely, and it smells wonderfully (at least to a beekeeper's nose) of honey and bees and wax. I hate to think how much money this one candle cost, in terms of time and supplies and bee-time, but it is nice, and I feel good that last year's bees' hard work went to some use.
(A note: I'm indebted to the author of a blog called "Green Road Farm" for pointers on how to do all this. The blog post I used is here.)
I decided, in a multi-day, multi-hour project, to make something of the ruined comb from last year's hive. There was a lot. First, though, I had to cut it all off the frames and put it in a big bucket:
That took way too long, and left honey and wax all over the garage floor. It's impossible to clean up.
Then I took all this comb in and rinsed it off in a calendar in the sink. It was full of junk, including dead bees--so sad. I rinsed several times, then put it all in a big pot on the stove, topped off with water to about 2 inches above the level of the wax:
I heated this slowly, and used a kitchen strainer to skim off the gross dark matter (and more dead bees) that rose to the surface. This stuff is called "slumgum", and according to the all-wise internet, is good as a firestarter. I'll hold onto it for a year, and then I'll get sick of it and probably throw it out.
Eventually all the slumgum was skimmed off, and I turned off the heat and let the beeswax harden on the top as the whole mess cooled down over the course of about a day.
That top layer of wax became a sort of big puck:
That got melted and strained through cheesecloth about 8 times, each time producing a bundle of cheesecloth saturated with gunky bee stuff. I set that aside with the slumgum to serve as firestarter maybe someday.
Eventually it was clean enough for a final meltdown, and then I poured it carefully into a candle mold. There's a tricky step that involves waiting 45 minutes after the first pour, then going back to fill in a fissure that develops around the wick. But that went smoothly, and later after a very brief stint in the refrigerator, I was able to decant my candle!
The final result is undeniably quite lovely, and it smells wonderfully (at least to a beekeeper's nose) of honey and bees and wax. I hate to think how much money this one candle cost, in terms of time and supplies and bee-time, but it is nice, and I feel good that last year's bees' hard work went to some use.
(A note: I'm indebted to the author of a blog called "Green Road Farm" for pointers on how to do all this. The blog post I used is here.)
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
May 17: One Week Check-in
On May 17, I looked into the hives for the first time since getting them out of their nucs and into their new homes. Everything looks GOOD. I saw the NEB queen (brightly marked), but not the MVA queen--but there was evidence that both queens were laying well.
The MVA hive, which was the stronger of the two nucs, is already crowded. I squinched a couple of swarm cells and added a second hive body to that hive. I'll wait another week to put one on the NEB hive.
No sign of mites. Lots of pollen coming in the front door.
The MVA hive, which was the stronger of the two nucs, is already crowded. I squinched a couple of swarm cells and added a second hive body to that hive. I'll wait another week to put one on the NEB hive.
No sign of mites. Lots of pollen coming in the front door.
 |
| There's the NEB queen! |
Wonderful video
May 20, 2015:
National Geographic asked the photographer Anand Varma to take photographs of bees. The result was this TED talk, and the wonderful moving video below.
The TED talk, in which Varma explains the move toward mite-resistant queens:
And the (very beautiful) video of a bee's first 21 days of life:
National Geographic asked the photographer Anand Varma to take photographs of bees. The result was this TED talk, and the wonderful moving video below.
The TED talk, in which Varma explains the move toward mite-resistant queens:
And the (very beautiful) video of a bee's first 21 days of life:
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