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lowering heating costs
On Saturday the 3rd, I went to the beeyard to feed one of my hives sugar syrup. They hadn’t filled out the frames as well as they could have, and it’s important for winter survival that they are full to maximum capacity. So, despite not wanting refined sugar in my life anymore, back in it came. In the top picture you see the hive with a honey super on top – I had to leave a space for the ziplock bag of sugar syrup between the frames and the lid. After Ken’s comment on a previous post, I thought I better follow his recommendations, so I built myself a rim.…
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pennies
It’s been quite a few years since pennies held any fascination for me, but beekeeping has brought them once again to a significant place in my life. My first sting as an adult was in Ken’s beeyard, and right away Steven put a penny on it for me. No swelling or pain. Weird! But wonderful. I started telling everyone who had the potential to be stung by a bee, that they should put a penny on it because it really works. My second bee sting, same story. Penny to the rescue yet again. Along the way, people questioned what it was about the pennies that gave them these magical bee-sting-soothing…
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counting for now
Well, the results of the poll are tied between counting until my age, or counting forever. So I guess I’ll keep track for now. If I’m going to keep accurate results, though, I should mention that I actually had 9 stings last time, not 8 as previously posted. Once they all started to swell I noticed I had another one that was overlooked in the original counting. I think I’ll be wearing more protection next time I do some radical shifting – so the numbers should stay low for awhile. Speaking of which – Ken checked the hive that I was worried about, and he thinks I’ll get away with…
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guest pic
This picture comes to you courtesy of Todd, a fellow newbie to the world of beekeeping. He and I, along with a few others, met at Little City Farm when we attended a small workshop on beekeeping. Those few of us that went on to take a more in-depth course at the Townsend House, University of Guelph, keep in touch on a semi-regular basis. We thought it might reduce the collective number of painful mistakes, if we could share our newbie experiences with the group of us. Still, we’ve all had our own ‘learning moments’, and it’s been good to grow together in this endeavor. Anyway, back to the pic…
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thinking
Not much happening with the bees – other than me trying to figure out what I’m going to do with them. I’ve been talking to Ken about how I should deal with the hives – well, the one hive in particular. My two hives have very different personalities, which I think can be attributed to genetics in a large way. The first hive does a really good job of reproducing – the queen lays eggs like no tomorrow, and the workers take care of them. Not so much honey, though. The second hive, full of honey! But not very many workers, when I compare it to the first hive. So…
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new experience
One of my favourite things so far about the bees – showing them off! Bees are so important to our food supply, it’s essential that as many people as possible learn why. I really enjoy taking people to see them, and explaining how they live together and stay alive, while keeping us alive as well. There’s much talk of the declining bee population, but I’m not sure how many people realize how this will affect our lives if allowed to get much worse. Bees (and other insects) pollinate a very large portion of our food supply. Yes, fruit, but also ‘vegetables’ that are technically fruit, like squash, cucumber, peppers, eggplant,…
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popeye
The above photo doesn’t much relate to the exact topic of this post, other than to show how wonderfully peaceful the bees were before they turned into suicide bombers. The results of the penny experiment: well, I reacted more than I usually do, and I think it’s because I got so many stings at once. My forearms were swollen between my wrist and elbow joints, and my upper left arm (stung quite close to my armpit). Two of the three of those stings had pennies on them, but that didn’t seem to help as much as it normally does. Other places, like my leg and back, didn’t swell up that…
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still counting
So… had an eventful time in the beeyard today. Apparently bees don’t like it when you take apart their home. 8 stings today brings my running total to 10. When do I stop counting? Take my poll!!! ….in the sidebar to the right. Should I explain myself? I was on a mission to get rid of some burr comb between the frames of the upper and lower brood chambers. They had sealed together and it was hard to put them back into the hive once I took them out to inspect them. I took the upper brood chamber off, smoked the lower chamber, started doing a bit of gentle scraping,…
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surprise
Are there beekeeper fairies? Or elves? We came back from vacation today, and I found 3 beekeeping catalogues in a bag on my front door! They look interesting, I’m looking forward to giving them a proper look once the camping clutter has disappeared from my dining room. And by ‘disappeared’ I’m referring to the process whereby I am the one who cleans said clutter. Hopefully it won’t take too long. We should have camped out for a few more days, I think. I find it takes about a day on either end of camping to transition in and out, so the longer we go the more worthwhile it feels. Although,…
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grass killer
Thanks to my wonderful sister for carpet! It’s a good way to keep the thigh-high grass from crowding the hives. Yet another trick I learned from Ken. There’s so much value in learning from someone who has many years of experience! I’m very grateful to have accidentally stumbled upon this family during my research days. I’ve learned something from each member. Even Jill, who gives good (usually) directions..