Adventures in beekeeping, mushroom farming, chicken keeping, honey production, maple tapping, soap & candle making, drawing, crafting, sewing, knitting, baking, raising pets, and living life.
We are the husband and wife team who run Reef Botanicals and handmake every batch of soap, every candle, and every other item we sell. We look forward to hearing from you!
OK, so today's high is forecast to be 38 degrees Fahrenheit, with snow, and the current precipitation consists of ice pellets. And yes, it's February.
But for the bees, and therefore beekeepers, it's early spring! The girls are starting now to build their populations up, the queen is ramping up her laying of brood, and they're preparing for the inevitable arrival of dandelions, their first food of the year aside from what we feed them.
As an aside, we don't touch our dandelions until they've bloomed and gone to seed. And then we make sure to kick and blow the seeds around the yard so there'll be even more later in the summer and next year! Yes, that's the exact opposite of what my mom told me as a kid, when she classified dandelions as "weeds" and freaked out that there'd be too many when we blew the seeds. But that's because now that I'm an adult, with my own yard, I know their value and I want them!
At any rate, it's definitely time for us as beekeepers to start thinking spring, and this time we're expanding from 10 hives to nearly 30 (yes, you read that right!), so on Saturday we went to the bee supply store and picked up a bunch of woodenware for some of our new hives.
Photo: Carol Peterson
Part of the fun was also bringing two friends who've just ordered their first two nucs, and getting them set up with everything they'll need as well! Eric and I are both so excited to be mentoring new beekeepers, you have no idea.
And then on Sunday when it was nice and warm, I visited the hives to see how they're doing, give them some more food of protein filled "winter patties" to keep them going until the nectar and pollen arrive, and treat them with a bit of Apivar. Now's the time for "spring" mite treatments, since varroa mites attack the larvae, and the queen is ramping up her brood production, the mites'll be ramping up too. Yuck. There's no sadder sight to me than seeing honey bees with varroa mites clinging onto them, sucking them dry like a plate-sized tick on a human. (shudder)
Spring feels so, so close now.
In the meantime, we console ourselves with our tapped maple trees, which are producing nicely. I have to say, I understand why maple syrup is so expensive now! Boiling it down is a long, long, long process, and when 10 gallons of sap yields just 1.5 pints of syrup... well, you get the picture. But it's such a pretty picture!
Here in northern New Jersey, it got near 60 degrees on Sunday... January 31! Crazy. But that meant the bees were flying. They were going nuts, in fact, uncrossing all their little legs in their "cleansing" (bathroom) runs since they won't go in the hive, bringing out their dead, and generally cleaning house.
We took advantage of the terrific weather and the girls' activity, and did inspections on all 11 hives.
The six in our yard are doing well, most with phenomenal populations, one with the population a little lower than the rest, and we'll need to keep an eye on them. One of the hives, the Pooh hive, was downright angry because their mouse guard had been removed somehow, and we believe a mouse or other animal had gotten in and shredded some of their comb. We replaced the guard, and when they get a chance, they'll repair it like new.
They all still seemed to have quite a bit of honey, but had eaten the two winter patties we provided to each colony, so we added one more to each hive. Better too much food than too little, and if there's one thing these bees will not die of under our watch, it's starvation due to lack of stores.
The two hives up the road, one of which we're actually overwintering as a single deep hive box rather than our typical two-deep, are going gangbusters, bursting at the seams with bees. We'll have to be right on top of them in early spring so they don't swarm! We gave them each a new patty too; they'd devoured theirs.
The two hives farther across town were also going gangbusters, and actually really calm and unstressed, which was nice to see. We gave them each a patty and let them go about their business unhindered.
And then there was the small summer swarm Eric had caught and collected back in June. We tried our darnedest all summer and fall to keep them going, requeening them when theirs disappeared, adding honeycomb and brood from other hives, and feeding them, but they just never really got their population where it needed to be to survive the cold snap once it came. We found the hive devoid of live bees, and just a handful of dead ones on the bottom and in the comb. The top box still had all their honey and they hadn't come near the food we'd left them.
So we're down to 10. In practical terms, we're ok with that. I personally get upset over losing a hive, and cried for those girls, but in the end, we're doing well. If it keeps going like this, we're in a really great place for honey and expansion come spring!
Actually, the problem is that we've been really, really busy.
We had our honey harvest back in July, and then had to bottle and label it all, because we were almost immediately sold out. It was crazy!
We did save a bunch for ourselves for the year, and there's a it more almost honey to extract to make mead.
But of course, because one of the season's big things was nearly over, we had to take on another.
Chickens!
First came the coop and run, so they'd have somewhere to live.
Eric built it, with some help from his brother and our friend. I helped stain some of it and pitched roof shingles up to Eric to fasten down. He's pretty proud of it, and rightly so, as he did it with pretty much no plans and just a bunch of research. The run is 6' x 12', and the coop is that closed area raised up on the right. He made the ramp for them, and the nesting boxes are sticking out on the right.
And then, because their feed and supplies needed a place to reside, a storage bench to match!
Yes, he made this too. My only lament is that it's a custom piece, so it's too long and wide for commercial cushions. Since I'd like it to have a cushion, I'll have to make one.
After the bench, he finally made the compost bin he's been talking about!
Yep, that matches too! He did a great job; the top folds in half to throw in food and yard wast, or lifts off completely. And there's another hinged door on the bottom to shovel out compost. I'm a little obsessed with bringing out every possible bit of compost for the bin. I just love the feeling of "garbage" not actually going to waste.
And then, since there was wood left over, he made a matching snack table for next to the bench.
And then the finishing touch... ferns!
Conor is obviously very interested in the girls, both boys are. But I haven't introduced the girls yet! We got six hens, all pullets, so they're not laying yet. Hopefully very soon!
Miranda is our buff orpington, and will be largest, fluffiest of the birds.
The new queens in both the Swarm and Fish hives are doing their job! We saw larvae and capped brood (pupae) in both! Go girls! Go girls! Go girls! And we saw the Swarm queen, but unfortunately I was too slow to get a photo. But larvae! Pupae!
The Fish hive was stronger, but since the Swarm population was so small, we took two full frames of capped brood (pupae) from two of the new hives to add to the Swarm. Once those hatch out, they'll be nurse bees to the queen's eggs and larvae, then guards, and then in a few days ready to forage and help bulk up the hive's population.
Eric tells me that as a kid, he actually dreamed of being a farmer. I didn't. He went to an agricultural high school in New York City. I went to public school, started undergrad as a bio major, and finished as a politics major on my way to law school. Agriculture never even crossed my mind as being within the realm of anything I wanted to do.
Silly me.
'Cause somehow Eric and I have become farmers. Weird.
Wednesday evening after work, we decided that it was time to pull some honey supers from the hives. OK, so we're not experienced or bright farmers. The bees are less than thrilled in the evening, you see, even just before dusk. All of the girls are home, all of the foragers are back from foraging, and they're not so keen on dim light or humans (read: potential threats) breaking into their homes at that hour. They're never keen on humans stealing their honey, but very much so not at dusk or just before.
So, yeah, not bright. And I deserved the message I got from the Pooh hive, via a sting in the tush, right through my jeans. I did, I know it. And it was fine; because it was through my jeans, she didn't get me badly, just enough to feel the pinch and then itch for a couple days. Of course, that didn't stop me from calling to Eric, "Smoke my butt! Smoke my butt!" because when bees sting they release a "danger" pheromone that calls other bees to join in the defense of the hive. The smoke blocks those pheromones. All very logical, and in hindsight, funny as all get out, but I'm still glad our neighbors are far enough away that they didn't hear "Smoke my butt! Smoke my butt!"
Because I'm sure we would have been getting some pretty sketchy looks in the neighborhood.
Eventually we got one (ten frames) of the two honey supers off the Pooh hive, and the one super (six frames) off the Wonderland hive. And we brought them downstairs to our nifty brand new Kelley Bees extractor we got (which is actually pretty old and we bought used from a fellow beek, perfect for our first year!).
It's a manual, three-frame extractor, and we're definitely getting our exercise! Turning the handle had me quoting the witches from Macbeth.
Double, double, toill and trouble
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. First, we had to uncap the wax off the honey.
To do so, we used our nifty new uncapping knife. It's heated and does a great job slicing the caps off. Turned out I was better at it than Eric, so we figured out quickly how to divide our labor, with Eric holding the frame steady while I sliced. It smelled so good as the honey was exposed, you have no idea!
From there, the frames went into the triangular metal basket in the extractor, and we started spinning.
The centrifugal force causes the honey to be flung from the cells of honeycomb onto the wall of the extractor and drop down from there, where it's poured through a coarse strainer (to get out any large wax and bee particles but leave the beneficial pollen) into a bucket.
And then? We bottled our first 18 lbs of honey!!! There's a bunch more yet to be bottled, and ten more frames we got off the Pooh hive on Sunday to be extracted, and we still need labels, but bottled honey!!!
So... our apiary just expanded to nearly double what it was today. If you're counting along, we started with two hives last spring, one of which died. So we came into this spring with one hive, which we split. We then bought three nucs, making five hives. And Eric caught a swarm, making six.
And now? They go to eleven.
Another local beekeeper has chosen to downsize his apiary from two locations to one, and was selling his hives. Someone else bought six, we got five. Five new (old, established) hives. All at once. Whoa!
Two went to the yard of friends, who are hosting them for us. The funny thing is that the wife said yes, and then forgot to tell her husband! Thankfully, he's got a good sense of humor and is really laid back, because he accepted the concept immediately, even saying, "this will be fun." When we got there today, he'd dug up a bit of his lawn to make it flat to accommodate the hives, and spread mulch in front of them so his landscapers don't have to mow that area. Perfect possible host for our girls!
The other three were planned for another yard in our town, but the logistics there didn't work out, so they're currently, temporarily, living in our yard until they can be moved, which should happen pretty shortly, since we've got a potential "forever home" for them already.
Yeah, I think we're real beekeepers now, just in case I had any residual doubts.
We're getting some honey this year... but just wait 'til next year's crop!
Eric checked on the new girls this week, and was able to release the new queen into the Swarm hive on Tuesday and the Fish hive yesterday. Now it's up to them to get to work and build the populations back up. Looking forward to next weekend, when we should be seeing larvae!
Yesterday afternoon, although it was still grey and cloudy, it finally stopped raining, so we decided to take a look into the honey supers on the Wonderland and Pooh hives to see if they needed any more space. Turns out they didn't, but they're doing well with the space they've got.
But I got my first sting in 35 years, my first sting since becoming a beekeeper. Totally my fault, too.
I was dressed in a dark, short-sleeved shirt and nice pants, and I wasn't in the mood to take part in going into the hives, as I'd just gotten back from a 3-hour face painting gig, so I was across the yard while Eric donned his gear to take a look.
Well, me being me, I got curious and wanted to see too, so I got closer and closer. Eric took the top super off the Pooh hive, put it on the ground, and was looking at honey frames in the second super, as I got closer to have a look at the top super, which was now uncovered, wide open, on the ground. I stood right next to it, leaning over to look in from the top, for all intents and purposes, looking to the bees like a big ol' looming bear about to attack (to a bee, dark clothes a human looks like a potential bear, and therefore a huge threat) their indefensible hive.
Whoops.
I felt her land in the crook of my elbow, realized I'd scared them, and immediately walked away from the hives, not freaking out (kudos to me!) not swatting at her, trying to shake my arm to shake her off, but it was already too late. I felt the pinch as she stung me, and immediately scraped out the stinger, which is what you want to do if you're ever stung, FYI. It was weird, then. I felt a gradual, but quick heat start to build, and I knew it was going to hurt. Not deathly, not intolerably, but it definitely hurt. I got an ice pack from the freezer, which immediately numbed the pain, and kept it on until the pain subsided on its own.
Later last night, while I was knitting, I was fine. Every time I straightened my elbow all the way, it felt sore, but not bad. That's mostly gone now. What I'm left with is a crazy amount of itching, that's driving me a tad insane, but I'll live. And for the record, that Benadryl topical anti-itch stuff? It's useless. Just so you know.
I'm actually glad it happened. I'm sorry I scared them, and I'm sorry one of the girls felt the need to go kamikaze, but I'm glad I got stung. It's good to know that it hurts no more than I remember it hurting 35 years ago, and I've proven to myself that I can handle it fine. So I'm good!
Friday was "Bee Day" for us, from beginning to end.
It started with the biggest event, a visit from NJ's Rock Star of Beekeeping, our state apiarist, Tim Schuler. He's an amazing beekeeper (Eric called him the Bee Whisperer), incredibly knowledgeable, very matter-of-fact, and funny besides. Definitely someone to emulate.
He and another incredibly experienced member of our Bee Association, probably the best we've got, John Gaut, showed up around 11 a.m. to inspect the three hives in our yard, a service of indescribable value.
Tim chose to start with the Wonderland Hive, which we told him was an early spring split we'd made from the Pooh Hive and a queen from Hudson Valley Bee Supply.
You'll note that Tim works with nothing other than his smoker and glasses - short sleeves, no veil. I will admit that I was silly and went veil-and-jacket-free that day, but I was taking photos. (Though you'll see in the videos just how close I get to the bees to get those photos! No fear!) I still can't touch 'em, though. Not yet. Eric, on the other hand, held his first frame of bees without wearing gloves!
Nice job, E!
Meanwhile, Tim confirmed that the Wonderland hive was doing great and everything looked as it should. Awesome! He spotted the queen off to the side (you'll see her in the video if you look closely at where Tim points; she's on the frame that Tim handed to Eric. I didn't get a separate photo, but she's the extra long one that's a mahogany color and without striping), and thought she looked great. While in that hive, we got to taste some of our own honey. Whoa, it's good! It made me really excited for the club's honey competition in September.
Odd thing, during this inspection (you'll see during the video), John noticed a queen bee on the ground where she shouldn't be. She wasn't one of ours, and she was behaving like she wanted to mate. I ran and got a queen cage we had, and John put her on in.
Then we moved onto the Fish Hive, which we already knew from last week was queenless but had capped queen cells. The cells were still there, still capped, and there were a few more of them too. The girls were working hard to make themselves queen-right!
Tim confirmed that they had a good population and would likely soon be back on track, and that we'd done the right thing in taking a frame with a capped queen cell over to the queenless swarm hive for them to raise. He doesn't even think, because of the number of emerging bees in the Fish Hive and capped brood still to emerge, that the population will diminish by the time the new reigning queen is ready to start laying!
The worst part? He doesn't want us to check the Fish Hive or Swarm Hive until July 4 for eggs and larvae! Gah!
As an aside, Tim called attention to the awesome waggle dance a bunch of our girls were doing on their front porch, to call their sisters back home. I've circled a few for you. See those tushes up in the air? They were vibrating around like crazy.
We were trying to figure out what was best to do with the queen John found, unmated and without a colony, and Tim commented that he needs video of worker bees not accepting a queen, balling up on her instead of trying to groom and feed her. So between the GoPro and my camera, we tried to get that footage while inspecting the Pooh Hive. Didn't work. Our girls must not have seen her as any sort of threat, as instead of balling up on her, they completely ignored her and even moved away to avoid her.
Something was obviously wrong with her, and Tim said, with all his vast experience, he'd never seen anything like it! Which, although he didn't get the video he needed, is still pretty nifty.
In the meantime, we got to see, for the very first time ever, a drone pupa. It's very rare to see pupae, since the brood gets capped over as larvae and then emerges as adult bees; the pupal stage is the one you never see unless you break open a cell or one happens to break, which is what happened here. He must have been in some burr comb (the comb sometimes built by the workers between levels where the queen occasionally lays drone eggs) that broke when we took the hive apart for the inspection. Out of that came this awesome photo of a creature that looks more like an alien than an insect.
At any rate, the Pooh hive is bursting at the seams with bees, brood, and honey.
In fact, we saw some of our girls sharing some of that honey with each other. So cool!
We also saw several of the new bees emerge! How awesome are they?!
They're so cute, and when they're first out, they stagger around like little colts trying to find their legs... and some honey to eat.
Our queen is amazing, as is the work they're doing. In fact, we were exceptionally proud when Tim pulled a frame from one of the honey supers and told us that if we were inclined to save it and enter it, it could be a winner at the Sussex County Fair! Whoa! So not only is our honey delicious, our girls make beautiful, beautiful frames of it.
After they'd left, we reveled in our success for a bit before heading to a meeting with a director at a local organization who's interested in having one of our hives on their grounds and having us teach their students about bees! We loved her, and were very happy that she's very excited about it; now she just has to discuss it with the board. Fingers crossed that they love the idea as much as she and we do!
If they do, you'll be hearing a lot more about it in the future, for sure.
After that, we went to buy yarn for this blanket that Eric wants me to knit. It'll mean learning four new techniques, but for this blanket, with a big ol' bee as the centerpiece, it's totally worth it! Plus, I like to learn and want to expand my knitting repertoire anyway.
Eric and I chose a gold yarn somewhere between butter and mustard for the background color and a beautiful dark maroon for the design. It'll go beautifully with our living room rug, pillows, accent wall, and the dining room chair upholstery. I'm starting it tonight!
From there, we brought hive boxes to Mahwah, where our two new nucs are spending time until they can come home to our neighbor's yard in Franklin Lakes, and we installed them there into our hives until they can be moved. That should be July 4 weekend.
While we were in Mahwah, I got a call from a woman who found us on the NJ Swarm Removal List. I was so happy that she found us and called us before immediately going for an exterminator, but I found when I had her text me a photo of her "honeybees" that they were unfortunately really yellowjackets and required an exterminator. Ick!
We were sad not to have another swarm to catch, but to be honest, I was relieved at the time we gained back in not chasing it down. That evening was the monthly Northeast NJ Beekeepers Association meeting, and we were dying to go, especially since Tim was this month's speaker.
He discussed the inspections he'd made over the two days that he was here in northeast NJ, and then focused on mite treatments, as the time for that is coming right after the harvest in July. These days, as he's adamant, mite treatments are imperative for the life and well-being of bees. A survey of the past year's experiences of beekeepers across the country showed that untreated hives had a 76% death rate, which is just outright frightening.
So... first the honey, then preparations to treat and help our girls fight their parasitic tormentors.
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