little happy apple

beeing free

well the girls were busy today.  i took a peek at them after my high adventure with the team out in charlotte unpacking and setting up 50 new hives!  i drove the whole way home saying...that was so cool.  wow, that was fun.  it was work, nothing glamourous about filling up 50 gallons worth of sugar syrup with 50 hives full of hungry queenless bees buzzing about you. sticky mess.   i must say that they were very sweet and well behaved considering their relocation.  and they happily cleaned out all the pails.  also got to see some queens in their cages with attendants, and install them right into the new hives.  also very cool.  needless to say my two little hives here were of great interest to me today, i just sat and watched them awhile and knit, watching them fly in with their little yellow sacs of pollen.  now that the trees are blooming, there is plenty for them to forage...and it will only get better.  amazing creatures.  really.

pioneer bees

this morning i was outside having coffee and one of my girls came buzzing around.  i was sooooo happy because it has been so cold!  so i ran up to the hives and they were busy.   speaking of bees, saturday was spent mostly in the car- alas, all was not lost it was for a good cause.  it was the first step toward creating a new apiary under my mentor Sally at mama beehive .  she was approached by the developer of a green sustainable living community  to pioneer this endeavor and so a few of her "chiquitas" are honored to apprentice with her on this great adventure.  So, the hivestands got set up...we are expecting 50 hives (this happened with no thanks to me, i carried all of one cinderblock...)  another woman on the team has began a documentary of the project.  it is all very exciting really.  i am tickled to be a part of it, a pioneer.  speaking of which,  look at how tough, i mean, cool valentine's pickup looks on the site...her name is olive, naturally.

next month we pick up the bees and go live.  that's alotta bees to move and settle in. 

 

bit o honey

finally got to check on the girls this weekend. as i anticipated there was no honey for us this year. the combination of having to make a queen, being two small splits and the freeze really did not leave much surplus. in fact, i will have to feed them sugar syrup all winter too. the hives look like they are doing great though; plenty of bees, eggs and larvae. lots of capped honey for them too... it was great just to see them all happily buzzing about and busy... we did sneak off a small chunk of comb to sample and the honey was delicious. next spring we should get two splits and plenty of honey. i can wait until then.

from the outside in

so my dear friend from valentine's farm came for a visit this weekend with her sweet tribe for a little memorial day cookout....and with her support, we opened the hives. it was wonderful to remove the inner cover and see them happily making honey- we then put the super aside and checked below in the brood box- pulled a frame to check the brood and there was plenty. finally put the second and third supers on with another entrance board in between and i must say, the girls are doing great!!!! i was grateful for her expertise my first time opening the hives since their arrival.... i was tickled at their productivity; lots of bees and lots of honey....they didn't make a bit of a fuss at us either.... sweet tempered. my favorite shot however, is of this bee cleaning another bee that got all caught up in the honey while we were checking the brood. we relocated it to the entrance where all the bees will quickly clean her right up so she can get back to work. i suspect their new digs will be the buzz of the hive: "hey, our queen must be doing really well, did you see the extension she put on this place? i can hardly wait to fill it up with honey! what are we waiting for! let's hit the clover and celebrate!"

honeycakes

just look at what my friend orpheus sent me as an early bithday gift...

the perfect present is always the kind one would never buy for oneself. it is a beeeeeeeautiful beehive cake pan from williams sonoma, a little yellow bee apron apron and a little wooden honeydripper. sigh.
what a pretty birthday cake it will make! let's face it, few things are better than cake, so this actually is the gift that keeps on giving.

yummy.

bee good

if you have been waiting, (and very patiently i might add)...the photo tutorial for the bee stones is up on the just bee cause weblog. click on the link to see the super simple step by step how to. thanks to my children for their help in making such cute little bee stones. one said she had to make a sad one because she had no more honey.
oh. that IS sad.

just bee cause

now i know i am crazy.
this whole colony collapse disorder (ccd) and threat to our agriculture and farming industry has got me in such a tizzy. so much so that i have spent the better part of the last couple of days working on a project to help with bee research. i have been gathering data, resources, and information. i have been formulating plans to raise bee awareness on the local level embodying the think globally act locally concept. i have been developing programs for beekeepers so that they can present at their local schools. i have drafted a storyboard for not one but two children's books with thumbnails. i have been wanting to write a book for years and now....poof! i am completely possessed.

stay tuned. you can check on my progress via the very cute link at the left, artwork compliments of my talented daughters who inspired it all. want to know how you can help? please email me.

imagine...all this with only two cups of coffee. my floors will never be clean.

queen bee

sally made the splits three weeks ago today and the queen usually takes about 21 days to emerge after being fed a diet of royal jelly for the entire period. at that time she make her debut singing her queen sounds and if she is accepted by the hive she will fly out for the exciting one time mating in the air with a drone so that she can begin her career of laying 1500 eggs a day. sounds like a bad deal to me. whew. i'm tired just thinking about it.

it has been really cold and today it is wet. there were a few dead bees around the entrance of both hives today... seemingly frozen. the other bees were checking them out... i will go in as soon as it warms up. meanwhile, sugar syrup to the max, they like that. when i just brought up a refill, i gave a knock on the less active hive and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, a nice strong hum. they are just smarter than the other hive, staying in when it is wet- or maybe they are sizing up their new queen.

when our friends were visiting there were lots of beekeeping inquiries. Miss Artemis thought that the royal jelly diet of the queen was just great...so much so that she drew this portrait of herself as a queen bee eating her royal jelly. love it.

bee happy

sunday is fun day. today anyway, because sally is coming with my hives....she made splits from her gentle bees; (very considerate of my three children.) i have a few areas scoped out for the apiary location. i can hardly wait to see them! honey, candles, batik. oh my. more to add to my infinite repertoire of crafting.

there are lots of trees blooming here so the girls should have plenty to get busy with until the garden is flowering. i haven't seen any other hives, and i have asked the locals- it seems few people keep bees in our area--so i think they will do great.

it will be especially nice for there to be a creature who keeps itself busier than myself. maybe i can slow down a tiny bit now. maybe.