Saturday, September 21, 2013

the first of many - I hope!!!


We broke in to see what the "girls" have been up to these past few days. It won't be long before we will need to button things up for the winter, and I can tell they feel the same way, because the hive is alive with activity. I went over to the bee shop to a little seminar in "wrapping up for the winter" so I feel like I know what I need to do.
On our last couple of checks, we haven't taken the whole hive apart, but we did today, going all the way down to the bottom box. This is the brood chamber, and it looks good. The bees will stop having brood when the winter comes, but for now, we saw "babies" in the works, so they are still producing. (the white things you see in the comb are baby bees -- the yellow is stored pollen)...
The second box, which is also brood chamber had a good number of workers, we also found more brood, and honey..... these are all excellent signs of a good strong hive.
This frame was a complete honey frame, with some capped (which is the honey that is ready to eat) and some not..... I love how the bees continue to work even when we are "messing" around.
And more of the same... in fact the second box held so much honey, and we decided if the third box was as full, we were going to steal just a little for ourselves. I can't wait to try it....
And, happily, as we checked on the third box, in was - indeed - full of honey frames.... you can only use capped honey, so this isn't the frame we are looking for....
But this one certainly is.... we took two frames... and left all the rest to the girls. I will also put a 'candy board" in when we do close up for the winter.. that, along with the honey stores, should keep them good for the cold winter months....
They're still find pollen somewhere, if you look closely, you can see the yellow in the pollen sacks. I'm guessing it's from the sunflowers, though they look like they're starting to go by. One thing though, the warm days we have been having has been a huge help....
And this is what we took...... we'll need to borrow an extractor (Deb and Dave have one) to process the honey into what we want to use.... but this is the first of many....












Fresh eggs from the hens... honey from the bees... and tomatoes from the local farmer's market.... quite the treat!!!!

a day with Reagan


Kass and Reagan came for a visit the other day. It is just so much fun to have a baby in the house again.. I really miss it!!!! He is growing so quickly, and I truly understand the idea of trying to hang onto to time and not let it rush by so quickly.....
He's very close to crawling and I think that once he's on the move... my dear Kass won't have a minute to sit!!!!
The dogs were (are) so good with him.... even Tazzy. She can be a bit of a "spook" so of any of our dogs, she's the one I watch the closest... but she was wonderful....
Trevor pretty much laid right where he is the whole time. It's funny, because the dogs I had when I was raising babies ( Diggie, Frosty, Holly and Randi)... were never allowed on the quilts spread on the floor. They could lay at the very edge and watch the babies, but they couldn't go on them. And they never did... Frosty, though, would lay at the very edge and if that baby got close enough, she would give the biggest kiss she could muster!!!! 
Kas and I had lunch together, then we went threw my many cross stitch books and picked out a stocking pattern for Reagan. After that, it was so pretty out, we went down to the local orchard to poke around and Kas wanted to get some apples.....
This is such a nice farm.. and they are all dressed up and ready for apple season. Reagan was "in love" with this scare crow.....
They'll be busy the next few weekends.... the fall season is almost here. It's going to be a good apple year... and I have no doubt that my bees certainly enjoyed the orchards last spring....
I have to say, my sunflowers this year are amazing. My veggie garden did nothing -- I'm not much of a gardener anyways... but despite my horrible efforts... the sunflowers did it....
They are huge... more than a few are over seven feet tall.... the bees love them.. and then ones that have gone by are being enjoyed by many of the birds.... I will certainly put sunflowers in every year....
What I don't dry and keep for seed, the rest I think I will throw to the turkeys and leave for the wild birds....
And with the thoughts of the cooler weather, it's also wood season. This year, however, with the wood shed, it's going to be much easier to deal with.... certainly better than the tarps we had to use the first winter we were here..... we figure we burn 10-12 cord... we have a bit left over from last year, and here's the first two cord pile...
Which - in about four hours - I was able to get all inside...













It's a good start... but I'll feel better when it's full.......