A Queen Gone Missing and The Painful Lesson

On September 21st, I checked on my bees for the first time since the honey harvest. I had to reduce the boxes from three to two. Since I had left the honey super on with any frames of uncapped honey inside, I had to check the progress and remove any frames that were basically empty. The bees need to focus on food supplies for the winter, not building comb now. When I took the lid off, there were not too many bees in the honey super and only a few frames needing to be put in another box. I removed the extras and proceeded to examine the bottom boxes. There were a lot of bees, young ones, and not too many brood within the frames. I did not see the queen among the bee chaos but I also saw a few larvae, estimated to be about a week old. Then, I saw a queen cell. It was a supercedure cell, right in the middle of the frame, and it had hatched. Could my old queen be dead or dying? Is there a new virgin queen replacement somewhere in the hive? Is there even a queen at all? Oh geez, the worry as I begin to have all sorts of thoughts now as I check the boxes. I finish my box reduction duties, leave any frames for them to recycle out by the hive, and begin my google search for greater understanding of what may be going on inside the hive. I read all sorts of advice, anything from re-queening the hive, watching out for a laying worker (where one of the workers begins laying eggs but they will all turn into a male drone), the "roar" of bees and their increased aggitation and agressiveness for not having a queen, and a wait and see approach to verify if the new queen is there. In thinking back, it was hard to tell if I heard a roar, they sounded normal. They were especially buzzing while I was in the hive but I assume that was because a bee stung my glove and the scent of pheremones sent them into a tizzy. I saw a queen cell so they are handling their own business. I will take a wait and see approach and check in the two weeks most beekeepers recommended. If I did not see anymore eggs then I will get a new queen.

The next evening, I decided to get the frames away from the hive. They were done cleaning the extra wax and honey and I wanted to put them back into the shed for storage. I gently picked up each frame (there were four total) and brushed off any dead bees. Just when I was on my last one, I was just about to walk away until I looked down at my foot. There it was. Sitting on my toe. A young bee. I had open toe sandals. I froze then I panicked. I tried to kick it off but no luck. It stung my toe. I rushed to brush it off then I remembered to get the stinger out as soon as possible. I dropped my frames and ran inside the house (as I was near the hive and didn't need an attack). It hurt and it was all my fault. On one hand, wearing what I was wearing was a sign that I felt comfortable around my bees, on the other hand, I should've known better to wear at least closed toe shoes since I had essentially brushed that bee right off the frame and onto my toe. Ah the lessons of a new beekeeper. I have been stung by bumble bees, yellow jackets, and one other honeybee as a child. This experience was far different. My doctor said it will be easier in the future. My foot itched, swelled, turned red, then a bruise surrounded my toe. Even as I write this, four days later, the bruise remains. It's a reminder to watch where I walk, be conscious of my movements, and respect even the littlest of creatures. More importantly, having the appropriate clothing, just as having the right equipment, is imperative to getting a job done safely and soundly.

Will this make me not want to be a beekeeper anymore? Well, it made me have my doubts as my reactions to the sting hurt. The actual sting wasn't the bad part. I hated looking at my bruise and feeling the awkwardness of the swelling when I walked. They do more good than harm and in the five months that I have had them, they have not caused any harm. Granted one did get Stew by the nose before but his reaction was minimal. I am just a bit more aware now of what is buzzing by me when I am in the yard. Flies sound just the same at times and that gets me a little spooked. I will overcome. I will get back on that metaphorical horse.    

Fall Honey Harvest

In late August, I did harvest honey from our beehive. The day before harvest, I added a bee escape board. It is a one way maze for the bees to exit safely from the honey super so when a beekeeper goes to extract the box the next day, there are hardly any bees inside the box. When I did take the box off the next day, there were only about 2 dozen bees left - easy enough to just brush off the frames. However, I did not try to harvest honey right next to the hive - that would be suicide and mayhem as the bees would surely get back inside. Instead, I used temporary boxes and covers to take the honey super to another part of the yard (so I can brush the bees off without taking them inside the house). It was surprisingly easy to get that part done, especially as I was working by myself. I was able to take 6 of the 10 frames for honey extraction. The rest of the frames with uncapped honey went back to the bees. I also gave them back all used frames, bowls, or plates that I used that may have been covered with miniscule amounts of honey, which they then slurped up and took back into their hive. They are the ultimate recyclers! In the end, we got 15 pounds of honey. It was a dark, amber color and rich tasting like a sweet caramel. Since I didn't have a fancy extractor, I used what I had on hand in the kitchen - a bread knife to cut away the wax cappings, a metal spatula to just scrape off the honeycomb off the frames, pots and pans to catch the oozing honey, and miscellaneous strainers to get the chunks of comb out. Ultimately, I learned that the wax will float to the top and then I just had to skim off the most chunkiest of wax. If I had more frames to extract, this process would have been tedious but since it was my first time and I wanted to experiment, it was just fine. The total time to let gravity pull the honey out was about 24 hours. I would crush and strain several times just to get as much honey as I could. Whatever I was unable to use, I gave to the bees and my leftover wax was rinsed in water and the honey-water given to the bees too. The harvest yielded over a pound of raw beeswax too.

The frames, full of honey

Stewart and I uncapping the frames with a bread knife

The uncapped frames allow the honey to drip into the bucket

All of the honeycomb and honey prior to straining

The chunks of wax were strained using a basic colander and pots

Once all the biggest pieces of wax were removed, it was bottled into sterilized mason jars.

Time For More Beer

Our fermentation room is getting a little bare, so what better time than the Fall to brew more! Our current recipes are an experimental Pale Ale, Honey Weizen using a pound of honey from our own beehive, Coffee Stout Porter, and another Hefeweizen. We have decided to order our ingredients online this time from a brew supplier in Minnesota. More choices, better prices, etc. Stay tuned to see how these new beers wet the pallets of our most honest critics...AKA our friends and family.

Rabbits for sale!

We are selling a pair of New Zealand rabbits for $80. There is a 5 month old male (from Cuzic Rabbit Ranch) and a 3 month old female (from Fog City Rabbitry). These would be good for any 4H members, fellow farmers, or anyone wanting a breedable pair of rabbits. New Zealands are a bigger rabbit and grow rather quickly (compared to most other breeds). If you or anyone you know in the San Jose area is interested, please contact me at leahrondeau@yahoo.com.

Bottle Feeding A Baby

Our newest arrivals to Rlittlefarm were 7 rabbit kits. They were born on August 6th. On August 9th, the littlest runt passed away, and today, I had to begin bottle feeding the next smallest. In comparison to its siblings, this little one was still tiny and wrinkled, with weak coordination. Sure we could let nature do its course and take a wait and see approach, but we decided to supplement with kitten milk replacement. While it rested between feedings, I was also able to cradle it inside my tank top. We may only need to supplement for a little while, just enough to regain its strength to have a fighting chance of nursing fairly amongst the others.

Master Sheefoo with its sibling. The size difference is HUGE!

Update: this little runt, which we named, Master Sheefoo, passed away after a long and hard battle to survive. It's nature's plan I guess. RIP Master Sheefoo 8/6/2012-8/16/2012

Rlittlefarm is getting high tech!

Rlittlefarm is now on Twitter! Follow us @Rlittlefarm. We are also on Facebook...be sure to Like us! We will like you too. We try to stay current but when there are animals to care for, weeds to pull, and hungry mouths to feed, time can escape. Be patient and we will give you all the cool updates when we can.

August's Hive Inspection

After a summer's worth of bees buzzing, I finally wrangled Stewart and Rick to assist with my monthly hive inspection. The first box to remove, my honey super, was heavy. There were a few full frames of honey but not enough for me to harvest any...at least not yet. I will give it time.

Stewart preparing to smoke the hive entrance.

The top two brood boxes. There was some honey on top of those frames, which the bees quickly collected.

There is still room for my colony to grow as they are using this frame for water storage.

The Queen has been here, as evidenced by the capped brood. The bottom box has a better brood pattern though.

Stewart was armed and ready with the smoker in case the bees were overly aggitated with my fumbling of the hive.

About to check the deep brood box. We did find the Queen and that was cool.

After a long week of daytime heat, the bees were working hard trying to cool their hive. It's a bee beard!

Powered By The Sun

In the summer, the sun blazes our kitchen in an abundance of light and unfortunately, heat. Thanks to our friend, we have discovered the power of the sun as our new alternative means of cooking. He had a solar oven and even though he showed us how easy it was to build, we decided to get one on the internet. A week after we ordered it, it arrived in a large box but it assembled in minutes. In actuality, we just had to unfold the reflective mirrors and steam some vinegar inside to "cure" it before using it. So far, we have cooked beef stew, baked two loaves of zucchini bread, and in this photo, Albondigas, which is meatball soup. We may not necessarily feel like eating soup on a hot day, but it's what I had in the pantry that had to be cooked up. I can leave it out there all day to cook and it won't burn. It's awesome. My zucchini bread came out moist and chewy like a dense brownie. It is portable, so we can take it anywhere.

Dinner Is Done!

    

The Zucchini Curse

I have loads of zucchini - more than I can handle or make into zucchini bread. When you don't expect it, you look under a leaf and find a monster sitting there. Zucchinis will take over a garden and produce a bountiful harvest. This zucchini in the picture was being compared to my arm. I was able to use half of it for a zucchini soup and the other half to make 4 loaves of zucchini bread! It was a zucchini to feed an army! I have at least four others of comparable size sitting in my fridge, waiting to be used. I better get into the kitchen to start cooking!

Apricots

These apricots were harvested through the generosity of neighbors. They were kind enough to let us pick the excess fruit off their trees so that we would be able to use them. Whatever fruit was bruised or in some cases, on the ground, we gave to the animals. All fruit was used and not wasted, which is a wonderful thing.

The washed bounty...a lot of apricots!

Pitted and the backs sort of popped out to expose more flesh.

Sun-drying for about 2-3 days, with the apricots brought inside during the nighttime.

When they are done drying, I pasteurized them in the oven to kill any bacteria or bugs. Cooked for 30 minutes at 160 degrees. They were perfect! 

With the really ripe apricots unsuitable for canning or drying, I made a yummy pie.

The Chicken Alarm

5:38 AM, I am awake from the sounds of my hens squaking. Hmmm..I wonder why? How odd for them to be making such a commotion so early. I laid in bed just a few minutes to see if the noise would end, thinking it's just one of the hens nesting or looking for one another - cause they call out for one another sometimes. No end to the squaks. I quietly go out front, barefoot, and walk gingerly over our gravel driveway and calm them down with (what I think are) mimicing chicken noises. They are quiet and I hear their soothing sounds back. Just then, I hear fast running from behind a fence near our beehive. I think it is just Max, our dog, so don't think nothing of it. I go back inside and look out the window, it's quiet and no movement - in case it was a burglar instead. Anyway, just as I was about to lay back down, I hear the hens again. This time, I put my robe and slippers on and go out back. As I walk near our first pen of rabbits, I quickly realize one is missing. Ahhh! Now I know what I am looking for....a white rabbit on the loose! I quickly spot my source of the chicken commotion. He is hopping around happily and calmly by the other (female) rabbits. I figured he had squeezed under the gate into the chicken coop and got the hens all in a frenzy, hence the early morning squaking. Thankfully, this rabbit is pretty calm and he came up to me several times to acknowledge me, as I do to the animals daily. I went about feeding the animals, being non-chalant about the rabbit in the corner of my eye. When I was done, I surveyed the exit point in his pen. He pushed the wire away and wiggled underneath. I patched it temporarily until I can focus better when I was fully awake. Just as I get ready to go catch him and return him to the pen, I see he is somewhat stuck near the hutch of a female rabbit, Luna. I nabbed him without incident and no scratches. So, in a roundabout way, I have my chickens to thank. They know when something is not right or when an animal does not belong in THEIR area. Without them sounding alarmed, I would not have known a rabbit had escaped.      

The Escapee

Some of the alarm makers

  

Open House Success!!

We held our first Open House today to friends and clients. What a great time. The weather was not too hot and people enjoyed all of our hard work so far. Hope everyone came away with ideas, knowledge, and greater understanding of all of our current homesteading activities. Til we have a next event, thanks for your support! Leah, Rick, Stewart, & Jason + critters

Beekeeping Display

Our Fermentation Room

Food Preservation

Our home library of reference guides

Something about gardening and seed saving

Info on raising backyard chickens

One of our guests, a former FFA member, hypnotizing a chicken.

The Robber and The Giant Peach

I was robbed at some point during the morning from my front yard. Someone had the audacity to pluck from my little peach tree, the biggest peach growing. They weren't even ripe yet. This is trivial, I realize that, and someone needed this peach more than I, however there is a feeling of violation and injustice. As it was, the evening winds this year have been brutal on my fruit trees. Blossoms and young setting fruit were whipped off and discarded on my yard, unable to fulfill their fruit destinies. So, when there are a few remaining fruit on my little fruit trees, it is upsetting to see one go. I watch them grow everyday from my window. I check on them and hope for a quick ripeness. And yet, the big one is gone. I searched the street for it's remains, thinking someone bit into it and then realized it was unripe and cast it into the gutter. Then, I can have closure and take it as an offering to the chickens. Or better yet, I would've wanted the numerous birds to get it as their survival is harder than some passerby thinking anything is free for the taking. This is one challenge of having edibles in your front yard. This won't deter me for future garden planning. I will just be smarter in the locations. I will also outfit my irrigation with motion detected, high powered, sprinklers or outfit our cat, Java, with blow darts laced with bee venom, easily harvested from our bees.

Homebrew

MMMMMMM....Beer. I must admit I am not a big beer drinker, but there is nothing as fresh as something you made, grew, or in the case of beer, fermented. We have made four different batches - American Pale Ale, India Pale Ales, Belgian Table Beer, plus an extra IPA. All of this homebrewing has been fun in being able to work alongside Rick and even the boys. Homebrewing, homesteading, and planning the seasonal harvest is addicting - as we are always planning on new ways to maximize what we have, what we are possible in making, and what we are capable of growing. Cheers!

   

Bees Are Buzzing

During the last hive inspection, the bees are doing well, busy making honeycomb and new bees.

I added a new brood box so there is more room to grow. Soon there will be new boxes added for the honey storage.

The 4 D's of Pruning

I was strolling through a local nursery and there was a notice on knowing the 4 D's of pruning: Disease, Damage, Dormant, and Diagonal. It made me think of the movie, "Dodgeball," with the 5 D's: Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge. Awesome! 

Stewart - The Animal Lover

Stewart has recently convinced us to let him keep a bunny, Chewbaka. He has promised to care for him and has contractually signed his agreement. Better a bunny than a parakeet or fish that he wanted. He tends to be the one concerned with the raising of the animals and likes to pretend he is part of the flock. When Stewart is upset, I can usually find him locked inside the coop area, sitting on an upside down bucket, crying to the animals. It makes him feel better, so that is okay with me.  




Stewart and Max. Max doesn't mess with the chickens after they pecked him a couple of times. In the event he is left behind in the coop (after trying to steal food scraps) he is usually wimpering in the corner somewhere. We have had Max for a year now and he is a great little dog.   

Stewart and Java. We have had Java for 11 years now. She was adopted as a kitten from the SPCA. She was a fiesty cat when she was younger but is remarkably calmer around the boys and has spared them pain of being scratched and bitten. 

Stewart wanted me to bring in two of our bunnies, Chewbaka and Peter, for a class show-and-tell.

He likes to visit with our hens. He tries to be the one getting the eggs, but Jason usually beats him to the punch. We have since re-done our coop area as this setup was a pain to get in and out of.  

Jason - The Food Helper



Jason helping Daddy to make homebrew wort.



Jason checking on the homebrew process after a week of this sitting in our cabinet.

Jason took this photo of me preparing extra beer bread mix to be stored for a later time. He has helped with a lot of my food storage into mason jars.

Jason learning proper cooking safety to cook his own egg.

He noticed the cat was out of food.

He has been "cooking" and periodically checking on his mudpie. It was raining, but it didnt deter him from going outside.

A Girl and A Gutter

So, the rain has been coming down off and on during this month. I had noticed water collecting on the wrong side of the gutter, and ultimately spilling over the side. I am only 5'3" and needed to clear the debris in the gutter. Rather than climb a ladder while it's raining, I just used a standard garden hoe and gently ran it along the inside of the gutter. With my height plus the length of the garden hoe handle, I was able to stand on the ground without the worry of falling off a ladder. Plus, if something fell, I can get quickly out of the way. Just prepare for the water to gush out from the cleared water downspout. My particular culprit - a mudball. I suspect my sons had thrown it there from my garden.    

Lee's Bees

We will soon be adding a Carniolan beehive to Rlittlefarm. It's a bit scary and exciting to purposely bring a bunch of stinging insects to our property. It seems like a natural transition in the amount of plants I grow each season and it makes sense to have a little help in the pollination of all those flowers. I have been prepping the boys in the role honeybees play in the garden. 1 out of every 3 bites of food is created by honeybees pollinating a flower. I hope to have quite the lush garden once they arrive. Naturally I am afraid that they will swarm away or bother my neighbors and visitors, but I have been noticing so many bees lately anyway, without the boys being bothered, that I think they will be fine. Besides, when I really look around my neighborhood, no one is really outside besides us.

We have some piecemeal bee suits for the boys and ourselves - mostly from thrift store finds and items off Ebay. A few items were from China and the Ukraine. I was a bit skeptical that they would arrive but they turned out to be pretty good finds compared to beekeeping suppliers in the US. I hope they last and perform as they are supposed to.

Jason showing off some of the Ebay items

I found the veil and gloves off Ebay and the pants from a thrift store

Poopy and Stud Muffin

This is Poopy, our younger female doe. Poopy was not my choice in names. I would've preferred Honey Bunny but the kids named her.

This is Stud Muffin, our resident rabbit love-maker. He is quite the escape artist. One time, he escaped and my Mother-In-law called us to let us know (we were at a dinner party). When we got home, it was dark. She said Stud Muffin had been very good and just sitting in the corner. She pointed us towards a white shape by the recycling cans. All three of us slowly crept up on it, and just when we were about to get to him, we discovered it was a volleyball! Ha! Stud Muffin was cruising around in the bushes instead.