Digging in Dirt

One of my goals is to plant more fruit trees for fresh produce.  Honey flow is another important consideration - my bees need to eat!  Getting the honey flow started in the springtime requires flowering  trees.  The first trees in our area to flower are the oaks around the end of January, early February and then the elms, maples and finally the dogwood and fruit trees.  I need flowering trees for the bees to last throughout the springtime and early summer until there are sufficient grasses and other plants to provide nectar.  Finally blocking the ugly metal building that my neighbor put in their side yard that faces my bee yard is another reason for my new pear trees.  I'm digging in dirt this weekend.  Care to join me?

Langstroth Hive has Arrived

The Langstroth hive that I ordered from Long Lane Honey Bee Farms because it was a complete beginner's hive, fully assembled with two large supers (for the hive), one small super (for me), 30 frames ready to hang with wax inset and painted with a top has arrived here at 2-Dog Farm.  All for a little over $200.  I have scrubbed my top bar hive with bleach, killed a few overwintering japanese beetles in it and have it ready to go as well.  I will move both the Langstroth hive and the top bar hive into a permanent bee yard and set up a solar water fountain for them close by.

Yesterday I was up on top of our roof cleaning gutters.  We have sprung a leak in our kitchen ceiling.  This is the same place that the roof debris from winter storms gathers and sits.  Our gutters were completely clogged with leaves and sticks.  I am not a great heights person:  I have a fear of falling but it was a warm sunny day and you could see the creek below the bluff and it was such a gorgeous view.

Still waiting to get out to plant vegetables.  My clover is doing great.  Hope the nitrogen it adds to the soil really makes the garden take off once planted.

Beekeeping Symposium

Auburn University and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System hosted about 420 beekeepers from across the state on Saturday, 2/4/12.  In my opinion, it was wildly successful.  They had three tracks in each of the break-out sessions geared to the beginning beekeeper, to the backyard hobbyist and the more commercial beekeeper.  Vendors from several companies brought plenty of material for sale and the food was great.  I learned much and appreciated, in particular, Dr. Tew's dynamic opening session.  Beekeeping Symposium.

Auburn University is about 4 hours away from our home and the drive down through heavy, torrential rain and then again on the way home was made slightly better by the warm and sunny weather that greeted us in Auburn.  75 degrees and sunny is hard to beat.  Mike did antique hunting while I attended the beekeeping classes and then met me for lunch in Auburn's AgBusiness arena.   There was a live beehive demo during lunch that was great.  Beekeepers are friendly folks and love to mentor newbees like myself.

One of the county extension apiary agents will be in contact with me before I make the decision to burn my hive due to American foulbrood.  They were doubtful that this disease would manifest itself in a first year hive.  Only 2% of all hives contact foulbrood.  So I hope the apiary agent helps me rule out foulbrood so I can reuse my hive.

After all the Auburn sessions, I am ready to invest in more hives and bees.  My package bees from Draper's arrive the week of April 23rd.  I want to order two more top bar hives and at least one Langstroth_hive, which is geared more toward commercial beekeepers.  Commercial beekeeper is my description for any beekeeper who wants more honey than they can use themselves and they want to make a profit in producing it.

Mike and I stayed one night at the very well run The Hotel at Auburn University. I highly recommend it to any other travelers to Auburn University.  We managed to do a little sight-seeing; we found the Toomer's Corner trees that the man poisoned, Toomer's Corner Oak Trees in the news, and the famed Jordan-O'Hare football stadium and last but not least, Tiger Rags, where you can find unique Auburn Tiger T-shirts not found anywhere else.

All in all, excluding the heavy rain downpours, it was a great weekend!  I am armed with knowledge and ready to establish a new bee yard!

Auburn University Beekeeping Symposium

My dearest hubby and I are motoring down to Auburn University to attend a day long symposium for beekeepers.  I can't wait to hear about the honey bee's evolving role in the green movement, to get more information about Alabama's new master beekeeper program, to understand the role of bee colonies and have a sustainable backyard (bluff for me) where bees play a vital role.  Plus I get to pick the brains of some of the state's best entomologists and plant pathologists.  Can't wait.

In the meantime, I've placed my spring order for new bees and their queen.  Instead of an Italian honeybee queen, I've ordered an American hybrid called All American Queen.  I've also broken a "rule" of the local beekeeping society by ordering my bees out of state:  Draper's Bees.  We'll see.  The last ones failed to clean their hives soon enough to eliminate the cells infected with foulbrood. I'm hoping this hybrid will do a better job.  From the Draper web site, here is their description of their All American Queens:  Gentle, do not boil out of the hive when it is opened, low swarming tendency, quick build up of the hive, adapted to all weather conditions, keep a very clean, neat and orderly hive.

Fall is in the Air

Everytime I work outside, I work with my Dad.  Images of him bending over his tractor and banging it when he got frustrated with it or cleaning his tools in an oil-soaked bucket of sand or just standing and looking out across his garden to the mountain in front of the house.  His eyes a brilliant surprising blue against a sun darkened face.  I loved my Dad so much and I miss him but I thank God for ending his life at the home he built with his own hands with his son and wife beside him when he breathed his last.  He was a good, good father and a good man.  He loved and was loved.  He gave me so much love of the land and nature.  God's Blessings to Art Oden this Sunday morning.  Love you Pop!


Getting over an ugly virus this weekend so I am staying inside and inactive as much as possible.  But I have my office window open and the breeze is blowing cool air into the house and I hear leaves falling and rustling.  Ah, Fall is in the air!


So, here is my Fall To-Do list:


Clean up the electric push mower and store it in the shed.  
  Make sure it is fully juiced for storing and then check each month until spring.
Clean out and organize the shed so something as large as the electric push mower can be stored in it.
  Make sure there are shelves and hangers aplenty.
Crack last year's black walnuts and hazelnuts to make a holiday nut torte (yum)
  and to provide space for this year's harvest of nuts
Move my farming equipment (including my beekeeping equipment) to my shed from wherever else it is on the property!
Put finished compost into garden
Plant clover for a nitrogen fix into garden soil
Mulch the fig bushes, blackberries and blueberries.  Apply some of the finished compost around these plants. 
Plant some ornamental dogwoods and fruit trees along our property line.  I want some pear trees for pear preserves in a few years.
Clip the chicken's wings.
Cull Prissy the white orphington and Pick the broody speckled sussex hen that is no longer laying from the flock.  We'll be down to two chickens for the winter but we'll have lots of good tasting chicken & dumplings.
Order next year's flock.
Start the mushroom logs
Find the copperhead snake that has taken up home around my shed and eliminate him. 
       Thought long and hard about this one as I hate to kill snakes but a copperhead is bitey critter - no warning, all bite.  It has to go before it gets me or one of my loved ones.
Get the big lawn tractor ready for winter storage.
Winterize the chicken coop for Peck and Penny and the new batch of pullets.
Start the bees on syrup for winter food.  Once started, I'll have to keep it up all winter.
Look for parasites in the beehive and treat.
Sharpen my garden tools
Clean up my flower gardens.
Open up the bluff from the rotten tree debris and put some sitting benches along the scenic overlook.
Find out the cost for livestock fencing around one acre (through the woods, down hill and uphill)
Reconsider building a "true" chicken house - I have the plans - just need to do it.


All these tasks will take me well into Winter.  I'll be lucky to have 1/2 of them done before fall is over.


My summer garden harvest was great.  Good year for cukes and cherry tomatos.  The heritage tomatoes I tried bombed.  I had lettuce almost all summer and it did not get bitter.  Next year we'll have a even better garden.

Getting started with beekeeping

The most frequent question I'm asked is why would a woman want a hobby like beekeeping?  First, let's take the sex-ism out of beekeeping.  Women, men, teenagers and children can all enjoy a hobby as fascinating as beekeeping.  Second I don't consider it so much a hobby as an effort to become self-sufficient and know my food intimately.  After last summer's fiasco of chicken house sickness, I was totally ready to get back to what I know from my childhood -  I know how to raise my own food and process it.  Sure you make mistakes but you have many resources locally and via the internet.  Here are just a few:

United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, has a free printable 50 page backyard beekeeping publication at http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0135/.

John Maynard who is the bee inspector for the State of Alabama will answer questions.  As a note, every Alabama beekeeper, even if only one hive is started and is for personal use, must register their hive with the State of Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries.  It costs very little ($10) and your apiary receives a certificate of registration good for one year.  You are encouraged to brand your hives and register your brand with the state as well.   If your hives or equipment are stolen, your mark identifies it as belonging to you and it can possibly be located again.  Let's face it, beekeeping equipment can be expensive and the hives have value.

Your "hobby" is closely monitored due to disease.  Alabama is one of the few states not reporting colony collapse.  Most states that allow cross border migratory transport of hives to California are experiencing this problem  Alabama does not allow colonies to go to California to help pollinate the almond growers trees.  It could be caused by the stressed state of the returning bees or by something being passed to the bees.  Hard to say right now the exact cause of colony collapse but I'm very glad Alabama is a closed border state.

A wonderful resource for the beginning beekeeper is their local beekeeping club who provides great mentoring and knowledge sharing.  In Alabama, check out http://www.alabamabeekeepers.com to find a club near you and join it.  At this site are numerous copies of their newsletter, Stinger, that provides a wealth of information.  I spent about a year researching different sites and finally taking a couple of beginning beekeeper classes offered by our local beekeeping association.

Finally most of the beekeeping companies market their wares in great catalogs.  You can go online to http://www.dadant.com or to http://www.gabees.com or to http://mannlake.com to find solid information about the ins and outs of beekeeping.

The second most common question I'm asked is why did I select a top bar hive or kenyan hive.  I am a small woman.  My husband is allergic to everything outside (bees, ants, etc.)  So I am a single operation beekeeper.

A commercial hive, the hive that most people think of as a hive, weighs anywhere from 100 pounds full of honey in a large hive to 75 pounds in a medium sized hive to 55 pounds for a small hive.  Plus you must constantly monitor and move the top down or up depending on the location of the hive and the queen.  My back just won't take it.  The kenyan hive is at my waist and you can work with the hive without moving square foundations up and down back and forth.

There are drawbacks to the kenyan hive, also known as the top bar hive.  First the honey is only comb honey.  You cannot borrow the club extractor (assuming you did join that beekeeping club or association) as the extractor works with frames.  A top bar hive does not have frames, only a bar across the top where you will extract the honey by cutting the comb and then squeezing the comb for the honey. This is the old fashioned way of getting honey.  You also will not get as much honey from the top bar hive.  So one has to decide which is most important - what is your reason for beekeeping?  For me, it is a backyard, grow it myself movement.

The final question I'm asked is "Is it expensive?"  The answer is maybe.  Like anything you do, it can be done inexpensively or expensively.  Your choice.  The full bee suit, gloves and veil will run about $90, the smoker another $45 (tobacco burnt in the smoker will kill mites that are parasitic to bees), woodware (the hive) can run $285 and up.  You must purchase a hive tool, which costs a few more bucks.  It is always suggested to have two hives.  Bees and the queen may be purchased or collected from the wild.

Our club keeps a swarm list for anyone who wants to collect the bees for free.  The problem with this method is not knowing the nature of the queen.  If you buy a certain type of bee, it should have a certain personality.  For example, I have Italian bees and queen for their less aggressive nature.

I did not buy the full bee suit but did feel that the veil and gloves would be good.  My hive ran about $300 but is guaranteed to not rot for years and years.  I also bought my colony and queen for about $100.  All told I have spent  about $450 on the bees, including my club membership dues and the state registration of my hive. Did I do this because I wanted something cheap for sugar? No, I did this because I wanted to know where my food is grown.  Could you do it cheaper?  Absolutely!

Bee-tastic!

Started my first hive this year - a cypress kenyan hive or top bar hive.  Ordered the Italian bees and queens from Rossman Apiaries in Georgia.  These are smaller and supposedly gentler bees - less aggressive.  I was very worried that I had killed the queen when I uncrated the hive but had to wait three weeks to find out if the hive was alive and well.  So on one of the hottest days this year I suited up in my beekeeping outfit ( a raincoat, heavy corduroy pants, long sleeve white t-shirt) and my elbow length gloves and baseball cap with beekeeper veil and took my hive tool and smoker and went to find out if the hive lived or not.  The result photos provided by family friend, Nikki, are below and I am happy to report a healthy hive with honey and babies and wax being produced on multiple bars.  They did it!

Bees are less aggressive toward a beekeeper in light colors.
Note the pants tucked into my heavy duty work boots.

Smoke is from cotton seed lint, bellow the smoke a bit away from the opening so as to not burn the bees.

Because I am a busy-bee-body, I purchased the top bar hive with the window so I could keep an eye on them without disrupting them.  Looking for problems with mites, no honeycomb, no bees - just to name a few problems. The bottom of the hive can be opened in the summer to increase ventilation and has a small wire covering that protects it from other varmits coming into the hive.

I love it.  Honey, honeycomb and bees.  The hive was empty when I uncrated the bees into it.  The only thing I did was take some bee balm mint and rub it on the top bars.

I moved the divider bar back to give them more room and inserted more top bars for them to begin honeycomb production.  Everything looks as it should.  By end of July or early August I should be able to take make a light harvest from this first year of capped honeycomb and leave the rest for them to winter-over.  Next year I should be able to make multiple harvests and I am considering a second hive and new queens.

This is one happy hive and beekeeper!

Welcome to the Northern Alabama Homestead!

Pickled eggs made with 12 of the smallest hen's eggs, hardboiled, shelled and then packed into a wide mouth mason jar with pickling spices and 5% acidic vinegar.  Goes into the refrigerator for 2 weeks.  Then we will use in place of dill pickles for eating out of hand, on sandwiches, and in salads.

 A white orphington hen lays the largest eggs on our homestead.  These eggs are very thin shelled and prone to breakage before collection in the morning.  Wish she laid a slightly smaller egg; I worry about her getting egg bound when I'm away from the homestead.  Her name is Prissy.

Peck, Pick and Penny

Prissy

 The smallest eggs are laid by speckled white sussex.  Their names are Peck, Pick and Penny.  They each lay a unique but consistent size.

The hens live within a electric fence enclosure with a top bar hive full of Italian honeybees.  The fence and their chicken coop is moved every few months but rotate around the hive.  The hive remains in place.  Bees and chickens are compatible.  The chickens eat the mites that are parasites to the bees.

   Our garden is producing a fine batch of leaf lettuce suited to the hot/cool spikes in our spring time.  I will sow a row of black seeded simpson next weekend that will stand up to our hot June and July days.

My hot weather crops, peppers, basil and tomatoes are planted.  The garden is mulched and ready to grow.

 Squash in a container surrounded by rosemary and lavendar.

 I found some $1 containers of azaleas on deep discount at Wal Mart - obviously intended for Mother's Day. I purchased all they had and then planted them along our property line.  Should be gorgeous next year with their flowers.

 

My nemesis alive and well in the North Alabama heat

North Alabama has seen severe weather this year.  Evidence of the last storm remains over our house.