A Year in the Learning of a Beekeeper

Learning a new skill helps keep life from getting stale.  Since we bought our little piece of paradise in the middle of suburbia, it has been our goal to learn everything we can to create our own suburban farm oasis.  We love to see how much we can produce on our average sized lot while still being in close proximity to work, shopping and community life.  Between the two of us however, we really have no first hand knowledge of farming - suburban, urban or rural for that matter.  The obvious first step after purchasing our house was to plant a garden and learn everything there is to know about gardening.  The following year we deer-proofed the garden and added chickens, while learning everything there is to know about chickens.  Bees were the logical next step, and are actually more practical than chickens on a suburban lot.  Once you make the initial investment, which even with buying almost all of our equipment second hand was still pretty costly, the bees pretty much take care of themselves.  Here is my best attempt at showcasing my first year as a beekeeper.

I spent the winter before we "adopted" 20,000 bees with my nose buried in any and every bee book I could get my hands on.  I talked with as many seasoned beekeepers that I could find, and Will spent time combing Craigslist for used bee equipment.  We also utilized Craigslist to sell our own items like extra furniture, toys and books to help fund our new bee hobby.  By mid-February I was knowledgeable enough to place an order for the variety and amount of bees I needed and Will was finishing up refurbishing the used bee boxes that he had scrounged up as well as building tops and bottoms to our hives.

Ironically, I was more anxious about lighting the fire inside the smoker used when handling the bees than handling the bees themselves.  Once the weather warmed up enough in late March and early April, I could be found lighting pine needles on fire with matches.  Apparently white pine needles fueled with punk wood (slightly damp, small pieces of wood found on forest floors) and newspaper make the perfect smoke combination that isn't so thick that you can't see the bees but also smokes long enough to complete your tasks without having to relight your smoker.  After feeling fairly confident with lighting the smoker it was time to pick up our bees.  In the above picture, Lucy is standing next to two, three pound packages of bees that we purchased from a farm about an hour from our house.  Things got very real as we loaded up 20,000 buzzing bees for an hour ride home.  The buzzing was louder than I had anticipated and definitely sent my previously confident self into a tailspin of doubt.  The beekeeper we purchased the bees from assured us that if in the unlikely event the bees escaped, they would immediately cling to the windows instead of attacking my family of four strapped into the car.  Either way, it was a relief when we arrived back home with the bees still tucked safely in their cages.

When we got home the girls helped me prepare the hives with a spray solution of sugar and water, as well as a mason jar feeder with more sugar water to supplement the bees until the first flowers started blooming.

Then it was time to install the bees.  I was surprised by how the bees didn't fly around once their cage was opened, but instead crawled all over me, the cage and the hive.  I couldn't move myself or any of my equipment without crushing multiple bees at once.  The first package I installed was quite a challenge and I'm afraid to say many a bee did not make it into the hive.  For the second package of bees I made sure to shake the container really hard, directly into the hive to knock all of those crawling bees into the right spot, instead of assuming they would just fly into their new home.  As you can see below, Emma was not happy with being gated off from me and all of the fun.  Sadly, it took one bee sting later in the summer for her to get over her hurt feelings of not being able to be by my side while beekeeping.

After a couple of days I refilled each hive's jar of sugar water and checked to see if the queen had eaten the sugar plug out of the special little cage she was in.  Apparently her loyal subjects, the worker bees, need to get accustomed to her scent before they are willing to work for her so you have to keep the queen caged in the hive until the workers have accepted her as their queen and the danger of them eating the queen instead has passed.  All seemed good, but the sugar plug was still in place.  It was then up to me to get the tiny sugar plug out and release the queen into her new home.  This was a bit nerve wracking, because if I didn't do things just right, the queen could fly away never to be seen again and I'd have to order a new one, losing valuable time and inviting possible anarchy within the colony without a bee leader to give them focus.  Fortunately, all went off without a hitch and I got both queens safely installed into their new homes.

Over the next couple of weeks I continued to check on the hives and eventually was confident that the queens were laying eggs and the worker bees were finding enough nectar that they no longer needed the supplemental sugar water.

I found it fascinating to see the progress these hard working bees had made each time I went into their hives.  With my smoker going, I talked to the bees in a calm voice so that they would get used to me working in their home.  They never seemed angry and just ignored me and continued about their business.  I was very surprised how calm they were.  

By the first week of July it was time for me to start adding hive boxes above the growing colonies.  The trick is to make their hive seem roomy enough that they view it as a long term home, but not too roomy that they feel insecure.  I'm sure I will get better at this skill as time goes on.

Towards the end of July, I received this frantic text from Will when I was out to lunch with a friend.  Will was texting me on both sides of the below conversation - from his phone and from our iPad.  He even called the restaurant I was at, as I didn't hear my phone ring.

I wish I would have been there when it happened, but according to Will and the girls, it was like a scene from a cartoon as a loud, humming black funnel cloud twisted up and out of the hive and gathered into a soccer ball sized swarm as they ever so slowly worked their way to the top of a tree in our front yard.  Apparently I had not added hive boxes on to one of the hives fast enough and they had decided to split for more roomy digs.  Typically when this happens, the original queen leaves with about half of the colony.  The remaining half of the colony stays in the original home with a new queen that the old queen had laid several weeks before.  I learned many valuable lessons with this transgression which helped ease the pain of losing half of my hive.  When I got home, we tried placing the old queen cages in empty hive boxes around the yard to try and entice the swarm to pick their new home with us.  The scent from the queen cages is supposed to help them feel at home, but unfortunately, after spending the night in our tree, they left the next morning to locations unknown to us.  From this, I learned to watch for new queens being laid.  They are fairly easy to spot, as their cell is much bigger than worker bee cells.  I successfully spotted this happening in the other hive and even was able to split the hive myself and create a third hive.

At this point in the summer, I still hadn't been stung.  Unless we stood within a five foot radius of the hive boxes, we couldn't tell that we had over 20,000 bees living on our property.  I did see increased numbers of bees pollinating our garden and drinking from our chickens' water, however our day to day life was not affected.  I knew my luck wouldn't last forever though, and that bee stings were a normal and expected part of the job description of bee keeper. I had my first near sting encounter as I was working in the hive and felt something slowly crawling up my leg inside my bee suit.  There was nothing I could do but brace myself for the inevitable sting as I couldn't leave my bee hives wide open while I unzipped myself from my bee suit.  After my tasks were finished, I slowly took my bee suit off and found the below bee crawling around inside my suit.  It never stung me!  Whew!  That was definitely a close call for both of us, as when honey bees sting, they die.

By the end of summer it was time to figure out how to harvest the honey.  Earlier that summer I had read in the local paper that the nature center by our house was given a honey extractor by the Women's Garden Club.  I called up the nature center and asked if they would be willing to let me borrow it.  They told me sure - it was still in the box and they had no idea what to do with it.  This saved me several hundred dollars.  The girls and I went over there to pick it up, while assuring them (more for my conscious than theirs) that we would return it as good as new.  They didn't seem worried and kept saying that they were just glad it was getting used.

To keep honey raw, and thus maintain all of the beneficial enzymes in the liquid gold, it is best to harvest the honey on as hot a day as possible in the fall so that it flows smoothly and efficiently without having to heat it up.  September 11th dawned hot and sunny and after looking at the extended weather forecast, I decided it was now or never.  There were several complications to this timing, including it being a weekday with no one to watch the girls as well as me being in the throes of morning sickness (more like all day and night sickness) with the first trimester of my pregnancy with Violet.  The girls were so good while I worked in the hives and Lucy even took it upon herself to video me and take pictures of the event through the open dining room window where her and Emma were instructed to stay so that I could hear them if they needed anything.  It was hotter than anything I've ever experienced in that bee suit, and the boxes with full frames of honey were nearly impossible for me to lift.  I estimate that each box weighed about eighty pounds.  The below pictures were taken by Lucy.  The one on the right was what I looked like once I took the bee suit off.

Besides saying constant prayers that the girls would be okay while I was tied up in the hives and asking God to keep me from throwing up inside my completely enclosed bee suit, I also had the added anxiety of feeling several bees crawling around inside my suit.  My bees that were so docile all summer were not happy with me taking their hard earned honey.  They were so angry that they even stung a passing neighbor as well as me, three times.  I made it through the process however, and was very proud of myself and my daughters.  Little did I know the baby about the size of a honey bee growing inside of me was also a daughter!  I can proudly say that all three of my daughters were very supportive of their mama that day.  I safely stored the full honey frames in a covered box until the following weekend when Will could help me with the extraction process.

The extraction process went very smoothly, and it was amazing for us to see the golden honey dripping from the frames.  We harvested a total of 22 pounds which barely filled half of a five gallon bucket.  It was just enough honey to pass out tiny honey bear jars to our friends and family and supply us with enough honey to get through the year.

The bees continued to work diligently into the fall.  One evening in October I found the below bee with full pollen baskets on her legs, resting on the screen on Emma's bedroom window.  I was so focused on not dropping my phone while taking a picture out of a second story window that I failed to notice Will photo bombing the picture!

By December the bees were in full hibernation mode.  Bees are very clean insects, and will not go to the bathroom or allow dead bees to foul up their hive.  On days above freezing, they will take turns using the bathroom outside the hive as well as dragging dead bees out and dropping them in the snow.  Below you can see the dead bees piling up on the hive's front porch and yard.  As sad as it is to see piles of dead bees, it was a good sign to me that the hive was still healthy and strong.

 As the winter progressed, we received so much snow that the hives were completely buried.  We dug them out several times, but at this point, saw no life coming from the hives.  At the beginning of March I ordered three, three pound packages of bees to replace my colonies with and got Will to clean out all of the dead bees from the hives so that as the weather warms up their decomposing wouldn't taint the remaining honey.  It was pretty disturbing to see the piles and piles of dead bees and to know just how hard they had worked to stay alive through one of the roughest winters our area has ever seen.

Our cat decided he liked the flavor of dead bees, and we decided that the deceased bees deserved some respect so we scooped them up and laid them to rest on our compost pile, where they will continue to benefit the entire life cycle of our suburban farm.  We are thankful for all that the bees did for us this past year, from pollinating our garden to teaching us about the intricacies of nature and providing us with delicious golden honey.  I am about to come full circle with my bees, as the new colonies are set to arrive on Violet's due date.  The timing should be very interesting, and so I am also grateful to a husband who is willing to step in as assistant beekeeper and handle the bees if I am otherwise occupied giving birth!  I am excited to see what my second year of bee keeping brings!

Emma's Last Month Being Two!

Emma has embarked on her last month as a two year old!  In my mind, she is already three and so I am not too sentimental about my baby turning a year older.  Maybe Violet's impending birth is helping me accept my middle daughter's age progression, or maybe Emma is just already acting like a three year old and the calendar is finally catching up.  I am more emotional about the fact that she will no longer be the baby in the house, and that is causing me to tear up far more than her age.  How will Emma fare with the transition and how will I?  She is definitely still a mama's girl but also has a really big heart when it comes to her baby sister.  Violet's arrival shall be interesting to say the least and for now I am just trying to enjoy every moment I have left of Emma as the baby of the family.

In anticipation of our new baby, we are still diligently working on Emma's sleep habits.  After seven nights (not in a row) of sleeping in her own bed through the night, we took her out for ice cream.  She was super proud of her achievement and has since received two more prizes of Barbie outfits.

Emma wants curly hair like Lucy, and has lately enjoyed wearing the curlers from their pretend beauty shop around the house all day.  Sadly, she has hair like me, and the curls last about ten minutes once the rollers are taken out.  She also loves to wear "decorations" which include multiple hair accessories at one time, tutus, bracelets, rings and necklaces.  She truly believes that variety is the spice of life and our current battle with her is trying to convince her that she can't wear two different pairs of shoes at the same time - for example a boot on one foot and a tennis shoe on the other.  I'd let her find out the hard way, but that didn't work the last time we tried that approach when she ran around barefoot in the snow.

We continue to put her energy to good use and she is now a pro at vacuuming after meals.  In the bottom left picture she was wearing a skirt that was a little too big and it fell down while she was vacuuming.

 She loves helping in the kitchen too and the sampling of ingredients that comes with cooking.

She has been doing a great job at the All By Myself Story Time.  The other day on the way home from the library, I asked Emma if she did a good job listening to the teacher.  She told me, "Yup, I listened a little, picked my nose a little, and listened some more."  Here she is below doing a good job on the listening part at story time.

Our little girl has definitely embraced the trials and tribulations of being three already.  We are working on her getting ready in the morning on her own as well as making her bed, and listening to directions the FIRST time they are told to her.  For some reason she currently translates any type of direction into crazy running back and forth while gleefully screaming.  She operates best when given choices and will flat out rebel if she is told to do something without options.  She requires adequate warning to make a smooth transition and rarely takes naps, much to my dismay.  She is full of energy and loves to harass her sister.  She drives us crazy and melts our hearts sometimes within the same five minutes.  As the sun rises on her third year of life, we are looking forward to watching her little personality continue to develop and hoping that the kisses, hugs and cuddles that she is famous for will never be outgrown.  We love our almost three year old!

The Long and Short of February

February is the kind of month that seems difficult to get through for most people living in colder climates.  Christmas is now a distant memory, but the cold and snow is still doing it's thing with Spring no where to be seen.  Is it a coincidence that Luke's birthday is during what is in my opinion, the most difficult month of the year already?  Maybe February wouldn't be so bad if Luke was alive and his birthday only had happy celebrations associated with it.  I will say that I am ever so glad that February happens to have the least amount of days in it, and I am breathing a sigh of relief that it is over.

Don't get me wrong, we were still able to live life to the fullest this past February, despite the shadow of depression I felt as I remembered Luke.  The kids and I were sick at the beginning of the month with high fevers, coughs and runny noses so the month started much as the last month had ended.  Fortunately we kicked whatever germ had taken up residence in our house to the curb without needing antibiotics.  It did call for Will taking a half day to care for me when I got sick, lots of juice boxes, soup, naps, blankets and television though.  The bottom right picture is of the girls zoned out in front of the TV.

We were healthy by Valentine's Day and had fun making Valentine's Day cookies and cards for each other.  Will was on Winter Break for Valentine's Day too, so that helped make the day extra special.

The rest of the month continued to improve with weather and health.  We were able to see both sides of the family as well as my cousin and her daughter.  Below are Grandma and Grandpa T., cousin Ellen, and cousin Holly.  It sure was nice to finally be able to be social again!

The girls were healthy enough to attend dance class and I enjoyed being in the room for a Parent Observation Class.  I loved watching their confidence and their happiness as they danced their little hearts out.

We also made it to a program at one of our local nature centers.  The class consisted of my two girls and one other sweet boy, ironically named Luke, which made for a really nice, intimate group.  We had a wonderful time and even walked the trail at the nature center, much to my amazement as I ended up having to carry Emma most of the way since the snow came up to her armpits.  Fortunately we managed to stay upright, Lucy managed very well on her own in snow up to her waist, and I didn't go into labor from the sheer exertion of it all!

Our next Kiwi Crate arrived in the mail in time for passing the time on another snow day.  We managed to spread the projects out over a couple of snow bound days and made mini story theaters and puppets. I continue to be impressed with this subscription craft kit, and am listing it as one of the best gifts ever.

Other snow day pastimes included lots of hot chocolate, playing on the iPad, and even riding the horse at Meijer with pennies the girls had found on the floor earlier on our shopping trip.

We of course frequented our library at least once a week for more Science Story Time, the last of the kids yoga classes as well as brought home stacks and stacks of books.

Included in the stacks of books was a series of basic drawing books.  Lucy's favorite so far has been a step by step book on drawing princesses.  Will and I have both taken turns at drawing our own princesses alongside Lucy.  In the beginning, Lucy was overwhelmed and frustrated and wanted me to practically draw them for her.  She now is able to draw them almost completely on her own, following the step by step directions and it is amazing for Will and I to see the progress that she has made.  Below is an Ice Skating Princess, drawn during the Winter Olympics.

We have played outside on the better weather days and if you can believe it, the ice even melted enough on one or two days for me to venture out.  The snow banks along our driveway are almost taller than the girls.  In the below right picture, Will buried Lucy in snow much like you would bury someone in sand at the beach.  The top right picture is of Lucy holding a giant icicle.

The girls and Will have built an elaborate snow fort with tunnels and multiple different rooms.  It is hard to capture on my camera just how sprawling this snow fort really is.  Every time they play outside, the fort gets another addition.  The top right picture was taken from inside the house, looking down from a second story window.

Charlie loves playing in the tunnels of the snow fort and pouncing down on the girls to surprise them.  He also loves it when we throw a snow ball at him, at which point he tackles it until it is a puff of snow.  In the bottom left picture he is giving a snow ball the last rites.  Charlie has had many visits inside on the back steps of our house on the coldest days and is usually content to be cuddled for about five minutes, at which point someone gets scratched and he tries escaping into the house.

Will is slightly concerned that Charlie has as many pictures as our kids this past month.  Because of that I had to work really hard at narrowing down all of my Charlie pictures.  It's official - I am an allergy and a husband away from being a full-fledged cat lady.  In the below left picture he is in one of his favorite spots in the garage - a wheelbarrow filled with blankets in our trailer.  This is where he usually greets us when we come home and pull our car in the garage.  As you can see from the right hand picture below, he still has the kitten look.

 Hopefully our kitty doesn't get into too much trouble as he continues to get bigger.  We caught him the other day perched on the gate of the chicken coop, slowly wagging his tail back and forth like a jungle cat watching his next meal.  He also has been very curious about the bee hives.  At this point in the winter my bees are all dead, so it should be interesting to see what happens this spring when I get my next order of bees installed.  Hopefully he is just one peck and a sting away from learning to keep his distance from Will's and my hobbies!  That and he needs to quit pooping in the garden!

Speaking of our garden, it is currently under several feet of snow.  We have finished off the last of the berries that I froze from summer and this past week I roasted the last of the butternut squash.  We still have several bags of frozen zucchini, green beans, carrots and tomatoes but the freezer is definitely getting too roomy for my liking.

It is time for spring and I can't remember ever wishing for winter to end so badly.  Let's hope by next months blog post recapping March, the snow will be melting and the sun will be shining!