I'm covered in Bees!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-tl6GBOBo

For those Eddie Izzard fans.. =)

Well the beekeeping is fantastic!! I'm not really covered in bees, they just kind of fly around and some of them land on me and crawl around before they realize that I'm not interesting.

The two packaged bee colonies are going strong. I'll get to check on the comb this weekend. Yahoo! I had two minor swarms that I picked up from different people and I think they merged to form a slightly stronger colony. I'll see what type I end up with; one was an italian and the other looked like russians. I just picked up another swarm today that looked like some more italians but this swarm was big! The two packages were 3lbs of bees were pretty big, but this colony was even bigger, more like a basketball size. They were fabulous! They rolled right into their new box and started fixing it up. It was nice to see them working so hard. I'll have to keep an eye on them because I could totally see them needing another deep sometime soon. Any subsequent boxes I was going to see about having tbh slats rather than the beeswax frames. They look too flimsy and I like the bees being able to decide what they would like to do.

We have a pretty strong wind today, but the little fence that I made for my bees has made it pretty calm in that area. The wind gets in, but they were able to not be thrashed around.

After I check on them this weekend I probably won't bother them again until another 2 weeks out. =) I'll keep you all posted.

Oh, and I'm getting a swarm for a local nursery store owner that is super nice. I'm going to have to start finding other people who want to keep bees so that I can give them some of the swarms.

Rosie Math

OK I feel I need to explain a little about what I like to call "Rosie Math". Now Rosie math seems to apply to mostly animals, or at least so far it applies to animals only.

Rosie Math

It started with chickens, Rosie and I had talk about getting a few chickens. We felt that 4 or 5 chickens would keep us in eggs and perhaps the occasional fryer. We now have 36 chickens.

Rosie Math

We talked about getting a goat for milk and to keep down the weeds. A single goat. We now have 4 goats.

Rosie Math

We talked about getting a duck or two, they would keep the snails down and we both really like duck meat. We now have 7 ducks.

Rosie Math

We talked about getting a pig raising it for meat and eating it. We ended up with 2 pigs of evil and I am sure that had they not been the Pigs of Evil we would have ended up with 4-8 pigs.

Rosie Math

Rosie wanted a bee hive. Rosie can not have processed sugar and so we use honey as the sweetener in our home, a bee hive should keep us in honey and mead. We now have 5 bee hives and more on the way.

Yup you guessed it Rosie Math.

We have been thinking about a cow and maybe a sheep or two. I figure If I suggest we have a steak for dinner Rosie math will turn that into a single small cow. I think I might suggest we have a single sheep hoof (hoofie, for you spacemaster folk) in the yard and thus end up with a smallish flock.

I shutter to think what would have happened if I had ever suggested that we get "a lot" of some animal.

I love her a lot, but damn that girl can't count.........

Bees are in

Thanks to the help of Joe, Guy, and Sharon I was able to get the last three posts into the ground around the bees. As I was a dork last night and had to separate the two bee boxes, I was unable to put them into their hives because I had shaken them up too much. So I prepped everything and waiting until today.

I put the first colony in this morning. It was a nice overcast morning so I went outside at 6am and started to prep everything to put the bees in. I took out their feeder can and got the queen out. I took out the cork and filled the hole up with granulated honey. The dratted queen holder had a broken metal hanger so I had to squeeze two of the frames to make sure that it would stay close to the top of the hive. I then put as many of the bees in as I could and closed up the top. Lessons learned - purchase white turtlenecks because I had a bee crawl under the mesh and was crawling around on my neck and face. It didn't sting me but I would like to make sure that I don't end up with more bees crawling on my face while I work on them. I did get stung in the inner thigh though. So my lesson learned from that is: wear pants that don't have holes near the crotch and probably get some new pants... and also done kneel down and then come up and close your legs, it just grinds the poor bee between your thighs and you end up with a stung thigh. I was surprised at how little the sting hurt. I remember getting stung as a child and thinking it was the end of the world... it was probably because I got stung on my feet and because I wasn't expecting it. It probably hurt less because I knowingly went out to work on bees.

During the day I was able to see some bees get close to the house. It took them a bit, but they were all having fun with their new hive that it was not until near the end of the day before they came over to look around the house.

At night I put in the second colony. This one went a lot smoother but I did have trouble with the tape that held the queen container. It would simply not come off and thus it took me longer to get this queen out. I got her free and I took out the cork. The honey was a little runny, but I hope it worked out well and that the bees don't kill her. I'm pretty sure they will not because as soon as I put most of the been in and I put the frames back they all did their happy butt dance. What I mean by the happy butt dance is they designated this as their new home and they all raise their little butts in the air and start fanning their wings. That signals to all the other bees from their colony to go to that location. I'm assuming that they will not kill the queen as they usually do this when they have designated their new home and they do not have a new home without a queen.

Bee update

My bees came in. =) I was so excited when I saw them last night that I forgot to bring my dinner in... and I kind of forgot to eat it until about 10pm.

I started thinking about the Warre hive yesterday and realized why I would have to set up two Langstroth hives to start off with. When you first get a package the queen shows up in a little compartment because she is not originally from that colony. In order to introduce the queen she has to be able to eat her way out and join the colony after they have gotten used to her scent. With the Warre hive there is no way I can squeeze the queen box between the slats, making it a wiser choice to start them off with a Langstroth. So last night, in between taking care of all of the animals, I went ahead and finished nailing all the frames that I have so that I can put the bees in there tonight. I hope I can put the fence boards in the ground so that I can finish putting up the fence. I would like to train the bees to fly high to get to their food so that they are not at eye level.

I tried out the smoker last night and it was cute. =) It worked and I look forward to having the bees in their home tonight. I also look forward to seeing them in my yard in the next few days. I'll look next week to see if they have started laying eggs and to make sure that they are worker bees she's laying. It's supposed to rain next Tuesday, so I hope she's able to breed before then. I did see some drones hanging around the back yard not too long ago, so we'll see if they are still around to help mate with the queen. Too bad I won't be able to find their little broken bodies after their sexual organs are broken off... Call me morbid, but I find that to be hilarious.

Goats + Trees = Unhappy Rosie

Sooo, it's been raining and Jed didn't want to put the goats on the leashes because then they would not be able to get out of the rain. Solution: Keep the goats indoors with food until it stops raining. They were out yesterday because it was raining and the little snots snapped my plum tree(not clean off so I'll try to repair it) and cleared off my peach tree.

Putting wire and posts around my trees is next on my list of things to do so that I can at least have some fruit this summer.. Bummer too because the plum was coming along so well and it was just jam-packed (no pun intended) with fruit.

I put them out on the leash today, I doubt that they'll drown if it does.

I mended the trees tonight when I get home.... bums.

Bees!!

I never got to post about my bee meeting. It was interesting and interactive. Coincidentally, I ended up teaching a mead making class. Archie, the man in charge of the gathering had a mead making kit that he had purchased but never used and was going to see if he could sell it.

I got to try sage and manzanita honey and the sage was smooth, lighter, and less viscous than the manzanita honey, but both were delicious!

Carmen brought a small swarm catching TBH to the meeting and it was really neat to see the simple construction as well as her daughter interacting. She also raises goats and has Oberhasli goats.

There were a lot of people there from all over including some from Los Olivos, Santa Barbara, and Paso. It was very encouraging to see so many people who wished to start beekeeping. In total the ratio was about 3 new people to every experienced person.

And!!! They gave me a ton of really good advise on my frames and beeswax foundation. I got home late last night from my class and was able to work on the frames so that it could be nice and sturdy for the bees.

I should receive my bees today and I'm really totaly uber excited!! I have the Langstroth hive all set with 4 deeps though I might only have two on the hive until they are able to feed themselves. I'm going to put a feeder in the Langstoth and the Warre just to see if that will help them out. I hope they don't build comb around it and that they are able to forage for themselves.

Depending on what I hear back from my local bee keeping group, I might put them in tonight or wait until tomorrow. I still have to finish putting the fence up since they do not have a designated area for themselves yet.

So much to do, so little time, and so much fun. =)

IMPORTANT GARDEN INFO

This was the cause for the failing of many crops all over the US in the last couple of years. If you're gardening with outside compost be aware of what is in it.

I'm passing on this information from Mother Earth News via the blog A Posse Ad Esse:

As the garden season ramps up, we at Mother Earth News want to let you and A Posse Ad Esse readers know that you may want to screen any hay, grass clippings or compost you bring into your gardens, to assure the materials are not contaminated with persistent herbicide residues (most often clopyralid and aminopyralid). As our reports included below indicate, these chemical residues can kill plants or severely stunt their production, costing gardeners money and time.

What do you need to know about contaminated compost?
•Affected plants show signs of curled, cupped leaves, wilting new growth and poor germination in tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce and other garden crops.

•The chemical residues causing the problem can be present in grass clippings, in manure of livestock that has eaten sprayed plant matter or in compost made from contaminated materials. These herbicides do not biodegrade during composting and can persist in your soil for several years.

•Contaminated materials have been found in municipal, organic and conventional bagged compost.

•To prevent contamination, ask questions before buying manure or compost that contains manure. If the seller doesn’t know if it’s safe, don’t buy it, or use this cheap and easy home test to be sure it’s safe.

•Anyone who suspects they have detected contaminated material should notify their local Extension agent and news media, as well as Richard Keigwin at the EPA and the product manufacturer (if purchased).

Goats on a leash

We put the goats on their chains and left for work. Jed made me take extra precautions so that I wouldn't come home to dead goats. Well, I got home and they hadn't died so that worked. They were not too happy though. They were confined to an eating area with a 25' radius. As I have always just let them run around, this is new to them and they did not like it. I put them back out there again, but I rotated the locations so that they could each have a different location than yesterday. On the plus side, I have trees that are not being munched, and I get extra time to reinforce the protection around the trees.

Oh, and I was greeted yesterday by a happy goat that escaped her kiddie box. Apparently, McGee and Little Bugger spent the day playing.

And then... there are some of THOSE days

Yesterday is what you might call a stressful day. I got home to find that Jed's day was very stressful and frustrating. He was working on making legs for our SCA combat but ended up wasting a lot of time and material and only ended up making on set after he decided to actually listen to his own instincts. So when I got home, he was already frustrated. I had a whole list of things that I needed to get to because my bees are almost here and I have school today, making it impossible to do anything at home today. Well, I got home to find that the goats had broken one of the cherry trees and tried to break the apple tree in the back. This was discovered as I was moving materials around to make the coop work for the baby chickens. That did not make for a happy Rosie so I sent and picked up collars and some chain. I was able to get the goats on a chain but Jed brought up other things that I would have to take into consideration if I was to leave the goats tethered. After all this and trying to get things done.. both Jed and I were tired and exhausted and a little bit frustrated. So we did the only natural thing and went out to sushi. We were able to discuss the projects we were working on and what frustrated us and what we could do differently. It was actually kind of a neat conversation over a sushi boat. After dinner we picked up a couple of things needed and went home. By this time it was 10pm and we both needed to get sleep as we both were to have a busy day today. Although yesterday was frustrating, I hope the steps we take to improve our home work out. We'll have to go through our list and see what we can finish off so that we can get to actually working the land. =)

And all this time we couldn't think of a name...

Little Bugger it is. This is the image of the vicious, laptop eating demon goat that is probably related to Calvin, the demon cat.

The tale of two kittehs: Calvin is mortally afraid of little bugger because it is the ugliest looking cat he has ever seen. It dances and hops and skips around and it doesn't cower at his feet... he does not approve. McGee and Little Bugger have a troubling relationship. McGee tries to clean her, which she likes, but when she tries to clean him... well the whole biting with teeth thing doesn't go over well. That and she keeps growing up, as apposed to his growing to the sides....

The death of Lil' Brudder and the future of the Chicks

Yup, that's pretty much about it. I found him on the floor and he was very weak. He had been eating and drinking, but the wounds were probably just too much. He died shortly after.

I think the males in the box are starting to fly up to the top of the box and perch on the edge. I think this is the only way I'm able to differentiate between the males and females.

I found the Dorking that beat up Lil' Brudder. She was trying to rip the feathers off the wing of a smaller blue andalusian pullet. I took her outside and put her in with the grown chickens. She was out there for one day. I found her on the second morning when I went to feed the chickens. I heard the peeping of a still young chicken and followed the sound through the tall grass until I found her. She wasn't feeling so cocky any more. I put her back in with the rest of the babies and she ended up behaving.

I think we're about ready to put them out in a make shift coop for them. We might split off the old coop to accommodate the goats and the baby chicks. As soon as the rain slows down for a few days I was going to see if I could work on the Bee Fence and the Chicky coop. It should be this Friday or this weekend. =) I have a bee class I'm going to on Sat so we'll see how much I can do then.

Here is a pic of Calvin getting stuck under the door trying to get to the baby chicks.

Re-energizing

I realized that I had been feeling a little confined with our home. We have a lot of half way done projects near the house and we never seem to be able

AARRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I HAVE A BABY GOAT TRYING TO EAT MY LAPTOP!!!!!
GET BACK YOU LITTLE BUGGER!!!!
GO EAT SOMETHING CHEAPER!!!!!

sorry about that

never seem to be able to catch up with them. There is a wood burning bread oven, the garden fence, the guiena hen hut, the goat pen, the new bath tub in the master bath. The list goes on and on. Part of my perception comes from that fact that all of these projects are quite close to the house and I see them all the time no matter where I am at home. So any way the homestead was feeling a little cramped, started to wonder if we really did need a little more space.

Then I was flipping through John Seymour's The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it

Then everything changed. I read threw the one acre farm and remembered what Rosie and I were trying to do. I realized just how much land we had and I could once again see the potential. I could re-visualize the straw field and the cow/sheep pasture, the plots of vegetable gardens and the small duck and goose pond. I could see the small herd of pigs (minus the pigs of evil) in their pen and I could smell the bread baking in the wood burning oven. I could taste the apples from the tree and smell the house filled with the scent of fresh pressed cider. I could feel my hands running over the wheat and barley stalks as I walk over our little bridge with the stream running under it. It was all back, and I remembered why I am here.

Almond tree

The other day I asked Jed to come out and look at the almond tree. I think he thought something was wrong. He asked me what he should be looking at and I made him look at a branch right in front of him. On it was a large almond. The pruning helped this winter and I made some interesting notes.

We appear to have a large amount of almonds growing on the tree, but a significantly greater number on the south side than the north side. This can be for a couple of reasons 1) I did heavier pruning on the south side. 2) Sun hit the south side more than the north and hence they came out earlier and the bees were able to pollinate. or 3) When the warm spell was broken by 30+ mile an hour winds and heavy rain most of that rain and wind came from the north-west meaning that a lot of those flowers fell and could not be pollinated.

We should still be able to get a good harvest from our tree, but I hope to keep notes so that I can learn from my actions.

Using Whey for Bread

I started using whey from my cheese making for my breads and have found that it makes the breads softer and that they stay fresh and moist for a lot longer. They actually start molding before they dry out.

Here are a couple of recipes: Makes 2 loaves

Mix one fourth warm cup of whey with yeast (sprinkle yeast over top to form a complete skin over whey)

In another bowl mix:
3 cups bread flour (any flour works really)
2 cups warm whey
2 tbsp (lard or butter) (home made lard makes it filling, home made butter makes it light and fluffy)
2 tbsp honey

Mix until well blended - then add yeast mixture. It will end up a bit watery

For white bread - Add about 3 cup (try sprinkling on one cup at a time) until dough is firm and not sticky
For wheat bread - Add 2 cups wheat and 1 cup bread flour
For rye bread - Add 1 cup wheat, 1 cup rye, and 1 cup bread flour

Kneed until the dough is solid but not sticky. Sometimes you will use less flour than others. It all depends on the temperature and humidity.

Place in an oiled bowl (I usually just oil the bowl that I used to mix the dough.) and place some seran wrap over the bowl. Let it double in size.

After it has doubled - kneed again, separate into two loaves. Place loaves into backing pans of your choice (if you are using bread pans make sure you oil the sides and bottom, if you are using a stone make sure that it is seasoned, otherwise rub some oil to the stone). Cover the loaves with seran wrap (I re-use mine every time.) and let them rise. Once they have doubled in size get the stove ready.

Raise temp to 450 degrees F. Once ready put loaves in for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes lower temp to 350 and leave the bread in there for 30 minutes. (If you are using baking stones, you can put them on different racks and leave each loaf on the top for 7 minutes - meaning that they will be at 450 for about 15 minutes. Then lower temp to 350 and leave for 30.)

If you are making multiple types of bread make sure you mark them with slashes or a cross on the top to distinguish different types.

Enjoy!!

Cheese: Cow vs. Goat milk

I found some renet at the local Food4Less and thus picked up some to try out. I've made two batches of feta cheese, one with goat milk and one with cow milk. The goat milk had a higher percentage of cheese/milk ratio (1/2 lb per 1/2 gallon of milk) while the cow milk gave me about 1/8th cheese per 1/2 gallon. The goat milk was crumbly and yet moist. I must say that the brine I put it in made it a bit difficult to eat just straight, we had to rinse it off with water before eating. The cow feta was very dry and hard, it did drain and we put it in olive oil so that's a different flavor, but the cheese bothers me as it does not have the standard texture. I'll have to try out some different cheeses with both types of milk to see which I'll prefer.

Guineas

They eat a lot of layer feed and enjoy eating the grass, not so much on the worms or other live buggies. And so far, they have not laid any eggs. We'll have to see how long it will take them to feel comfortable enough to lay. They also do not perch, I'm not sure why. They've gotten a lot calmer but they still call out warnings if things change too drastically. All in all, I still like their calls.

Deranged Chicks

I got home last night pretty late as I met up with some PolyCon people to go over the SCA involvement for this next Con. When I got home I was able to feed the animals and milk Big Goat. I came in to feed the baby chicks and found that they were out of food and water. I find this a little frustrating because I try to make sure that when I leave in the morning they have enough food and water at that time so that they will not go hungry or thirsty at any point of the day. Well, besides eating and drinking all their food and water I found the low chick on the totem pole. The blue andalusian cock had all it's flight feathers picked off the top of his head opened up (didn't eat the comb so I guess that's a good thing), and had it's right ear eaten. So I'm going to have a partially deaf rooster which might be interesting. As soon as I spotted him I took him out of the batch of chicks and put him in the bathroom tub. I filled up the water containers and the feeders and the other chicks drank and ate to their hearts little content.

I cleaned up the open wounds on the little rooster (Little Brudder) on this wings and head. I applied betadine and wanted to see how the other chicks would interact with him. As soon as I put him in they all ganged up on him so I immediatly took him out before any of the others had a chance to do any more harm. I put him in his own container with wood chips in the bottom and more food and water than one little brudder could eat in a week. He's eating and drinking on his own. He was lonely for a while but I hope he'll heal up quickly. I checked on all of them this morning and they are fine. The others have not found a new pell, so I hope they don't gang up on anyone else.

I guess I should say that they are not really at the baby chick stage any more. They have gone through their leper baby stage and have most of their feathers. I'll keep posting on the progress.

Epic!

Sooo, since we've had baby chicks and a baby goat in the house for the last couple of weeks we've had the heater on for the last week or so. This has cause the bottled mead to heat up and start the fermentation process again. Sooo, in the last three days we've had three bottles that have had their corks pop off. Last night I was asleep and I heard a pop agains the door and then a whole gush of liquid with fizzy overtones. Well, it turns out one of the magnums popped and sent mead all over the inside of the hall closet (where we're keeping them as it is the coolest place in the house) and the gush was strong enough that it sent mead through the gap between the door and the frame onto the hall wall. So I had sticky sweet alcohol all over the wall and floor. If the corks keep pushing out we might have to take the corks out and try a second fermentation and THEN bottle. We'll see. I'm trying to figure out the best place to store these. Somewhere it will stay cold no matter if we do turn on the heater.

On the plus side, the bottles that have burst have provided enough left over mead that I've been mixing it with some hard cider and have ready to drink mead/cider.

Animal Count - As of Today

Sooo, as of today we are at:

Chickens:
1 Silkie
1 Rhode Island Red
1 Rhode Island White
9 Ameraucanas

Chicks:
8 Dorking pullets
2 Dorking cocks
4 White Faced Black Spanish pullets
1 WFBS cock
3 Blue Andalusian pullets
1 Blue Andalusian cock
3 Old English Game (something or other)

Ducks:
7 Runner Ducks

Goats:
3 Boer/Nubian Crosses
1 Nubian

Cats:
Calvin and McGee

Guinea Fowl:
2 Guinea Hens
4 Guinea cock

Our averages:
9 chicken eggs
6 duck eggs
3.5 cups (2.25 lbs) of goat milk

All but the guineas free range which has caused issues with my veggie garden and fruit trees. If the ducks don't trash it all and the goats don't eat it all, we should have enough wheat to hold us over for part of the year.

The Guinea's Monkey Chant

Guineas make the coolest sound. Although they are a lot noisier than the chickens or ducks, or goats for that matter, they chatter on as if they are taking part of the monkey chant. I can't help but start dancing and want to join in on the chant when they do start.

I picked up 6 guineas yesterday for us to raise and fatten for an event we'll attend in later May. There are two mating couples and a set of males that I picked up. If they get more familiar with the location and their enclosure, I hope that they might be able to hatch a clutch of keats for us to keep. I would really like that now that I know that I don't actually mind, but enjoy, their chatter. They are gorgeous and very intelligent. I think we would have to clip their flight feathers if we were to keep any.

Bees on the way

I have two colonies on the way and they should be here on the 21st. I'm looking forward to getting them so that I can put them in their new homes on the 22nd or the 23rd. I need to get them used to my area first and then put them into their supers. I have my smoker and queen excluders on the way. I'm going to make a couple more bases and possibly some medium supers as I only have the standard supers. I don't know how well they will do at first but I hope all the mustard and thistle will help them maintain. I hope to have the pond up and running by then so that they have a place to drink water from. I'll be building a fence around where I'll have the hives so that the will not be flying around at head level in the yard and so that they do not interfere with our play. I would hate to have our friends be unable to visit due to bees. I'm actually really excited and I look forward to a year of learning. Who knows, if things go well, we might even have some honey this year.