Here are the new photo's

Ok, here is the home fort. . . I love it when the leaves start to turn.


This is one of the girls just hanging out, I tried to tell her it was too late to worry about getting a sun tan.



This is the girls home fort.



It's really cold outside. . .



Little by little I'm getting a few things done.

I'm finally back in the groove. . . .

Well I've gotten a chance to catch my breath before I head out once again. There has been alot accomplished here at the bee yard. I obtained the licensing I needed to bring our product into stores, so that means now I am in the process of calling on stores to see if I can actually get them put on shelves. I have a list that I'm starting with and I'm working my way down the list. I never thought we would ever be able to wholesale, but here we are. I think that this is a real good example of never assuming that you've finally reached a level and won't be able to go any further.

This last few weeks we also have been busy getting the girls ready for winter. A few of the hives are going to require some bottle feeding. I know that sounds corny, but I like the way it sounds. What that means is that the hives are not heavy enough to get through the winter. (They don't have enough honey weight) So I'm going to supplement feed with mason jars and sugar water and essential oils. The weather is totally unpredictable right now so I'm not sure just how long I'll be able to do it. But I don't have much of a choice. I'm leaving to visit my Mom in about 10 days. . Yipeeeeee!!!!!!!! (Finally some real me time) so I've got to make sure that everything that needs to be done is done. I also am in the middle of doing one more health check on the girls. Yesterday I went out and did a sugar roll in about half of the hives and they still look pretty darned good. (What that means is I put about 1/2 cup of powdered sugar in a mason jar that has been fitted with screen, I put about a cup of bees in and gently, (and I do mean gently) roll them around so they are coated in powdered sugar. I then shake off the powder that is in the jar on a white board and count the number of mites that fall off.) You can get more info about this by doing a search in google.)

Funny but my daughter Dana called me last night and said, Mom your web page needs some major updating. I know I know I know. . She must have missed the entry where I was going on and on about how hard it is being the beekeeper, the bottler, the marketer, the labeler, the packager and . . . . lots more. . .So I'm working on it. Today the blog. . this weekend the website.

I'm uploading some photo's because it's been awhile. Just to let you know on the cold winter days the girls are pretty much staying close to home and keeping snuggly warm inside. Today I've got my second to last market at Westgate. I'm hoping it's warm enough to actually go there today. For the last two weeks I've been rained out.

I'm totally frustrated by trying to upload the photos I'll give it one more try and if it doesn't work I'll publish this and add the pictures later. . .
Enough. . .

Ann Arbor Arts & Craft Show

Ok, here we go again. Off in uncharted grounds. . . I'm not going to the usual farm market this week, I'm hoping that this works out for me and I'm able to get our products into some new homes. I'm a little nervous, ok I'm so nervous that I haven't slept since the night before last. I have no idea how I'm going to survive the day.

Thank goodnes my friend is coming to help. Maybe she can prop me up at the table and put toothpicks under my eyes.

The truck is full and I do mean full. I've never been more prepared for anything in my entire life. I sure hope it goes well.

I'll post later.

Market Day - Toledo Farmers Market

Spinach nightmare . . I got to the market today and what did I see. A reporter in the parking lot just waiting to ask people about the spinach e-coli issue. I was a little worried about how it would be taken by the farmers in the market as well as the people who visit us. It was over before I even noticed. I looked around and they were gone. We obviously didn't have a big enough reaction to warrant their trip there.

Market went good today. I sold out of all the honey I brought to market by 11:30. My location was moved and I was worried that it would hurt me, but it seems to have worked the other way around. Today I realized that the market would be coming to and end soon, and to tell you the truth I really felt pretty sad about it. I'll miss the people I've gotten to know, and I have no idea, how I'll ever be able to sleep in on a Saturday morning. (Ok, maybe that's just a little too far of a stretch) But I really do mean I'll miss the other vendors as well as all of the people who come to the market to support it.

Bee update. It's raining and they are crabby. And I mean crabby. I headed out the the yard when I got home and I didn't see one smiling face. I can imagine they don't like the rain any more than I do. I did take some new photo's of the market and hopefully I can get them posted tomorrow.

I also have a ton of whipped honey to make. I'm going to try a batch of just regular to see how it turns out, but I think I've got to make around 12 batches which is over 208 jars. . . Then of course the labeling. Is it winter yet??????????????????????

A little update

Well it’s been a little while and I thought I better do a update.

The bees are getting ready for winter. I took the honey off a week or so ago and I’m checking to make sure that they each have about 100 lbs. of honey to get through the winter. I have a couple of hives that I’m keeping a close eye on. One of the hives got robbed out pretty bad and I ended up having to supplement feed them. When I tell most folks that they look at me like I’m crazy. Keeping bees is a responsibility that I don’t take likely. It was my mistake that caused them to get robbed out, so I have to fix it. Besides the hive that got robbed out I have two hives with weak colonies, I replaced the queens too late in the season I think, so they aren’t doing to great either.

What are my options? Well I could combine the two weak hives and hopefully they will all get along just fine. I’m supposed to have one queen and since I’ll have two I have the choice of killing one or letting the two of them fight it out. If you knew me you would already figure out that there is no way I could ever go squish a queen. It’s just not my nature, so instead I’ll put the two hives together with newspaper between them so they will gradually get to know each other and then when the queens meet up I’ll let them decide which one is going to rule the roost. Most beekeepers tell me that the strong queen will survive when you put two hives together. My luck it will just be the mean stubborn one instead of the great producing one that survives .

Remember the Market in Perrysburg Ohio that I was looking forward to. . well because I’m not a regular season vendor I was placed on the wrong side of the street. (Boy isn’t that the truth) Ok, there is no wrong or right side of any street, but there is a side that people shop on and a side that they don’t. Especially if there are only three vendors on one side and 40 vendors on the other side. Yes, we had Happy the Clown on our side, but even Happy wasn’t Happy when no one would cross the street to see us. So it was basically a dud of a night for me. I spent over two hours of driving time, an hour of setting up and tearing down time and five hours selling nothing time. While I don’t think I failed, I think this definitely will go down in the book as a learning experience. (My books is way full of those learning experiences) My favorite part as usual was the chance to visit with folks who either wish they had bees or actually have bees. It’s great to be able to ask questions from people who are much more experienced than me (And that’s just about everyone) but it’s also really great to tell people that beekeeping is a really great thing to do. So the people part of things was awesome the money part of things wasn’t great.

Thank goodness the Erie Street Market and Westside Market are both doing great for me.

An update on the shopping cart attached to my site. The shipping doesn’t work so if you contemplated ordering anything, email me first and I can send you the correct postage amount.

Oh I forgot to mention, I went to an auction where some bee equipment was being auctioned off and met a few very experienced (older than me) beekeepers and had a good time chatting back and forth with them. My husband can’t believe how I can just go up to people and talk about bees. Sometimes I think I embarrass him, but there is too much to learn not to ask questions from people when I meet them.

Till the next time. . .

New Market tomorrow

Well tomorrow I’m headed off to another new market. I keep hearing that the folks in Perrysburg, Ohio might like my products. Hopefully they will because I would really like to add another market to my schedule for next year.

For those of you who don’t go to market regularly it’s a really great experience. Not only for the shoppers but also the market folks. I work with bees and I work hard, I’m not saying that I don’t but I have to tell you knowing what I know now about traditional in the ground fruit and vegetable farmers will make me appreciate what they bring to my table a whole lot more.

Not only are they out way early in the morning at the crack of dawn, but they are also out in the environment no matter what the weather is like, Think about that folks. . .the next time it’s cold or rainy or muddy outside there are people working the ground to make sure that your veggies and fruits are in the market. They harvest their products, they clean up their products, and they bring them to the market way early in the morning just for us.

When you go to a store like Kroger’s or Meyers are you able to ask the person in the produce department just how fresh their product is? Do you think they really know? Or, try asking someone just exactly what type of variety the tomatoes are? How about recipes and the best way to prepare it. .
Well you get all that and a whole lot more at the market.

If I sound like I’m on a soapbox, well maybe I am. I’m surrounded by a whole lot of very hard working made in the USA Farmers and I realized today looking around that I never appreciated just what they do for us. Why is it that when you come to market and get an obviously superior product than what you get in the store that you expect to pay much less. Let’s think about this for just one moment.

1. You’re getting a very very fresh picked product. (Not something that was picked a week ago before it was ripe so that when they shipped it across country it would arrive to you ripe).
2. The person who grows it is the most knowledgeable person around about how to take care of it. Store it. Prepare it.
3. Tell me the last time you were willing to get out of bed at 4:00 a.m. on a Saturday, load a truck clear full of stuff head off to market, unload it, make it pretty (cause we all know it’s all about how it looks as well as how it tastes) and then stand in the market all day long till the market closes, pack up your stuff and head home.
4. Getting the opportunity to be exposed to so many different varieties of things is great. I myself have fallen deeply in love with a Candy Onion. I never knew that there was something called a Candy Onion. Now every time I’m in the market I make sure that people I know find out about Candy Onions. Why do I do it?
Because it’s a great market experience that I got a chance to experience and I really want someone else to experience it too!
5. And in general, they are a great bunch of people to be surrounded by. They work hard and they play hard, and they take their produce very very seriously.

So the next time you think the farmers market is not such a great way to spend some time, just drop on by because I know it’s something you will really enjoy.

Ok, I’m stepping down off the soapbox, and heading to bed. I’ve got to get up early enough to bottle and label honey.

Have a good day and hopefully I’ll see you in the market.

Yippee Extraction is finished!!!!

I'm totally whipped, Jim and I have been busy extracting honey all week and although I know its great to have honey to extract after the first few days the excitement wears off and the sticky honey everywhere starts to make you want to scream.
I washed the floors in my kitchen 9 times last night and I'm still finding places where honey has dripped. Jim was heading up the stairs and called down to me "Honey, there is honey on the stairs." Grrrr.......One more place to clean.. . .
The honey is stored in covered buckets and our storage tank; today we have to deal with the wax cappings. Actually I forgot to mention, we put all the supers (honey boxes) out for the bees to clean and at this point it's probably not safe to go out to the bee yard. They go crazy when they find the wet honey. . . .But it’s the best way to get the boxes all cleaned up and ready for next year.
Can you imagine how they feel when they get a whiff of honey and when they follow their little noses? I'm sure they feel like they hit the lottery when they find a box all cut open with the leftover honey in it that we were not able to extract. Watching the bees all over the honey boxes reminds me of the shoppers on the outside of Wal-Mart for the day after Thanksgiving sale, just lined up forever and once they are in the stores they spread out and grab everything in sight. . .
So today I'm cleaning up equipment, making candles and cleaning wax getting it ready to go out to the solar extractor. Sound like fun. Oops and I forgot, I've got to bottle some honey so that I can take some to market. . . .

September has arrived

Yikes I have no idea where the time has gone. . .It's so hard trying to do it all. . .I've got to get out and pull supers off as soon as it stops raining. The days that I should have pulled them off I have been at market so I am way behind schedule. I never thought that I'd be so overwhelmed with everything but right about now I feel like I'm in a row boat with no oars.

I realize the most important thing at this point are the bees so I plan on spending the next three days out in the yard from morning till night. I hope that it stays dry. I have three hives that I'm really worried about. I finally had to bite the bullet and realized that one was gone. . . . so instead of four that I'm worried about, I'm back to three. What the heck, I'm thinking after I get a good look at them I'll give Uncle Ted a call and see if I've got the best plan laid out for them. I'm hoping that I'll be able to put two honey supers on one of them (the strongest) and get them through the winter. The other two I'm thinking I'll combine. When do you know that it's toooo late?

I have to say, I remember when I first started I foolishly thought that this beekeeping would be a piece of cake. Boy was I ever wrong. Do you ever get to the point that you feel like you know what you are doing? I try, and I ask for help but sometimes when you do something real stupid you think that maybe you shouldn't be doing the bee thing. Then the you look out over the bee yard and see them flying in the air and you think. . . Ok, maybe if I try a little harder. It's hard to explain how it gets under your skin and you find that you think about it constantly, and you seem to be a magnet for anyone who had ever wanted to keep bees and you end up having a great time talking "bee talk." I think about the people I've been fortunate to meet who have been beekeepers for many years and I think to myself, "Please let me be where they are, let me have the knowledge they have, please don't let me kill bees forever." I know you aren't born with all the wisdom in the world, but it makes you feel bad that you don't know it all.
Ok, it's like having kids, they don't let people keep kids if they don't know how to take care of them right. (I wonder if there are beekeeper police out there?)

I love the market because I have been real lucky to come across people who are new and are learning and have as many questions in their minds that I do. Here is the scary part. I can actually answer some of them. When I hear the words come out of my mouth I think. . . Holy Moley where did those words come from. Usually though I'm able to answer because I've failed at something they are trying to do. So I suppose that Uncle Ted is right when he says, "It's all about learning."

I also had two really great things happen this past week, first of all my stepson David came home to spend a few weeks before he heads out to his first permanent duty station (Air Force) and it's been really great to see how good he is doing. The military was obviously the right choice for him. He loves what he is doing and feels challenged which is a good thing. The second thing was a suprise visit by my neice Elizabeth and two of her friends Handy and Amanda. The girls are headed back to college in MA. The poor things didn't get in until the wee hours of the morning and only got to stay till a little after 1:00 the next day but it was wonderful seeing them. I was sitting at the table talking to them and listening to all the plans they had and I have to tell you I just smiled inside. Hearing them talk about what they wanted to do and why they chose the fields they chose made me realize that the world is in pretty great hands. We always hear about the bad things in the world and this week I was given the best gift. I got to spend time with four remarkable young adults, all different, yet all very amazing in their own way.

Westgate Farmers Market Rocks!!!!!

What do you get when you put a farm market in the middle of a parking lot just off Secor? A whole lot of happy people. I had no idea that soooo many people would be thrilled to see us set up our tents. And I know that most of us didn’t expect the response that we got.

I could not believe the crowd that showed up. People were everywhere. Seeing smiles on people’s faces gave me a feeling inside that is really hard to explain. It’s one of those things that you only hear about, but being part of this makes it even more special.

It’s more than obvious that people in this area are thrilled at the opportunity to buy fresh produce and talk to local growers. I got the chance to meet a whole new bunch of people who were really interested in my bees and beekeeping. I was thrilled beyond belief, because I love talking bee talk. It’s really cool to have people tell me about family members that have kept bees and I love hearing all the stories. I think I’m at my best though when a little one wants to know where the honey comes from. It’s the opening I’m waiting for that gives me the chance to help kids learn about bees and all the wonderful things they do for us.

I never realized that it was so hard for people to get down to the market on Erie Street so hopefully this will work out better for them, and I know that the vendors all around me were pleased as punch with the turnout that we had.

I had to leave early to take care of my Honey House Project, but believe me I’ll be there until 7:00 p.m. next weekend. I’d better stop writing so I can bottle some honey for the market on Saturday.

Hope to see you there!!!!!!

Blue Ribbon Honey - 2006 Lenawee County Fair

Wow! We did it. We went to the Lenawee County Fair yesterday and found out that our Honey took 1st Place. The big Blue Ribbon. . . Yippeeeeeeeeeee. Here are a few photo's. Trust me as soon as I get the jar and ribbon back we won't be parted again. I told Jim that the jar was going to go on tour with me. . .He chuckled.

We also added the Blackberry Whipped Honey last week, so our products are growing. (The soap is doing really well but I have no idea how long till its ready. I have to do a PH test on it, so we are still in the learning stage as far as the soap goes.) Be sure to stop by the market to check everything out.

New Weekly Satellite Market

Here is some exciting news the market is opening a satellite market.

The Farmers Market Association of Toledo is proud to present our New Weekly Satellite Market!

The Westgate Farmers Market

Beginning Wednesday August 16, 2006 the Market will operate from 4pm till 7pm every Wednesday evening. The Market will be located in the Elder Beerman's Secor Road Parking Lot.

So I'll be out there come visit me.

We are starting to harvest the honey from the yard. We have already filled one tank and from what I have out in the yard it will probably be the first of many to be filled. That's good news for the honey supply.

New Product Alert. . .Ok keep this a secret cause Jim doesn't know about this one yet. . .Queen Bee Soap - A wonderful blend of Honey & Lavendar made just for the queen in all of us.

Bee Yard Update

We are dealing with problems in the bee yard this week. I wish I'd have just one day of peace and quiet. We started pulling honey yesterday and found that in the three hives I've been trying to build up there are wax moths. I've been fighting this for a few weeks and thought I'd finally gotten rid of them. I had replace the boxes the bees were in, I gave them frames with honey brood and pollen on them and started feeding them to help them get a good start. I was sick when I found the wax moths. I know it's because the hive wasn't strong enough to get rid of them, but once again, I'm battling them. I replace the boxes once again, but today when I went out to put the feeders on, I found the bees in the middle of robbing one of them. It was horrible and I wasn't sure what to do. I came inside got online and read that a wet bed sheet over the top of the hive should slow them down. I don't know at this point I think it was too late. Jim's down, and I'm down. We feel like we have failed at taking care of them the way we should of. In the back of my mind I can hear someone whispering to me to learn from this. Great I'm learning while the bees are suffering.

New Product Headed to Market

It's here!!! Just got finished packaging the cut comb and chunk honey and they will be in the market first thing tomorrow morning. . .

It's really hard being the beekeeper, the extractor, bottler, packager, labeler, candle maker, and the marketer. (Are those words?) What I'm trying to say it I feel like it takes a ton of work to bring our product to market the way I want to. I'm proud of what we are able to bring out of the bee yard and hope that others will appreciate it as well.


Cut Comb: Ever since I've been down at the farm market people always stop and ask me if I have any comb honey. They either remember it from when they were little or they've heard their parents or grandparent’s talk about it. Well here it is. Straight out of the hive, cut into 1 lb. sections and beautifully as well as carefully packaged just for you.


Chunk Honey - For those of you who want a jar of honey but would like to have a little comb well this is just for you. It looks beautiful on the table and tastes just as good as it looks. . . Yummmmm.

This week we've been busy re-queening a few hives. I got 10 queens via the mail on Wed. and we've been out in the yard every night trying to find the queens we want to replace. Now I'm sure you probably wonder why? Well, after looking at the different hives and how they are growing it's painfully obvious that we have some problems. We also wanted to re-queen the hives that I was able to bring through last winter. I'm thinking we will actually re-queen about 8 of the 30 hives and start two small hives just in case. Jim's been working day and night helping me figure out what the heck I've got going on out there. I'm really glad that he's working out in the bee yard with me. Two minds are better than one.

Apple Cinnamon Creamed Honey

Can you picture honey dribbled throughout a kitchen covering every possible inch of counter space? How about a sink full and then some of dishes. . . Well if you can you probably also heard me muttering a few choice words right about noon today.

I had the recipe, I had all the ingredients but the first problem became painstakingly apparent when 11 pounds of honey did not fit in my mixing bowl. I turned it down low and took my time at first but when I realized I had to add the fruit and spices I started to panic.

So that's when I came up with what I thought was a brilliant idea. I would add all the spices and oils to the whole batch and then pour half of it out and add half of the fruit to what was left and then when I finished that batch I'd put it in a bowl until I got the other half done. So are following this little adventure?


Here I am, with a mixer overflowing, which spilled just a tad when I took it off the mixer to put half of it in a clean shiny glass bowl, trying to be ever so tidy. Ok, I never ever said I was real domesticated. But I really did think that this would be something I could handle. I kept on going and when I added the fruit it just didn't want to seem to mix in. I had to mix it way longer than they said I should and after it finally got all mixed up I realized I had to pour this bowl full into another bowl. Bowl number three. After I scraped it into the other glass bowl, I picked up the first bowl and put it back in my mixer. It took awhile but I finally got the fruit mixed in and when I went to combine them I realized that neither of the bowls I took out would accommodate that much creamed honey. . . so out comes another bowl.

By now the spatula has been dropped on the very clean counter enough times that I had as much honey on the handle as was on the end of the spatula. So now my hands are covered in honey and every time I go to get something I'm leaving little honey prints everywhere.

It took forever and I mean forever to get through this little project and after I got it put into jars I sure didn't feel the love. . . . And after spending the next two hours cleaning up the kitchen I know there wasn't any love. . .

I did smile when I looked at the cut comb and can't wait to take it to market. As for the creamed honey, well it has to refrigerate for 7 to 10 days and hopefully if it will make its debut at market the week after next. I have pictures of honey hard as a rock in pretty jars. . . .

I have to remember this is an adventure I'm on and it's not where I'm going to end up that’s important but instead it’s all about the journey.

Boy today I sure with someone else was driving, I feel like I got really lost and drove around for hours and hours getting nowhere. Sigh!

Coming soon to a farm market near you. . . Apple Cinnamon Whipped or Creamed honey. . .just look for the woman with a honey laden spatula stuck to the back of her head.

Cut Comb

Yipee!!!!! Cut comb for the very first time.

The girls actually did it. We took the first super off of one of the hives and got the most beautiful cut comb. You know everyone kept telling me that it was too difficult a chore for the bees to actually do. I knew it wasn't going to be easy but Jim and I decided to go ahead and try it. We also have a second box that should be ready to take off the hive next weekend. I'm so happy that it actually worked.

We started the day off with a run out to the yard to see how things were going. We are currently going through a major heat wave here so we didn't last too long in our bee suits, but we were able to take the comb super off as well as a couple of other honey supers. I was really excited to see how the comb honey would look.

Since I've only watched my Uncle Ted cut comb once before I got all the books and manuals out to make sure I knew what I was doing. Jim tried to come up with a jig to make it easier and we ended up using a template instead. The parts that were excess we will add to our spring honey so that we will be able to offer chunk honey. I know that it will be a big hit in the market.

After all the comb honey was cut and put in boxes, we put them in the freezer and will take them out a few days before it's time to go to market.

We were also able to take about 45 lbs. of honey which I will be using tomorrow on a new product. . . Apple Cinnamon Whipped Honey.

Let me tell you, it is the most amazing thing I've ever tasted. I was going to wait until the fall to bring this out but the tester I had at home has pretty much been tested out by everyone who has walked in the door. That means pretty soon I won't have any to spread on my toast. So it's time to get crackalackin and mix up a batch. I have to refrigerate it 7 to 10 days before I can bring it to market, but trust me the wait is well worth it.

I had a great day at the market on Saturday. . .but then again every day there has been really great no matter how much money I make. This weekend I got the chance to share some bee information with a few kids who really wanted to know all about bees. They kept me pretty on my toes trying to make sure that I answered them all. The lady in the booth next to me pulled me aside after that and told me that she really enjoyed hearing me explain all about the bees when people stopped in.

I had to put a slight halt on the candle making. After just one week of working in the kitchen I pretty much wrecked every inch of flooring by covering the tiles with spilled wax. Ok, maybe it wasn't really ruined but I did spend almost 2 1/2 hours on my knees with a knife and hot soapy water scraping it off the tiles and then washing each tile individually. Jim wasn't really too happy with the mess. Looks like candle making is going to have to be a outdoor only event. Oh and I also spilled wax all over the front of my phone. I was worried sick that it wouldn't work anymore, but it keeps on ringing.

Here is a photo of Jim using the hot knife taking off the top layer of wax from the frame so it can go into the extractor for extracting. . .

Well better head to bed, there's a ton of stuff that needs to be done and if I don't get some rest I'll never keep up.

Home Sweet Home

Now here is a real group of trouble makers!!!!

It was fun, it was great and yes we learned tons and tons of stuff at the Heartland Apicultural Society Meeting.
(H.A.S.) Jim and I met my Uncle Ted and Aunt Mar there and really enjoyed the entire adventure. It was great to see some of the people I got to meet last year and make new friends at the same time.

The best part was that Jim and I didn't go to the same sessions so we actually got twice as much information as I did when I went by myself last year. Jim really got a chance to see first hand some of the stuff I've been trying to explain to him. All right I admit that I'm a bit on the attention deficit side and I have a hard time focusing on just one thing at a time, but how in the world could you when there are so many different topics to choose from.

Classes were arranged in different levels of beekeeping and the offerings were so varied that it was really hard to choose. Jim went to a whole lot of classes out in the Bee Yard so he could see things himself the right way. (At least that's what he told me. . . I wonder if he meant that my way was wrong?) Anyway he picked up some things that I didn't have any idea about and when we got home he put his newfound wisdom to work right away.

Every time I turned around I got the chance to talk to someone new and learn something new. I have to tell you I've never been in a situation like this where people went out of their way to make sure that all the new beekeepers had answers to all the questions they had. It's not like the kind of place where you go somewhere and nobody shares any of their "secrets" with you. Heck no, I learned the ins and out of the bee hive and I also learned how to make creamed honey, oops I mean whipped honey, candles & lotions as well as learn how to make the most out of the products from the bee yard.
There are people there that have no hives and just are interested about beekeeping and people there who have thousands of hives and a lot somewhere in between, but the best thing is that it was a really great learning experience for both Jim and I.

Well I told you Jim went to work in the bee yard when we got home. . . .Saturday morning while I was at the market he went out in the yard and took a good look around. He found that we had wax moths in some equipment that was just sitting out in the yard, and he thought we had lost a queen in one of our hives. When I got home we both suited up and sure enough we had wax worms. . . Ulk. . . usually it's not a problem with bees if it's a strong colony but the one colony that Jim couldn't find a queen in was really small and while I did find a queen it had a pretty severe case of wax worm. Since we were going to tear the hive apart and move things around I took the opportunity to look for varoa mites on the drone larvae. Yep it was there too. No wonder the hive was so weak. So Jim had already come up with a game plan and we put it into effect. We brought out a nuke and while we were checking out the other hives we took a full frame of honey and pollen as well as a frame of brood from one of the stronger hives and tucked it inside the nuke. When we got to the hive that was in trouble I located the queen and Jim carefully picked her up and put her in the box. We then brushed as many of her own bees from the hive in the box and closed things up. Oh and we put two frames of drawn comb in as well. But because we couldn't get all the bees out of the hive we left the hive out there close to the new nuke thinking that they'd all head into the new digs and get settled in. After talking to Uncle Ted we probably shouldn't have done that. Seems that it could cause some serious robbing.
Anyway, today I went out to check on things to see how things were going and I took some photos.
Enjoy!

Is there sun in Michigan ?

Ok, I realize it's Michigan I'm living in, but the amount of rain that we have had to put up with this year is amazing. I was just on the phone with mom and she said they could really use the rain in Oklahoma. I'd love to send it to her.

Almost the Fourth of July, and we have no big plans. Still working on finishing the basement and bottling honey and getting things organized in the honey house. Yes I know I really don't have a honey house yet, I'm working on it. But I believe in the idea of positive thinking, and if I believe I have a honey house, one day I will. Right now when I refer to the honey house, what I'm actually talking about is the downstairs bedroom and the back of the truck. I also have a few additional rooms that come into play from time to time, like when I bottle or make candles but I can't really count those because they aren't permanent. So for now when I refer to honey house you will know what I mean.

I had these really big ideas when I started about how I would build a little honey house and the world would be perfect. . . then the reality of what that entailed as well as the cost of taking care of bees hit me. Going to the market every Saturday has help offset some of the cost. But I'm a long long long long way from making any kind of profit. So for any of you out there who are reading my blog and you think that bees are a get rich project. . . . call me:)

A better way to think about it would be that going to market is your way of coming up with bee support money. It comes in and goes out just as fast. I got home from market with my biggest sale day ever and after going to the bee conference this week and placing my Betterbee order I'm in the hole a couple of hundred dollars. . . . get the point?

Why do I do it? I really enjoy it. I love being in the yard watching the bees heading in and out. The smell of a honey house when your harvesting honey is the most amazing thing. Smelling a beeswax candle reminds me of it all over again. Beekeeping is something you will never figure out, and at some point you realize that no matter how much you learn, there is always a ton more to learn. Thinking about how much there is to learn can be way overwhelming so for now I try to just tackle each day as it comes. Occasionally I manage to plan ahead a little. But not usually. But the challenge as well as the enjoyment is what makes me look forward to taking those daily walks to the bee yard. . .

Sunny Friday

Can you believe it? We have not had rain for two whole days. After last weekends torrential rains that is totally amazing. When we finally got out to check on the bees we found some not so good stuff. Two more hives just didn't make it. Yes I probably should have combined them. But one week earlier they were doing just fine. They didn't seem to be coming along the same as the rest of them but I can't find a single reason that we should have found what we found. No queen and most of the bees dead. They didn't have enough honey in place to be victims of robbing. I just don't know. Another question to bring to the H.A.S. meeting.

Jim and I leave on Wed. and I'm really looking forward to it. The amount of education provided by this meeting is so good. Because I'm so typically A.D.D. (unless it sparkles I loose interest Jim says) that I don't seem able to retain as much as I need to. I really think because it's so much that my brain is on overload. Having Jim go to the meeting for me is great. He on the other hand never misses a thing and between the two of us I think the bees will be better taken care of.

Worked on new labels for the bears. I'm really very proud of how they turned out and can't wait to bring them to the market this weekend. I also am better prepared to display the candles as well as the new Pina Colada Lip balm I'm bringing. I hope that the weekend turns out good but to be honest every weekend I've been down at the market has been fun. The other vendors make the time getting up early and time spent when it's dead bearable. And meeting new customers who have started to become new friends is really a good thing for me. I love when people come to market and ask questions. Because I'm so new, if I don't know the answer I get their e-mail address and find either the answer out or find somewhere to send them so they can get the answer. The other thing that has been the best has been the number of teachers who have been interested in having me come in and talk to their students. I can't wait. . . . . .Until that happens I always make sure that they have the National Honey Board information website address so they can get further information.

Well I've got to get moving and start getting things loaded up and ready for the market.

Have a bee-autiful day!!!!!!!!!!

Getting ready for Heartland Apicultural Society Meeting

So. . . .it's going to happen July 6-8, 2006. What a great weekend to look forward to. I went last time with my Aunt and Uncle and learned a ton of stuff. You have no idea how little you really know when you get the opportunity to go to a meeting like this and learn so much.

If you have ever had an interest in beekeeping here is a great chance for you to learn just what it's all about. I've only been to a couple of other meetings and while they were good, this one is laid out so nicely that you can't help but find the perfect topic that deals with just what you need to learn about. In fact there are several classes that are the same time so I have to choose which one to go to. The good thing is Jim is going and we can split up to make sure that we get all our bases covered.

The bees are doing great. We had a great deal of rain last night, so much rain that the television spent the entire night focusing on the weather . . . yikes. We survived the rain; the beehives didn't blow or float away. We were out in them last Sunday and added a few supers and did some tweaking here and there. We did lose the two nucs as well as one hive. I have absolutely no idea what happened. We also were able to find the hive the swarm came from. It's really weak and I'm trying to decide what to do with it at this point. We found babies so I know there is a queen in it, but I don't know if it's too late to do anything.

The other exciting thing that’s going on is I started making candles. I didn’t know if it’s something I wanted to get into but I really had a blast doing it. . Seems like when you sell honey most people ask me if I have candles. Time will tell.







Have a great week!

New Photo's

Well a friend of ours Steve Million created the neatest thing for the entry to the bee yard. He took some scrap metal pieces, soldered them together and then created the centerpiece which is the bee hive and the metal, nuts and bolt bee.

I had to include these photo's because I'm sure that everyone else would appreciate his talent as much as we do.






























The bees are slowing down a bit, and I'm not sure if it's because of all the rain we had. . .over 16 days with only two let ups in between or what.

I'm not really too sure. I did finally figure out which hive swarmed and am in the middle of trying to figure out how to fix that situation. Jim and I spent a few hours out in the yard on Sunday evening trying to see what was going on and to tell you the truth I was pretty dissapointed with what I found. Some of the hives have not grown much at all and then again there are a few hives that took off like crazy. I know it's time to do some serious thinking about what's best for the yard and figure out if I need to combine some hives or if I need to get a few new queens to boost the size up.

Time just flies by

June 1st, boy did that sneak right up on me. We only have a few days until the graduation and I've gotten the opportunity to spend a day a week with both of the grandgirls. I have been feeling a little overwhelmed with everything that needs to get done until last night. We made up our minds that the basement wouldn't be finished and we had too many other things that need to get done and it wouldn't be the end of the world if a few things just didn't get completed.

Now that doesn't seem to hard for most people, but for two first born goal setting people like us it was a painful pill to swallow. But there are too many other things not getting taken care of because of the pressure to get one thing done.

Yesterday we had a horrible accident at the end of the property. Our daughter Dana had just came in the door to tell me about a turtle that she had just moved out of the road at the end of our lane she was kind of laughing about the experience. She said, "Then to top it off I had to stop at the end of the driveway until a doe traveled across the drive." A few minutes later my brother in law knocked at the door and looked a little shaken and asked if we knew about the accident. A woman had been hit by a car where the turtle had just been moved. It didn't seem real. Dana said that when she drove away she saw that the turtle was headed back to the road but there was so much traffic that she decided she needed to head up to the house. The only thing we can figure is that someone else thought the same thing that she did. 15 minutes later we heard the roar of a life flight helicopter and I went outside to see if there was anything I could do. I let them know it was ok to land in the field but they were trying to land in the road. The police had it blocked off. The bees were flying like crazy and I thought I might have to get some smoke out if they decided to land so there wouldn't be any problems. The wind was whipping around as the helicopter landed withing 20 feet of the hives. The whole incident was so sureal. I feel horrible that this happened to anyone, but it also makes you feel grateful that it wasn't our daughter that was hurt. There is no win win here. As the helicopter pulled away we said a prayer for the passenger.

I couldn't help but think as I watched the helicopter pull away that life is too short to waste worrying about what things need to get done.

Rain Rain Go Away

I don't have a photo because there isn't much sense to take a picture of more rain. The bees are hunkered down (I hope that's a word) and after what I had to go through yesterday I'm sure that they are just as glad that I'm stuck in the house far away from them.

Between the Bee Yard, The Farm Market, and our youngest graduating from High School, life has gone from being just mildly crazy to flat out wild and crazy.

Tomorrow I have to pack up the product and load up the truck for Saturday. . . and then in the evening watch Mike get his diploma. .

Bird Update

Here is a picture of the fourth egg and the birds I mentioned a few days ago.

Long Long Day

When you look at this photo I'm sure it's hard to visualize, but what you are looking at is the underside of the hive top feeder. The girls used the empty space between the box and the frames they were working on below to fill with wax, honey and yes babies.

I gently removed as much of the comb without doing much damage and set the comb right above the frames. I put an empty box where the chunks of comb are and put another box of frames right above it. I'll go in either tomorrow or Saturday to remove the empty box and hopefully the cleaned up comb.


So what did I learn?
I still have loads to learn. I am so overloaded with what I found out in the yard that I don't know where to start.
I got all the hive top feeders off and if I didn't have another deep box ready to go on, I put a queen excluder and a super on it. There are three out there that I had to take so much comb off of that I just stuck an empty box between the new box and the old box with the honey and wax sitting there. I figure I'll let them clean it out and then go back in tomorrow or Saturday and take what they don't manage to clean up.
It was a lot of work. My Uncle keeps telling me that it's a lot of work, and today I'd have to agree. I took 20 feeders off, took the boxes back to the garage. Took 20 boxes with wax and frames out as well as inner covers and in some cases queen excluders.
I have to get 9 deeps together soon and get them out there. I figure that a super was better than nothing and at least the queen excluder would keep the queen in the brood box.
I do have one box of cut comb foundation out in the yard and it's coming along nicely. I don't know if it will continue, everyone tells me that it's next to impossible to achieve, but after seeing the beautiful cut comb at my Uncles last year I had to try.

Sunshine Finally

Well it finally stopped raining. Yesterday in between the downpour I came home at lunch to find this little mess. Talked with Uncle Ted and he said it was probably a afterswarm from last Sundays adventure. Great. . . I found a queen in the group and put her along with the whole mess in another box. Once I went inside the hive they were hanging onto I cleaned out all the queen cells I could find. Didn't want any more leaving town.

I just got out of the yard a short while ago and it was nice to finally see what has been going on. I learned a whole mess of stuff.

1. Don't leave hive top feeders on new package bees too long. I just spent the last two hours scaping larvae and bees wax and honey trying to pry them from the box. In two cases it was so bad that I gently scraped them away and put just a empty box over the top of the whole mess. I wasn't sure what to do. There were babies everywhere.
2. No matter how bad the weather is, check on things. I ended up putting 5 supers on and combing two hives on top of trying to take all the feeders away, and I only got 12 done so far. I have at least 9 more to do.
3. Make sure that the ground the bees are on isn't going to turn into a river. Right now I'm wearing rainboots just to get from one hive to another.
4. I'm still kicking myself over the feeders. What I thought was going to be a great idea, sure didn't turn out that way.
   

Well back out for another round. I'll take the camera out to photograph whats going on so someone else can learn from how badly I've messed up.

Birds and Bees

Here are a few photo's of some of the guests we have had at the house lately.

The little birds nest is right outside the front door in the middle of a bush. The first day we looked there were two eggs, yesterday there were three, today I just checked and there are four. Talk about a long labor and delivery. . . .




Jim's Mom and Grandma told us that the red headed bird is a red headed woodpecker and of course the blue one is a blue jay. Jim looked out at the stump they were both sharing and said, "Boy we have a patriotic bird feeder. . . " (His humor is something else.:)

Life here on Noahs Ark

Well it's been a typical spring in Michigan, freezing cold, hot and sunny and mostly dreary and rainy. I don't remember what the sun looks like anymore. I realize it's only been three days since the sun has been here, but the last three days have been horrible. I haven't gotten out to the bee yard, because to do that I would have to get in a boat. But we did have some excitement at the start of the week. Jim and I were out in the yard putting up some "yard art" given to me by the world famous artist "Steve Million" when Jim looked over my shoulder and said, "Uh Oh, I think we've got trouble."






The bees had swarmed. There is a good side and a bad side. The good side was they didn't get too far. The bad side was that we had to catch them and put them back in a hive. I immediately said, "I've got to call my Uncle Ted." He wasn't home and I grabbed the BeeKeeping for Dummies instead. Jim just shook his head and put his suit on and headed out to the yard. I of course made sure to have my camera and followed closely behind. We dragged a ladder out and a new box and Jim climbed up the ladder and brushed off what we could while I held the box. Believe me there were a ton of bees that were not to receptive to getting into the new box. We put a screen on top of what we had and while I held the lid to the new box up, Jim poured them in. A couple of trys later, they finally seemed to settle in.





Just when you think things are going great, life happens. . . .Off to market again tomorrow hope it goes well.

Some photo's from the Toledo Farm Market

The market was truly amazing. I can't tell you enough how much I enjoyed being somewhere. I met a whole lot of really nice people, I sold some of our honey and lip balm and most of all I got the opportunity to talk to people about beekeeping and how much fun it is. I really enjoy it most when there are kids who ask questions about where honey comes from.

All in all it was a really amazing day.

Off to the Farm Market

Well here we go, I got up real early this morning, finished up the work on the sign, started gathering all my stuff up and finished putting tamper proof seals on all my honey. I thought the inside seal would be enough but was told I should have both.

I picked out a couple of recipes to bring along and made 100 copies of them, I also printed off more business cards. I'm going way overboard I'm sure. . . .

I've really worked hard on this adventure, I'm a little nervous about all the effort I've put in. Funny I realized that there are alot of people watching to see if I'll suceed or fail. I've worked hard, I've got a good product and I've just got to find the right market for it.

On another note, Jim went out tonight and found a ton of morrell mushrooms. He ended up with an entire sinkfull and while I was finishing up my bottling he was cleaning mushrooms. They only come around once a year so you've got to enjoy them while they are here.

Early day tomorrow.

Hello Kids

It sure makes me feel pretty bad when my oldest calls and tells me that she is keeping up with me by reading the blog. Honestly I'm sure all this will end soon. In the meantime, thanks for being so understanding.

Labels Labels Everywhere

It's a little after 1:00 a.m. and I'm tired. There is no way to explain what the last week has been like. It was so bad that Jim was thrilled that he got to go back to work on Monday.

We were pretty busy making sure that everything was going well in the bee yard, and Jim is still trying to work with his dog Bailey to try to get her ready for the fall test. We also have a house to kind of take care of and a basement that is suppose to be finished for a graduation party in about 4 weeks. On our way over to Grand Rapids Friday I was reading the American Bee Journal looking in the ad section when I noticed an ad from someone not to far from where I lived. I called while we were in the car and told him I'd call him again Saturday when I got home. We didn't get home till around 1:00 on Saturday to find a message on the answering machine telling us that his Grandma had a stroke.

(Now I have to share something with you about this woman, she's 90 something and is totally amazing. She just had a hip replace either last year or the year before that. Nothing is going to keep her down. She's the kind of woman that you read about and smile when you hear about her. Yes, she is a bit hard headed, yes and maybe set in her ways, but most of all pretty darn independent. I love hearing the stories about her children and her life. I enjoy her a great deal, and I know that she will be back on the road to recovery quickly.)

Jim called his mom to make sure that Grandma was doing ok and when we heard that she had lots of company we decided not to go up. I wanted to get down to the Toledo Farmers Market to check it out since I'd decided to kind of open up shop there. I also wanted to get a feel for how long it was going to take for me to get down there, and figure out how to get around all the detours.

We finally found it and the space looks really a whole lot better than I thought. They are covered spaces with lots of parking; the Libby Glass Outlet is there as well as the Erie Street Market. The downer is that the Erie Street Market is currently closed and I'm not really sure when it will open. We got down there around 2:00 p.m. and it was pretty dead.

But I don't know, something about it sure appeals to me. . .

We ended up home around 3:30 or 4:00, yes we stopped for lunch, and after a quick trip in the house we headed out to the yard to see whose feeders needed feed and to check on the 5 hives that we had split as well as the splits from those hives.
Now we were real meticulous about our note taking and we had two hives that we could not see any brood or babies in #4 & #17. 17 actually looked like it was dying a slow death.

I had a pad of paper and each hive we went into I wrote down what we found. I found a queen that wasn't marked and was very impressed with the fact that I actually was able to do it. (Ok, it didn't hurt the fact that she was huge, and I mean huge) And no it wasn't a drone it really was a queen.

By the time we got in the house it was after 7:00 p.m. I made a phone call to the person who had an Ad in the magazine and made arrangements to meet him on Sunday. We quickly had a bite to eat and then headed downstairs to liquefy and bottle honey.

Liquefy honey you ask. . .well when it gets cold it starts to crystallize. You can make it liquid again if you gently heat it. If you have a bottle at home that seems like it's getting solid, just set it in a jar of warm water. I read in one of the magazines that you could put the jar through the dishwasher and that would liquefy it as well. Just make sure it's sealed real tight.

We got the last bottle bottled at around 11:30 and we passed out cold.

Sunday, I started an inventory of all the bottling supplies that I had as well as an actual product inventory. I can't believe all the things I had bought and couldn't find and bought again. I'm really glad I did it, but when I was counting all the seals and caps I wasn't very happy then. I finished up around 3:00 and Jim headed out to train Bailey and I headed over to the beekeeper that lives pretty close to me. He was a really nice guy. It made me so happy to find someone so close and he was so helpful. He had a few extra queens and I bought four from him. Two Italians and two carnolians. He showed me a battery box, which means that the queens were shipped in individual cages with the attendants loose in the box. He packages up my four new girls and told me that I should make sure that I got them in their new homes by today.

Just about then I started to feel the pressure.

I was home around 6:30 and worked on some stuff until Jim came home at 9:00 p.m.

Today it's Monday, no yesterday it was Monday and I got up early with every intention of installing the queens. But it rained. At first I thought the sprinkles wouldn't bother them until I opened up the first hive . . . Let's just say it wasn't raindrops falling on my head, it was more like bees bombing my bee suit. They were not happy to be bothered at all. I also just didn't seem to be able to get it together. I knew that I only really needed two queens but I had to brand new nuke boxes waiting for someone to live in them. I really did try early on in the day but had to put everything away and waited a few more hours. Around 1:00 p.m. I thought I saw a glimmer of sunshine and I headed back out to the yard. As usual the best-laid plans went astray. I thought I had everything I needed but I didn’t. I always manage to lose my hive tool and can’t ever find it. I couldn’t get the smoker to stay lit, and burned my finger pretty bad in the process. I went into two hives looking for a frame of brood and bees to put in each of the two hives I had set up earlier in the day thinking that I would put the two queens in that I knew I’d have left. That went pretty good actually, I didn’t ruffle two many feathers in the process and had a queen sighting while I was looking at frames.

I got the bee yard work done and then headed into town for groceries, came home raced like mad to get the kitchen done so that Jim would not think I’d been sitting on my but all day. . .And he keeps telling me I’m retired.

He sure has that wrong, not retired, just plain out tired.

When he walked in the door he looked pretty worn out and after we ate, we headed outside to mow the yard and work with the dogs.

At 8:00 p.m. I started to print out labels for all the jars that we bottled yesterday, what a real pain in the rear. But I know it’s something that has to get done.

So you are pretty much up to speed right now. I know there were not any photos but I’m slacking in the photo department right now.

Hopefully I’ll get better soon.