a gypsy caravan

bee preparation

I have wanted to keep bees for a long, long while.  After keeping them for decades, my friend Chris had decided not to do so any longer and was selling her equipment. She brought it over recently and I am getting it ready for next Monday when the bees are due to be ready for pick up. I missed the window for mail shipment so I will have to drive to the apiary to get the bees and transport them home in my Yukon. The apiary is about an hour and a half away so I am a little nervous about how that will go.  Hopefully, as uneventful as possible. I have visions of bees flying around my car and all of the children screaming in fear.  :)

Anyhow, here is what I've been working on thus far.

First, I needed to rid the frames of the old wax combs and sheets.  Using a hive tool, I scraped off the wax and propolis and removed the old reinforcement wires so I could insert new wax sheets. Very messy job but kind of fun. 

Below you can see the frame once it has been cleaned. The tool you see is a hive tool which is used for any variety of bee related jobs. 

Here is the fresh wax sheet, reinforced with wire to help bear the weight of the heavy honey/brood. The bees will build up the hexagonal dents more deeply. You can see an example of that in the photo above of the old wax. 

 

Here is a frame with a fresh wax sheet inserted. 

There are ten frames in each of the deep boxes that I prepared. 

I plan to give the boxes and stands a fresh coat of white paint tomorrow.  I'll post a photo when I'm finished. Excited to pick up the bees on Monday.   Have a wonderful weekend!

nine

{my beautiful girl}

you are kind and funny, brave and strong.  you have a way of making everything beautiful.

:: creative, adventurous and forgiving ::

a friend anyone would be glad to have on their side  

:: loving and faithful through thick and thin ::

happy birthday to my eldest daughter and dear friend. 

God keep you always. xoxo

sisters in the sun

happenings in the gardens

"Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, water-bugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water-lilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hay-fields, pine-cones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries and hornets; and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education."

-Luther Burbank

There has been much time spent in the out of doors lately.  We have taken a break from unpacking to work in the yard planting perennials, building and preparing vegetable gardens, hauling soil and readying bee boxes for their future inhabitants.

 

The guys spent two days building the raised vegetable beds. They turned out so nicely. 

(Lazy woman's method of weed control and grass removal.  Simply load soil on top and you're finished.)  

We have one 4x12 foot bed devoted to strawberries.  The remaining 3 beds will be vegetables. 

We also planted three blueberry bushes in the yard near the gardens. 

(I thought about cropping the car out of this photo.  And the garbage can.  And trying to touch up the paint on the house (it will be painted this summer), and moving the extra stone from the doorway but then I figured, it is what it is right now.)

Above is one of the perennial beds that the children planted.  It still needs to be mulched but they've done a fabulous job getting all of the flowers in the ground. As you can see, we are working on a little flagstone walkway as well. This perennial bed will be a cut flower garden to attract butterflies and hummingbirds. So far we have planted peonies, bleeding hearts (both white and pink), lupine, poppies, foxglove, daisies, coneflower, aster, pussytoes, clematis, columbine, black eyed susan, phlox, violets, lavender and veronica. There are also two rose bushes that were there when we moved in.  The rest we have added ourselves. I'll take a photo of the bed when its completely finished. 

Here are all of the plants the children chose...

I added this little flower arrangement on the door at the end of the stone walkway. 

I will post some photos of the bee equipment, possibly tomorrow. Until then, I hope you have a happy day today and that you are able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine!