a gypsy caravan

honey

I had a medium sized box of ten frames that were strictly capped honey. I guess I waited a while to long because when I went to harvest the honey a few days later, the queen had gotten through the excluder and into the honey super. She had layed eggs in six of the ten frames and I was only able to harvest the remaining four. This gave us eight pints of honey which is a far cry from the dozens of pounds I was expecting. 

Needless to say, it was an educational process for all of us. Anne was the most helpful once the honey was brought into the house. She is so proud of those little jars of honey. :)

april ruffle wrap-yarn along

Warm weather is coming our way here in Northeast Ohio so I am trying to finish my November Ruffle Wrap before the chill is out of the air. Right now the temperatures are in the mid fifties with an occasional jump into the sixties. When the summer months come, I tend to work on smaller projects that aren't quite so warm on my lap. I like the way the charcoal grey is speckled with the lighter weight alpaca. I think I will wear it alot on cold winter nights.

I've been reading The Family Kitchen Garden and really love the way the projects are broken down on a month by month basis. We are in hardiness zone 6 which means I can follow the book as written without adjusting our growing calendar. Ben planted shell peas two weeks ago and they are beginning to sprout out back.  The strawberries also have new leaves. We should have a bumper crop for jam and for eating. 

I plan to put in an herb garden on the west side of the house this spring and am looking for design ideas. I like circular gardens with small paths between plantings so I'm considering that idea.  The Kid's Herb Book has a nice list of medicinal herbs and kitchen herbs that are child friendly plus some easy activities/recipes for children and parents to do together. 

I lost a hive of bees this winter. I heard a lot of people lost bees this year. I'm trying not to feel too badly about it and have ordered replacements to pick up the first week of May. My strong hive last year that subsequently survived this winter were Carnolians and the ones that died were Italians. So I ordered another colony of Carniolans. Here's hoping! In the meantime, I'm going to try to be more diligent to read the beekeeping books that are lying around my home and become a bit more educated in that regard. For those of you who keep bees, do you have a favorite go-to resource to answer your bee questions?

Happy Wednesday, my friends!

You can find more Yarn Alongs at Ginny's. 

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!