Bully Bees

In what appears to be the ongoing demise of our beehive, Tom captured this video of bees fighting. He suspects foreign bees raided our weaker hive.

A few days later I went to look at the hive and there was more activity around it than I'd ever seen.

Tom hasn't had a chance to go back out and open the hive to see what's really going on. Stay tuned!

A quiet month for the bees

Not much to report in terms of bee activity. They are not producing comb and honey quite as rapidly as we'd hope. An established hive would have surplus honey to harvest next month, with enough remaining to last the colony though the winter. Our hive currently does not have anywhere near enough to last the winter, let alone harvest. Last month Tom added a second box to the hive, hoping they'd start expanding their comb-building activities, but so far they've not expanded much, and in fact have been consuming some of the comb they built.

We are supplementing their nectar gathering activities with sugar water to help them build honeycomb more quickly. The mixture is a 1:1 combination of sugar and water, heated just enough to dissolve the sugar, but not to boiling as that would crystallize the sugar and make it inedible for the bees. It seems that keeping that sugar water full will be critical going forward.

When inspecting the hive today, Tom found the queen (good), a few hive beetles (no good - but the bees were attacking them so that's a good thing), and plenty of larvae, which means the queen is actively laying. So now we wait. Tom is attending a day-long bee seminar next weekend and should get some good information about sustaining and growing our hive. He'll treat for the beetles and hope we don't have any other infestations.

I Picked a Peck of Pickled... Radishes?

With my radish crop becoming ripe, I found myself with more radishes than I could possibly consume on my own. The best way I could think of to extend the life of my produce was to pickle them. Last night I did just that.

I first harvested all the radishes. There were a handful that were still too small, and may never full develop, but the yield from my twelve square feet of garden (after having already picked enough for a snack and a side dish) was well over 100 radishes. And I still have time to replant in that same square footage, if I wanted (and I probably will). Those hundred radishes resulted in 7 jars of pickles, with three of those having carrots mixed in. It would have been six 16 oz. jars of all-radish pickles.

I decided to try a couple different recipes, since I have no clue what the result would be. Naturally, I turned to pinterest and found two promising variations. One was a basic pickle, using apple cider vinegar and honey. The other was a more Asian style using rice vinegar and sugar.

I began by prepping all my radishes, removing the greens and roots. The chickens and goats seemed to enjoy those, so there is no waste! Then I sliced all the radishes to about 1/8" thickness using my mandolin, which made them nice and consistently sized, and saved me a bunch of time, I'm sure. Radishes are so small that it was a little difficult to use the hand guard thing, but I've watched enough food network to know you should never use a mandolin with your bare hands.

For the first recipe, courtesy of gardentherapy.ca, I stayed pretty true to the recipe except I used pickling salt instead of sea salt. I'm hoping the amounts required to get a good brine are pretty consistent between those two.

For the more Asian version, I modified slightly a recipe I found on the Whole Foods website to use ingredients I had on hand. Those jars contain a mixture of 2/3 radishes and 1/3 carrots. I omitted the cucumber, chilies, ginger, and onion - all of which would make them way more delicious but I didn't have the foresight to pick them up at the store. Next time! I also played with the pickling juice a bit and tested three variations:

1. Rice vinegar and pickling salt
2. Seasoned rice vinegar and pickling salt
3. Seasoned rice vinegar and pink Hawaiian salt

They are in the fridge now, since both recipes are considered "quick pickles" and are not meant for long term storage. They should be ready to try by tomorrow! I'll report back with the results. fingers crossed!

The bees are here!

Our first colony of bees has arrived at the Lazy Duck Ranch, and they are already working on pollinating around our place! We spotted some of our bees enjoying a patch of yellow blooms in our yard today. Tom was very excited to see the bees out doing their thing, as it indicates a healthy hive.

The gentleman who provided us with the swarm that came as part of our bee club raffle prize package let us know our hive was inhabited and ready for pickup on April 12th. He provided us with an established hive rather than a swarm. This meant that 70% of the frames that make up the first level of the hive were already full of honey comb. This is good news because that means they already have a good start on building their stores for next winter and chances are better that we might have a little surplus honey to enjoy ourselves this fall.

Tom is getting used to suiting up to check on the hive, and is working to overcome that innate fear of being surrounded by creatures who could, if they so desired, inflict great pain. A bee inside his veil didn't help ease the transition.

Within a few days of the hive's arrival, it was overrun by ants in search of the sweet honey. Tom did his research and employed a combination of methods to deter the ants, including lifting the whole setup onto cinder blocks and putting cinnamon sticks, which break up the ant's scent trails, between the stand and the hive..

Tom proudly wears his RightStar shirt, the perfect attire for beekeeping.

Our second bee colony arrives in a couple weeks. Time to get the second hive ready for them, and get prepared to install the queen in her new home, all on our own!