Avalon1984-Chicken, horses, pigs, oh my!

[snapshot]

I'm sorry about your bees, Avalon. I've never tried to keep bees.

On a lighter note, they make crockpot liners so you barely have to rinse your crockpot! I stay stocked up on them!!!!

 

[Avalon1984]

Sigh...death has come to our farm today...I lost my honey bees over the winter. Had a funny feeling my hive was too big. Bless their little hearts though, they left me about 80lbs of honey before they died, so I am currently taking the hives apart and harvesting the honey as best as possible. Got 3 big bowls of honey mess on the porch. Will haev to take pictures soon.

We all, who care for animals, share your grief today. The loss of your bees is a sad thing.
I think it was Albert Einstein who said something to the effect "four years after the last bee dies, man will become extinct"

My bees are still in the shed, wrapped in tar paper. I'm pretty certain they are ok, because I see them coming and going through the opening between the big shed doors.

We all hope that your grief passes soon as we know it should. We are, as was said by the character "ET" "right here!"

Trim sends
//BT//

Thank you so much for your kind words Trim It is indeed a sad thing. It is even sadder how much honey the left me, as if to leave a memorial. I spent 5hrs today making sure I harvested asmuch honey as possible, making all of their work count, while figuring out what happened. I spoke with my Beek and he has been having the same problem but he has some hives left, because he started out with 10 hives last fall. I had wrapped my hive in tar paper too and we had hopes, because we had seen bees but it must have been my Beeks bees who lives just around the corner, because mine were gone. My new bees will be here in another half a month so hopefully I will be able to build up this colony better, split them if needed and make them survive the winter.

 

[ORChick]

I am sorry to hear about your bees. Such little creatures, but so very important to all of us. I hope this was just part of the learning curve, and your next effort will be more successful.
Back to food ... check out the *what are you fermenting today* thread in the recipes section to find recipes for homemade Sauerkraut. Really pretty easy, very frugal, and it tastes better! I have never been terribly fond of Sauerkraut, nor has my German hubby, but we both like the homemade stuff better.
(Thueringer Kloesse are still beyond me, but I made some very nice Leberknoedel this evening )

 

[Avalon1984]

You guys crack me up. Yes, I will look into a crockpot and liner with my next paycheck- that is if they dont forget to pay me again.

I was up until 10:30pm last night filtering honey. There is more to do today and I need to get cheese cloth to get the smallest particles out. I have about 3 gallons so far and I am looking into making wax out of the leftover filtered honeycomb. At $20 a pound I think that will be well worth it. I have about 15lbs or so of honey comb that needs one more draining but will be good to go then. At least I might be able to recoup some of the money I spent on the bees so that I can pay off the rest for my new bees and do it better next time. Once the rain moves off I will go ahead and clean up all the supers and add some funky lemon stuff which I heard attracts bees. My neighbor has about 80 acres of blueberries and gets bees shipped to him, I am sure he wouldnt mind if I attract the one or other swarm he has.

Our area is perfect for the bees, lots of food to eat, now I just need to ensure that they survive the winters. I am a bit worried because our apple farmers here said they were hit hard with last weeks frost, some lost over 80% of their crops. The more beeks I talk to, the more I see that I am not the only one who lost bees, so we lost out on the fruits, the bees, what next???

Here is a picture of me from the better days when I still had my beesies

 

[Denim Deb]

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din. I'd love to have bees, but can't. I'm highly allergic to honey bees, and have to carry an epi pen w/me. I get the allergy shots, but last time one got me, I had a reaction.

 

[Avalon1984]

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din. I'd love to have bees, but can't. I'm highly allergic to honey bees, and have to carry an epi pen w/me. I get the allergy shots, but last time one got me, I had a reaction.

Yeah, I hear you. Some call it brave, some call it batsh*tcrazy. I am not a fan of dealing with them too much, we kind of accept each other. Always get that funny gut feeling when I hear them ssssuuuuuummmmm up a storm in their hive. I am also not the most educated or gentle beek. I am still learning about not dropping frames They got me several times, little buggers. My husband can stand there without a shirt on and they won't touch him. Me? They go after me like crazy. One time they stung me 10 or so times in the arm, one right in the neck and that was when I started to get a little sick and dizzy. I heard it is good for arthiritis. I am still waiting on those "positive" effects.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm dizzy enough w/out getting stung!

 

[Avalon1984]

Still working on filtering my batch of honey. I should be done with the first step tonight. Need to get cheesecloth and one of those handy buckets with a spicket on the bottom for bottling. I have been getting recipes for rendering beeswax so I will try that too once I am done. Looks like I will have approx. 4 gallons of honey to bottle, that would be wonderful. Upon further inspection I noticed that my hive may have died because the queen died. It looked like they were trying to build queen cells and the lack of brood makes me wonder if she died and they didnt manage to rear a queen in time. Without being able to check the hive in the winter, I dont think there was much we could have done about that. I set up a bait hive yesterday to see if I cant attract a new bee swarm somewhere. I have good real estate to offer, many flowers and bushes and trees, and good furniture in the form of some nicely started frames. Just move in and fill with honey please.

Horses are suffering from the heat and humidity that started yesterday. Wish the weather could make up its mind. Hubby is grumpy and he usually isnt. I think it is because he has to work this weekend and we have tons of projects to do that keep on getting put off. He complained about the horses possible having to go back for rebreeding. Told him he is welcome to convince the mares to conceive if he thinks he can, that would save a lot of time. Then he complained about the bees dying. Told him he should yell at them for doing that. Then he complained that the house was a mess. Told him we can move to the city. Then he complained about all the chores that need to get done. I told him I do those every single day- twice, and that is why the house is not well maintainedsigh I cant wait for that moon cycle to end, it seems to have ill effects on my husband.

Hope everybodys garden is doing good. I will be extra careful and wait another couple of weeks out of fear over frost. Id hate having to replant.

 

[Denim Deb]

We had frost earlier in the week. I don't try to get things like tomatoes, peppers, etc in until mid-May normally for just in case.

 

[Icu4dzs]

Still working on filtering my batch of honey. I should be done with the first step tonight. Need to get cheesecloth and one of those handy buckets with a spicket on the bottom for bottling. I have been getting recipes for rendering beeswax so I will try that too once I am done. Looks like I will have approx. 4 gallons of honey to bottle, that would be wonderful. Upon further inspection I noticed that my hive may have died because the queen died. It looked like they were trying to build queen cells and the lack of brood makes me wonder if she died and they didnt manage to rear a queen in time. Without being able to check the hive in the winter, I dont think there was much we could have done about that. I set up a bait hive yesterday to see if I cant attract a new bee swarm somewhere. I have good real estate to offer, many flowers and bushes and trees, and good furniture in the form of some nicely started frames. Just move in and fill with honey please.

Horses are suffering from the heat and humidity that started yesterday. Wish the weather could make up its mind. Hubby is grumpy and he usually isnt. I think it is because he has to work this weekend and we have tons of projects to do that keep on getting put off. He complained about the horses possible having to go back for rebreeding. Told him he is welcome to convince the mares to conceive if he thinks he can, that would save a lot of time. Then he complained about the bees dying. Told him he should yell at them for doing that. Then he complained that the house was a mess. Told him we can move to the city. Then he complained about all the chores that need to get done. I told him I do those every single day- twice, and that is why the house is not well maintainedsigh I cant wait for that moon cycle to end, it seems to have ill effects on my husband.

Hope everybodys garden is doing good. I will be extra careful and wait another couple of weeks out of fear over frost. Id hate having to replant.

Make him go fishing for a few days. That'll get him back "on track!"
Frustration of all sorts takes on many faces...one of them is frequent complaint particularly about things he has no control over. Ask him what he is frustrated about. He just might tell you. Then you are on your way to a solution!
Trim sends
//BT//