A blog from Abe and his Bees

I was fortunate enough to be able to remove a hive from a house down in the village last weekend. It was a wonderful and amazing experience, and it left me with such an appreciation for bees.

Armando's nephew (Luis) is a pro keeper. He has about 30 hives, which he rents them to the orchards. He came down last weekend for Easter, and someone down in the village asked him to remove a hive that was in their roof. Apparently, it had been there for several years.

Well, he didn't have any equipment, but he knew I was interested in bees, as he has been looking for used hives and "splits" for me for some time, now. So, he proposed that we remove the hive together, using my equipment. The deal was that I could have the hive, and we could split any honey, if we found any.

So, I saw it as an awesome opportunity. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous when we arrived at the house. I had never been around bees like that, and I didn't really know how I would react.

We climbed up to the roof and started removing pieces of tin where the bees were coming out of the roof. It soon dawned on us that they were not in this part of the roof, so we went to another part, removed more tin, and later learned that they were not in the roof at all, but down below the insulation just above the sheet rock. It so happened that this was right above a closet, which made it hard to work with the limited space and light.

In any case, we started tearing down sheet rock and quickly found the hive. IT WAS HUGE. It measured about 4 feet long and 3 feet wide. There were so many bees, I could hardly believe it.

We started pulling down combs, one by one. I was on the ground sorting them into "honey" and "brood" piles. Once we got most of the hive down (who knows how long it took, at least 2 hours), we started tying the brood combs to my tops bars and putting them in a box I brought up to serve as a temporary hive.

The honey combs went into a 5 gallon bucket that we quickly filled, so we got another, and it filled up as well.

As things started to calm down a bit, we began looking in the hive I brought, which by this time had tons of bees in it. We were looking for the queen, and I am proud to say that I was the one that spotted her! She seemed ok, but had honey on her, and as the day progressed, she moved less and less. The workers didn't really help her much, which worried us a bit.

We scooped up as many bees as we could, and then we took the hive up to our house. I dropped Luis off at Armando's house so that he could start processing the honey.

I arranged my barrel hive up here in a nice spot under an oak tree with a real nice eastern exposure. Getting the bees into the hive was very easy, I pretty much just poured them in. I ended up with about 6-8 heavy brood combs, all tied up to the tops bars and arranged in the hive really nice. The bees took to the new hive quite well, and I noticed they were even helping the queen a bit, though by this time she was barely moving at all.

Anyway, by the end of the day, we processed about 4 gallons of honey that we split between us. We also gave some to Armando and Estela, plus some to the people whose house we destroyed earlier that day! :)

I did end up getting stung once. When I was pulling down comb, a bee walk right onto my veil, which was pressed up against my face. She stung right through the veil on the tip of my nose. It didn't hurt much, and I just kept on working, and when we were done, Luis pulled the stinger out for me. The next morning I woke up with a big, swollen nose, and I now look like a sesame street character.

All in all, it was a great day, and a wonderful experience. I felt like a pro by the end of it (especially when I spotted the queen!), and I am excited to do it again soon. We will see if the hive survives, as I have doubts about the queen.

So, there you go, my first bee experience. I have been eating the dark, rich honey every since we robbed it, and I can't get enough of it. Luckily, we have a lot, plus a lot of clean wax as well. Leo loves the honey, so we are all just pigging out around here on Dad's latest adventure!

UPDATE 4-13
Yesterday I opened up the hive to look for the queen and also tie a few bits of comb to the top bars. As I was going through the hive, everyone looked really good, but I didn't see any signs of a queen. There was a small piece of comb leaning against the back of the hive, and when I picked it up, the back side was covered with thousands of bees. I thought that I had finally found the queen, but instead were 4 large queen cells. So, the hive is making a new queen, and if my calculations are correct, she should hatch sometime around April 20-25.

More Photos

Odd Jobs

We've been doing lots of odd jobs around the place.

Our small worm farm has grown so much that we had to make them a new worm bin. We cleaned out the old one and split the worms between the two bins. Both of us had handfuls and handfuls of worms, like spaghetti. Now that our original two small tubs have grown so much, we will soon be setting up a proper system for them, which separates the poop (which goes on the garden) and the worms (which help compost scraps and feed the chickens).

I finished the toilet's sawdust container.

Abe planted 10 more apple trees, given free by the local council. All the ones we planted before (cherries, apricots, plum) are now leafed out and pretty. The only one that hasn't is the pecan, but it is certainly very healthy.

We're making a movable hen house and pen. We have lost too many to coyotes free-ranching them, so we are now going to do a chicken tractor system, where you just move their pen so they can continue to graze grass. The house will be on bike wheels, so we can just push it to a new location.

We're also working on the garden. We have a bunch of plants outside now, and another 132 soil blocks started inside. It is now super warm (no more socks or sweaters, windows open, etc.), and no more chance of freezes.

Another super exciting addition to the family is a beehive. Abe was asked to remove a hive from someone's house, and we got to keep the bees and honey. Stay tuned for Abe's account of that episode!

Leo's first hair cut

We gave Leo his first hair cut the other day. It was a little bit of a struggle. I did it with scissors when his hair was wet, and he cried. The funny thing is that Abe did some trimming with clippers a little later (which we had thought would scare him) and he loved it!

Anyway, the end result is a very cute little boy.

I put some more photos and videos in 24th month.

Jim and Vickie come to visit

When Grandpa Jim and Grandma Vickie said they were coming to visit this month, we were a little doubtful. For the first two months of the year, Jim had a bad case of pneumonia, which seemed to go on and on. One of his doctors prescribed him a whole of array of antibiotics, hopping from one to the other within just a few days. No wonder when they had an effect on his heart.

He went for a checkup less than two weeks ago and they told him his heart was beating at just 30 beats per minute. They immediately rushed him into surgery to install a pace maker. Then, just days before they were supposed to come here, the operation wound was bleeding. His doctors told him he must do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, until it had a proper chance to heal. So naturally, Jim listened attentively before shuffling Vickie into the truck and driving on down here.

Seeing as no harm was done, we were super happy to have them here, as was little Leo. He loved the attention, and as usual, had games that he reserved for each one. He dragged Vickie all around the property and beyond (with 6 trucks in his hands, as always). When he wasn't throwing balls at Jim, he wanted him to pick him up. I asked if Jim should be lifting things yet, but he replied "I'm lifting him with my right arm". The logic is undeniable!

Unfortunately, they didn't stay very long, but we'll take what we can get. We know we'll see them soon, as we have possession of the most powerful drug ever: an adorable, entertaining and interactive grandson.

For more photos of Leo's 24th month (almost 2 years old - wow), click here.

Toilet

The bathroom isn't finished, but we decided to go ahead and build our toilet anyway.

It's a two-bay composting toilet. One for number one, two for number two (we will be drawing pictures on the lids, so stay tuned for that!). The poop one uses sawdust as its carbon cover material. The pee one will be filled with biochar (which eliminates all smell and is an excellent additive to the garden, as it releases nutrients, of which it is full, slowly to the plants). We haven't yet gotten around to making the biochar, but when we do, we'll post further explanation. The lids hinge, so that you can take the buckets out easily.

I haven't yet finished making the sawdust container, which will go on the side which doesn't have an armrest. Should get it done over the next couple of days.

We also installed a 4" PVC pipe, which is open within the toilet unit, runs under the floor to the outside, and then up into the air 10 foot. The outside part is painted black. This heats up, making the air within it rise. This makes a draft and keeps the toilet totally smell free. It works great.

So now we have an inside toilet - we are moving up in the world!

Next step, which won't happen for a while, will be a hot shower/bath. We went to the city yesterday and found a used, metal bathtub for $40. It's great.

Power system

We have been working on the power house and bathroom. Although the bathroom still has a way to go, the power house is now finished.

We've moved all the tools in there as well for the time being, but its main purpose is obviously to house the power system.

We have always had used golf cart batteries powering our electricity. They are free, which is really something you can't beat, but they don't last forever. Now, for the first time, we have a huge battery bank, made up of seven 12 volt, 190 amp, sealed batteries. It is beautiful. We also have a super fancy inverter that can do pretty much everything you can imagine. It's pretty incredible.

This week, Abe made a solar mount, to support the new solar panels (which we have had in the shed for a while). Some of the panels are up there already, but not yet connected to the batteries - that comes on Monday.

We are about to have a kick ass system. Off grid power is great in that it is something you can slowly build up, which we have been doing for some time. The reward is now here. In a couple of days, we won't have to think about power usage (at least by our standards), and we will even be getting an electric fridge.

More Photos

Trees

Spring is in the air. Now warmer, both day and night, and the risk of frosts are soon passed. So, it's time to get the garden going.

We have lettuce, collards, cabbage, onions, leeks and radish already in the ground outside, and growing great. We also have beets, radish, onions, carrots and tomatoes growing inside in soil blocks, almost ready to go out. We should be starting some more seeds this week in soil blocks.

But more exciting than the vegetables is that we have planted some trees: 3 apricots, 2 cherries, 1 pecan, 1 plum. And we have 5 apples coming soon, free from our city council. That's all we have water for this year. But we'll be building a large tank in a couple of months, so next year we plan to plant 50 more trees! Forest garden, here we come.

More photos