Bees!

Our bees came in early. Instead of needing to pick them up on Saturday, they were ready on Thursday. How appropriate that they come in on Earth Day. Wednesday night we were up very, very late trying to get everything ready for their arrival. We had to seal the outside of the hive body and prepare the frames. For frame preparation we, as is our style, had to try something non-conventional. As we learned in our classes and from all of the beekeeping books we've read, you typically start your frames with pre-made foundation made of either beeswax or plastic. Essentially, the combs are already in place and the bees simply draw them out to start their brood. Instead of doing it this way, we decided to let them build their own comb, in an attempt to fend off the varroa mite - one of the many bee befallments that has been on the increase in the past ten years.

The mite grows on the larvae and then continues life on the abdomen of the bee. Some beekeepers think that the mite has become an issue as of late because we have set the size of the combs by installing foundation. We'll see how our experiment works.

We set up the two hives for our two bee packages - one Carneolian and one MN Hygienic. Paul had to fashion some make-shift parts as our second hive and other accessories are on backorder for a few weeks.

Basically, we took out two frames, opened the bee packages, removed the queen cage and dumped 15,000 bees into each hive. Then we opened the queen cage and set that in so that the queen can come out safely on her own.

After installing the bees, Paul and I headed out to dinner to celebrate our 7 year anniversary.

When we got back, we decided to open the entrance to the second hive and put the last frame into the hive since the bees had settled in a bit. Being the brave Mama of the family, I opened the hive, reached in and grabbed the queen cage out, dropped the frame in, and slid the cover back in place, and walked away with only one sting. Mind you, I was wearing no protective gear whatsoever. So far, these seem to be extremely gentle bees.

Hooray! Now Honeybee Hollow has honeybees!

Potato Patch

I love saying "potato patch" almost as much as I love going out to grabble those beauties when potato salad time comes. This weekend was time to plant the potato patch. Last year we had four varieties. All were tasty, but not all were productive. We decided to go with the Yukon Golds this year as they are our favorite and most plentiful.
For those who don't know, potato plants are grown from "seed" potatoes. All that means is that the potatoes that come in the box from Johnny's have been in the dark long enough to know that once I plant them in the ground, it's time to grow. Potatoes that you get from the store won't necessarily grow because aren't on the right schedule.
We get a box of potatoes and cut them up. Each section of potato will grow as long as it has an eye on it. An eye is the little site where a sprout looks like it could come out. No eye, no plant.
Then I just dig holes 18" apart and throw in the piece of potato.
Now I just have to wait. Nothing is more worth it than fresh potatoes.

Back in Business

After a painful process of ordering, waiting for and installing a new hard drive for my computer, I'm back in business. Apparently I had completely filled all 80G of my previous harddrive, so now I have 320G to try and fill. Game on.

What's been happening in the Hollow? We've spread compost, planted some new trees and are frantically trying to get things ready for bee delivery on April 24th. So is everyone else, apparently, as many of our items from the supplier are on backorder. Argh.

Here are some pictures of the yard, including our new apple and pear trees!

It feels like...

we should be doing this soon:

but I have a feeling that, like every year, strawberry picking season will creep up on us. This year will be different. Instead of three girls that pick and immediately consume the berries, perhaps more of them will end up in the basket, right?
Well, either way, we'll be bringing home berries and hopefully, they will go into our new freezer, which was a requirement of the Mama this year.
The other thing that's been creeping up on us is bicycle maintenance (or lack thereof). It's been so nice so soon that we haven't had a chance to tune up the pile of bikes in the garage. Luckily, the Papa's bike, which he rides year round, is always ready to go.
Here's a pic from last year:

Our food source

We were reading a library book the other day called Farms Feed the World. It talked about where our food comes from and that we also get our clothing from cotton that grows on farms. The final page had some lines about our need to respect and support farms. We close the book and Amelie says, "Well, everyone else needs farms. We don't." To which I say, "We don't? Where do you think we get all of our food and clothing?" "Our backyard", she says. Huh. If we actually tried to feed ourselves from our backyard year round, I think she'd feel a little less smug about the situation.
I feel an "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" experiment is in order in a few years.

Homeopathy for Mavis

Mavis, one of our hens, is getting pecked. She's lost almost all of the feathers on her neck so, at the recommendation of a good friend and colleague, I gave her a dose of Belladonna 30c. I dissolved it in a bit of water and put the cup up to her beak.


She took about three good gulps, so we'll keep our eye on her and see what happens. Watch for more Mavis updates.

All those eggs....

I bet you're wondering what we do with all those eggs. First, I'd like to set something straight. Chickens lay one egg per day (mostly). The egg color depends upon their breed, not necessarily on the color of their feathers. They don't need a rooster to lay eggs but if there is a rooster they can lay fertilized eggs that will become chicks. Without a rooster, it's just a big ole pile of tasty eggs waiting to be eaten.
We have nine chickens. We get about 6-8 eggs per day. Wondering what we do with all of these delicious beauties? If we were a little bit nicer and a little less hungry, we'd give them away. Sadly, we eat them. All of them. With five egg loving bellies in the family (six if you count Sam), eight eggs equals scrambled eggs for five. Five more eggs? Some delicious fresh pasta. Need a snack at lunch? How about a hard boiled egg? Hungry for eggs and you're not sure what to do? We now have a solution for that!