Spring is Go Time!

1...2...3...Go!

Lately around here it feels like somebody waved a green flag and we're off and running. Between the additional bees, the 5 new chicks, the veggie starts in the greenhouse, Whit's crafts, and the rest of the yard work, it's go time. We hit 85 degrees last weekend and just like that the spring came alive, the grass is growing, the trees are blooming, and the Asparagus is growing inches per day! 

First up the bees: in the last post I told you that I went to WA and brought home two five frame nuc hives. Since then the bees have really taken off! The fruit trees are blooming and the dandelions are up. All of a sudden the world is custom made for honey bees. They arrived with lots of brood, which means they were ready to hatch a new generation of workers. Within days of the installation the population exploded. I checked them tonight and they have just about filled the first box with honey and are nearly ready for box number two. Our original hive is doing great too, and is in nearly the same shape as the new ones. We've been cleaning up, disinfecting and repainting used boxes to get them ready for the upcoming season. One of the new hives was even building swarm cells, meaning they are intending to raise new queens and reproduce. That is a sign they are in high gear and I need to be very actively watching them and ready to stack up boxes to keep them busy.

Next up, the new chicks! Whit brought home five newly hatched Silver Laced Wyandottes from the feed store today! The little peepers are all healthy and doing good in the brood box. These little ones will brood for a month in the house, be moved to their own living quarters in 6 weeks and then join the flock later this summer. By late fall or early winter they should be fully integrated into the flock and laying. Until then it's a lot of fun having chicks again and the dogs are very curious about the noisy box on the hearth. They have to be kept seperate from the other hens while they are young, soon I'll fix up a dog kennel for them, and build a small chicken tractor so they can get out in the grass. The rest of the hens are doing very well and really happy about all the green grass and bugs in the yard.

Next: Veggie starts! This year we are very lucky in that one of our friends is working at a greenhouse starting plants. She's been bringing us starts that are left over after they re-pot so we have a very nice assortment of veggies in the greenhouse. I'm proud to see the greenhouse working so nicely and will definitely post some pictures when I get a chance. This weekend, one of our pressing to do's is prepping the garden beds that will hold the lettuce, broccoli, spinach, beets, carrots, onions, peas and potatoes.  Already we've had several friends asking if they can buy our produce this summer! We're pretty excited, but it's going to be a lot of work.

Finally the crafts. Whit's earrings and hair clips have been such a success, she's decided to sign up for a locally made craft fair in Missoula. Now she's working hard to build up her inventory so that we can take pictures and provide them to the fair in her application (it is a juried show). That event will be in late June and she is hoping she gets chosen. 

I know it was brief, but that's what we've been up to. Spring is both a very exciting and overwhelming time of year. There is so much to do, but it's all fun and great to see our little farm taking off.

Hope you are all doing well, and I'll try to post more pictures real soon.

KJ

Bringing Home the Bees

After losing our smaller hive in February, we decided to go ahead and order some bees. They were sold out, but I got on the waiting list and we got a call last week saying there would be bees available.  Saturday I drove over to Washington and picked up our new girls.  The nucs come in cardboard boxes with a brand new queen, five frames of brood, and many, many worker bees.

The drive went well, aside from the dozen or so girls that got loose and buzzed around inside the car while I drove home.

Our first introduction to the new girls, pretty exciting, and loud!

And here is one of our new queens! This little beauty is bred to lay 2000+ eggs a day and has been chosen for her superior traits and quality. She determines the genetics of the whole hive, so it's important that she is  the best queen she can be. The new queens come housed in a cage, with a bit of tape over the candy plug. When the bees are installed, the tape is pulled off exposing the candy and allowing the workers to release the queen. By that time the workers will have accepted the queen and will be ready to go to work.

This is what makes the nuc so special. There are five frames of brood like this ready to hatch and go to work right away. With a swarm or package of bees you have to wait for the queen to lay eggs, and for the brood to mature before you get any new bees. That time lag sets the nuc ahead by a month.

And here is an installed nuc! The five frames are full, and the queen is secure in her cage in between the frames. All that's left is to feed them a gallon of syrup each and then leave them alone for a week to release the queen and get to work. In a few weeks they will have filled the rest of these frames and will be ready for a second box to be added.

So here's our "bee yard" today. The original hive on the left, with the two new ones on the right. By the way, the original hive, the one that was vacuumed out of the eaves last summer, is still going strong and appears to be happy and healthy. The yard has a audible hum now and the bee activity is very noticeable. Just in time too, since today I noticed the dandelions are blooming! Ordinarily this may not have been that exciting but now I just imagine how happy the flowers will make my bees.

Our other big news: we were very lucky and have recently been given unwanted bee boxes and equipment from two different people. So the next adventure is cleaning and prepping hand-me-down boxes and frames so that we are ready for the nectar flow. Bring it on! 

Until next time. KJ