Gathering the Swarming Honeybees

In the spring, honeybees swarm as a colony of bees splits to make more room for the ones that stay in the hive. Around here, those that venture out of their old home to find a new one are good news for my friend Desiree. It helps her build her apiary!

Friends and neighbors watch for swarming bees. A quick phone call to Desiree and she flies into action, making plans to go to the rescue, a mission that has to happen within a time frame of 1 to 24 hours. After that, the workers who are out scouting for a new home will have shown the others in the swarm the way, and they'll be gone.

Look closely at this photo of a tree. At first glance you might think you see a hornet or squirrel nest in the center of the photo. It's actually swarming honeybees.

"A swarm is a big ball of bees, piled on top of each other," Desiree says. "When it's in a tree, the bees are all huddled together. We catch them and put them in our hive box, our super. If you can get the queen in, the rest will follow."

Usually, when there's a swarm of bees splitting away, and not an entire colony, the honeybees take a queen cell with them, an egg the queen has laid. The diet that is given to this bee larva determines what the bee will grow into, so when the workers are grooming a bee to become the new queen bee, she gets a unique queenly diet, "royal jelly"! Pretty cool!
 
Desiree says, "They only sting you when they feel threatened. When one stings, the pheromone (smell) will attract the others and they'll come after you. So, if you get stung once, it's best to leave."

The next day or later the same day, after the bees are settled in the super, Desiree takes them home to her beekeeping operation, Klover Hill Apiary, where she plans to build her bee numbers and continue trying new bee products, expanding from honey and lip balm into candles and soaps.

 I asked  Desiree where a person is most likely to find swarming bees. She says they can be in homes, barns, trees and mostly, around here, they seem to like lilac bushes. Since we have three large old lilac bushes at the farm, I invited her to investigate for swarming bees. None. Then we went to the barn, another place they might gather. Again, none, but that was a cool, rainy day. 

Apparently, honeybees like hot days because Desiree says she usually gets pretty sweaty when she has to put on all her gear to go after them! The last time she went to gather bees, it started pouring the rain, so she plugged the box, strapped it, and then heaved it into the bed of her pickup, getting hot, sweaty, and soaking wet! Then, when her son ended up getting a bee sting, she wondered why she ever decided to keep bees.

Like anything worth doing, if it were easy, wouldn't everyone be doing it? From talking to Desiree and seeing her photos, I know she loves the adventure of finding and retrieving swarming bees and she is dedicated to helping the planet. She will do this for many years to come. Thank goodness! Maybe she can help to increase the declining numbers of honeybees! 

The photos in this post are courtesy of Desiree Blaha-Poyner. To see more of her photos, you can Facebook "friend" her.

Connecting Past to Present in a Pioneer Cemetery

Jessi, making rubbings that helped to establish identity and dates.

My cousin Stephanie, her husband Dave, and my daughter Jessi recently went trekking to a grown-over pioneer cemetery. No road access meant we had a 3/4 mile trek through a soybean field up a knoll to the 2-acre enclosed cemetery. Not only was it fenced in, but totally surrounded by briars and thorny honey locust trees, like something out of the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.

Stephanie and Dave, capturing this moment in time. Me, capturing them.

Dave, unearthing a forgotten headstone.

I had wanted to find this place ever since I heard about it several years ago. The cemetery had been shrouded in mystery but would hold clues from our past that would give us a keener understanding of our ancestors' lives, and it was situated on the very land where they lived!

Some headstones were small but ornate.

Some of the monuments toppled from their own weight and the ravages of time and weather.

Some had writing that was still  somewhat legible.

This crag of a tree speaks to the long-forgotten area.

Around thirty of our ancestors found their final resting places there, where now it appears to be an abandoned flower garden, overgrown with Solomon's Seal, Wild Columbine, Day Lilies, Violets, and Nettles. More flowers, but I've forgotten them. Our focus was on finding downed headstones and monuments, covered over with moss, lichens and dirt, and then connecting that person with our lives, our family tree. 

Solomon's Seal was prevalent and, I thought, fitting since this was on the original 400 acre land grant that my great great grandfather Solomon Salmon received after his Revolutionary War service. I know, there should be 6 or 7 greats before "grandfather" but our family tended to have children later in their lives!

Two Brooding Hens and Maybe a Chick!

the hens in their culvert nesting boxes in the brooder

Update from last Thursday: We have two brooding Speckled Sussex hens! The one started again after abandoning her first nest. With ease, Chris moved their culvert nesting boxes into the brooder, apparently just in time. Look closely at the black nest on the right. Do you see the egg shell? On closer inspection there is a tooth mark on the inner eggshell! We thought we could hear a cheep-cheep-cheep. We don't know since we didn't want to disturb the hen. It may have been a killdeer out in the field. (?!)

We're excited and will keep you informed as soon as we know. The Speckled Sussex is a heritage breed that is "recovering" from having been "threatened", according to the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

The brooder now needs a few basic pieces of furniture. First, a creep feeder for the chicks!

the brooder

A few hours later the very same day...

MAJOR UPDATE:  We have baby chicks!!!

Maybe more later. She and the other hen are still on their nests!

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Sourdough Breadmaking, from starter to delectable finish!

I decided recently, for the benefit of patrons of my farm market, to revive an old skill: the making of sourdough bread. 

A stone jar works best for the starter that takes several days to prepare.

On baking day, a dough hook can save you from a labor-intensive task.

One day recently I made 8 loaves of sourdough bread. Some for the market...

      and some for me and my family. The experience is  something near heaven when you sit down after long hours of work to enjoy the ageless salty and somewhat nutty taste of a chewy sourdough bread along with a good aged cheddar cheese and your favorite beverage.  In this case, it's a glass of my grape wine, ready to bottle.

The Broody Hen in her Culvert Nesting Box

This is our broody hen. We're edgy with anticipation. Others of our flock of 48 have tried but this one just might succeed. She has a certain stick-to-it-iveness. Her whole body says she's determined!

The year-old hen has made her nest in a culvert nesting box. She is not yet in her brooder, just across the hall from the others. When she moves, we're watching another broody hen that may join her soon.

Our hens have preferred these culvert nesting boxes over the yellow buckets that are on another wall. Moving her will be fairly easy, we think. Chris plans to slip a piece of plywood between the culvert and the camouflage wall to easily lift the culvert nest out of its slot, hen, eggs and all. We're hoping this won't upset the setting hen. Then, just a few steps away is the brooding room. He can then replace this nest with another piece of culvert and bedding. Again, Chris has put together a clever design. We're hoping it works. I would love to have hens raising their own Speckled Sussex chicks! When it happens, you'll know! She has been on her eggs for 13 days and somehow she has 10 eggs or so without any interference from us!

Several of you are already having chicks this spring from your own hens. 

I can hardly wait for your thoughts, experiences and words of advice!   

:D

Preparing Garden Spots for the Vegetable Starts

A brief moment of rest for Chris at our camper on the farm where we hold our farm market. He's been working night and day, growing the little seedlings that soon will go into the ground that he's getting ready. After all, if you're going to have a farm market, you kinda need to have some produce!!!

Chris is using a 1980 Gravely that can do ANYTHING!  We believe that was the last year the Gravely tractors were made in America. I have the utmost respect for his older machinery. The plow was made in the 30's. All his attachments were made from the early 30's to the mid-50's. It's really handy that Chris likes restoring things. These work well and help keep the cost down.

After all, Chris is the real force behind the farm market. He says it's me, but I know better. Sure, I love cooking and baking, but he has wanted to farm all his life, and what better way to serve the community than to raise fresh, safe, great-tasting produce?! 

During the day, the gardens are getting plowed and tilled while the little plants are getting much-needed sunlight on our deck at home. 


Then at night, all the little plants come back inside. After all, the babies need warmth to grow and, remember, we have no greenhouse yet so our home has to serve the plants' needs for now.

Some of these seedlings will be planted in our garden spots and eventually find their way to market.

Others will be sold as plants at our farm market to go into other people's gardens.

Restoring a Rusty Cast Iron Dutch Oven

wall hangers

more wall hangers

cast iron skillets that I use daily

I grew up with an appreciation for cast iron cooking, and began collecting new and vintage cast iron and  steel pieces at an early age. The secret to their longevity is in the seasoning. A cast iron piece that is well-seasoned will hold up to most cooking techniques without rusting. MOST.

Occasionally I have bloopers, but I can't show a picture of what I did to my 12 quart cast iron Dutch oven because I was so beside myself I didn't think to take one. I had prepared peach cobbler over coals, just like I had done many times before, but this time my cobbler had boiled over! We had eaten around a campfire after dark and I decided to wait until morning to clean it. To my dismay, the lid was stuck on. I meant to ask Chris to try to pry it off, but I forgot about it and then left it out in the rain. You should never ever EVER do that, and I knew better. Life gets busy and I totally forgot. My beautiful Dutch oven rusted. Badly. Normally, all you have to do if a piece of cast iron cookware has some rust is to gently rub out the rust and oil it, but NO! Mine was crusty rust!

Chris came to my rescue. Dressed in heavy gear, he took the first step in restoring my treasured piece. On the day he was rescuing the hay rake that he acquired, he took my dreadful-looking Dutch oven and also sand-blasted it. That is an extreme rescue, but by the time I got the lid off, it was so bad inside and out that it had been rendered useless. Cast iron is a good investment and should last lifetimes, so we both knew this piece needed intervention if it would ever become an heirloom.

my cast iron Dutch oven after sand-blasting

Then came my part in the restoration. It had to be seasoned. Otherwise, it would become a rusty mess and would be unsuitable for cooking. I used regular vegetable oil and a cotton cloth and simply rubbed oil all over the inside and outside of the Dutch oven and its lid. Then I placed the pieces in my gas oven at 200 degrees F. for 2 hours. To be sure it was covered completely with oil but with no oil pooling that would gel, I took it out and reapplied a thin coating of the cooking oil to the entire surface. Then, back to the oven for an additional 5 hours.

ALMOST fully restored

This is how it looked after seasoning, a darker patina, ready for cooking again. After the next few uses, I will oil it each time and place the Dutch oven back in 200 degrees F. for 2 hours to complete the seasoning process. Then, eventually, it will have the even black color of my other vintage pieces.

Early Morning Frost Damage Survey

This morning, after a cold windy night, I took a quick walk-about and here is what I found.

The grape arbor at the back deck looks healthy,

and terrific tulip and tarragon.

Salvaged strawberry plants from last year's bed look strong...

but these pansies tell a different story,

and some of the 250 tiny little strawberry crowns I planted last week can still be seen reaching for the sky, but barely.  Not all survived.  :/  

In spite of bitterly cold temperatures, the gorgeous grapes in the vineyard are still growing,

and this young white Edelweiss grapevine seems hardy.

Meanwhile, this year's garden plants wait out the cold spell in our loft-turned-greenhouse,

and our herbs are looking herbaliscious except for the sweet basil, already frost-bitten last week!

The forecast here looks even harsher for tonight, with temperatures expected to dip below 30 degrees F. Another year of lost crops due to freezing temperatures? We had too much gusty wind last night to get the strawberries and grapes covered, but tonight I'll do my best! No smudge pots to use on the four rows of grapes so...


feeling helpless, I asked Chris what else we could do. He simply said an age-old line, 

"Man proposes, but God disposes."

Really, Chris, that's the best you can do?  


It feels like Mother Nature said, "OOPS! I forgot all about giving you winter. Here! How's this?!"

Please also check out these Rural Thursdays Bloggers:
Two Bears Farm

A Rural Journal

(OH, NO! Another hard freeze tonight!)

Easter Designs of Love, Life, and Shared Times

My grandchildren came over! I love it when that happens!!!

One granddaughter decorated before the others arrived. 

"This is so BEAUTIFUL!!!," she said when she set up the crocheted display. 

 My cousin Stephanie had crocheted them.  (Think Stephanie's Sticky Buns. YUM!!! Recipe link at sidebar.) 

Then class began for Egg Marbling 101.

The Egg Marbling Artists

The results after a few choice eggs were eaten!

After a brief demonstration, the only rules were 

*Share the dye. 

*Have fun! 

The dye did not dry before some of the eggs met their demise!

I love the meanings of Easter, from the grace of God in our lives way back to the early Pagan traditions of celebrating new beginnings. On this day, we celebrated so much, including life, love, and our time together!

Thank goodness, this was our only Easter Twister! Mother Nature played by the rules, for once.
Perfect weather for playing outside!

The girls could do this for hours! How do they do that???

This bike romped and ramped and rambled some more. Finally, its chain came loose, allowing my grandson
 to take a break.  

Besides, the garage had to be designed and built!

I will never tire of hearing my grandchildren say, "Our nana is the best nana ever!" The joy in their faces tells me even when their voices don't!

What a delight they are!

Photo credits: The grandchildren and I took all the photos for this post.