OK, so I've already gotten a few guess for my last jar of honey. It appears it's a bit easier for me than for someone who hasn't had any sort of beekeeping experience. So I'll clear the guessing slate because the first few where on the high side and I'll provide a few hints to help people improve their drone hunting. Also when I clicked on the picture to make it larger it wasn't as large as the original file so I'll provide a link to my full size picture. That will allow all you guessers a chance to zoom in and look for the details. Onto the hints!
1) As already stated, drones have large fly like eyes. They cover almost their entire head.
2) Also stated was that drones have very large bums that are squared off. This means they are quite a bit larger than worker bees.
3) One can than assume that because they have bigger bodies, they have bigger wings.
4) Drones make up a small portion of the hive population, around 11%.
5) Because they are being forced out, they aren't allowed near the entrance to the hive.
Hopefully that will be enough to help all you out. Below is the link to the full size picture, remember to make the picture bigger if Windows automatically reduces it to fit in your browser window.
FULL SIZE PICTURE
The deadline for the contest will be Thursday October 8th, make sure to get your guess in before then!
September 29, 2010
September 28, 2010
Acclimation
I'm a bad blogger. Either that or I've become use to being stung, I believe it's the later. I bring this up because I have totally forgotten to update my sting counter to 4. It happened back when my parents were out and we were harvesting my 2 frames of honey. After I had completed everything I was standing around waiting as my Dad discussed beekeeping with Mario, apparently one of my girls had gotten up my pant leg and gave up trying to find a way out. She stung me on my calf much to my surprise, and the irony lies in the fact that I had specifically changed out of my shorts and into pants for harvesting because I thought it would be better. Had I stuck with my shorts I most likely would have been fine.
Yesterday I went out to setup my fall feeder. It's a really simple setup, much like a hamster water bottle. You fill up a 2L jar or ice cream pail, punch a few holes in the lid, then invert it. Eventually the vacuum that forms because of the air pocket will keep the syrup from completely flowing out and the bees can then take it at their leisure. The syrup that drips out during the process also lets the bees know there is a food supply nearby. Around the feeder you put an empty super and seal it off, this prevents bees from other hives from coming and robbing the feeder. In really bad situations, after they are done with the feeder they will start stealing honey stores if the hive is too weak to defend itself.
I'm getting more comfortable with my bees so I'm working without gear.
How the feeder is setup inside.
The third super provides the empty sheltered space for the feeder.
This is also the most satisfying time of year for all the female beekeepers out there. As my readers know, all the worker bees are female and do all the work in the hive. All the drones are male and do absolutely nothing in the hive except go out to mate. If they aren't out flying they're getting fed and groomed by the workers. As winter approaches though winter supplies becomes an issue and having a bunch of freeloaders hanging around doesn't help. There's only one solution, the freeloaders have to go except they don't really want to. This leads to the worker bees literally dragging and attacking drones out of the hive. The front entrance of my hive was full of drones trying to get back inside.
You can handle drones because they don't have a stinger. You can identify drones by their very large, fly like, eyes. They also have a very blocky abdomen with a squared off bum.
Now that you know what a drone looks like it's CONTEST TIME! I have one mason jar of honey left and due to my small harvest I don't have enough for everyone who wants some. So if you want a shot at my last jar you need to tell me how many drones are in the picture below. (The picture below is a full resolution shot, so it may take time to load the larger version when you click on it.) You can submit your guess in the comments below or by emailing newbees@telus.net
Yesterday I went out to setup my fall feeder. It's a really simple setup, much like a hamster water bottle. You fill up a 2L jar or ice cream pail, punch a few holes in the lid, then invert it. Eventually the vacuum that forms because of the air pocket will keep the syrup from completely flowing out and the bees can then take it at their leisure. The syrup that drips out during the process also lets the bees know there is a food supply nearby. Around the feeder you put an empty super and seal it off, this prevents bees from other hives from coming and robbing the feeder. In really bad situations, after they are done with the feeder they will start stealing honey stores if the hive is too weak to defend itself.
I'm getting more comfortable with my bees so I'm working without gear.
How the feeder is setup inside.
The third super provides the empty sheltered space for the feeder.
This is also the most satisfying time of year for all the female beekeepers out there. As my readers know, all the worker bees are female and do all the work in the hive. All the drones are male and do absolutely nothing in the hive except go out to mate. If they aren't out flying they're getting fed and groomed by the workers. As winter approaches though winter supplies becomes an issue and having a bunch of freeloaders hanging around doesn't help. There's only one solution, the freeloaders have to go except they don't really want to. This leads to the worker bees literally dragging and attacking drones out of the hive. The front entrance of my hive was full of drones trying to get back inside.
You can handle drones because they don't have a stinger. You can identify drones by their very large, fly like, eyes. They also have a very blocky abdomen with a squared off bum.
Now that you know what a drone looks like it's CONTEST TIME! I have one mason jar of honey left and due to my small harvest I don't have enough for everyone who wants some. So if you want a shot at my last jar you need to tell me how many drones are in the picture below. (The picture below is a full resolution shot, so it may take time to load the larger version when you click on it.) You can submit your guess in the comments below or by emailing newbees@telus.net
September 24, 2010
Three's A Crowd
Hello Everyone!
So I've been agonizing over what to do with the third super still on my hive. The problem is that the bees have only really drawn out a few frames and of those frames the honey is only about 50% capped. With the chilly weather starting to move in I really wanted to get it off, so yesterday I went out and took it off. I tried using a method where you take the box off and lay it perpendicular on top of the hive. If you do this after all the scout bees have gone home for the night it won't cause other bees to come steal the honey and nectar in the box. After a few hours of sitting there the bees that are in the box realize that something isn't quite right and will migrate back into the hive. Well when I went back Mario had decided to speed up the process and brushed the bees onto a wooden ramp he had set up leading towards the entrance. I arrived at about 9:30pm it was pretty chilly out and the bees had started to cluster up to keep warm, the only problem was they weren't anywhere near the entrance, so I took a stick and brushed them on top of the entrance. I hope they managed to find their way back in.
This is what it would look like, but without the use of a bee blower. You naturally let them go back in the hive.
When I got home I decided to see if I could scrap off only the capped honey into my straining rig, all of the rest I put into a separate bucket to feed back to the bees later. It seemed to have gone well, but when the honey filtered through by the next morning I was a bit concerned. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job at scraping because this honey was extremely thin. I also think that since Mario had started his fall feeding for the past few days there was a lot of sugar syrup rather than nectar. Rather than distributing thin and artificially sweetened honey I went ahead and added the bee feed to the straining rig as well. Once it's all strained through I will put it in some smaller buckets and take them out to feed back to the bees. (pictures to come)
So I've been agonizing over what to do with the third super still on my hive. The problem is that the bees have only really drawn out a few frames and of those frames the honey is only about 50% capped. With the chilly weather starting to move in I really wanted to get it off, so yesterday I went out and took it off. I tried using a method where you take the box off and lay it perpendicular on top of the hive. If you do this after all the scout bees have gone home for the night it won't cause other bees to come steal the honey and nectar in the box. After a few hours of sitting there the bees that are in the box realize that something isn't quite right and will migrate back into the hive. Well when I went back Mario had decided to speed up the process and brushed the bees onto a wooden ramp he had set up leading towards the entrance. I arrived at about 9:30pm it was pretty chilly out and the bees had started to cluster up to keep warm, the only problem was they weren't anywhere near the entrance, so I took a stick and brushed them on top of the entrance. I hope they managed to find their way back in.
This is what it would look like, but without the use of a bee blower. You naturally let them go back in the hive.
When I got home I decided to see if I could scrap off only the capped honey into my straining rig, all of the rest I put into a separate bucket to feed back to the bees later. It seemed to have gone well, but when the honey filtered through by the next morning I was a bit concerned. Apparently I didn't do a good enough job at scraping because this honey was extremely thin. I also think that since Mario had started his fall feeding for the past few days there was a lot of sugar syrup rather than nectar. Rather than distributing thin and artificially sweetened honey I went ahead and added the bee feed to the straining rig as well. Once it's all strained through I will put it in some smaller buckets and take them out to feed back to the bees. (pictures to come)
September 21, 2010
Harvest Followup
I had the happy privilege of dropping off my first official jar of honey harvest to the winner of my previous contest. In case you don't recall I promised a jar of honey to the first person who could correctly find the bee in a picture of my hive when it was still in my backyard. The winner was really excited about her prize.
I waited a few more days to let the rest of the honey drip out and more importantly to let any rogue wax bits or other debris float to the top. After it appeared to have settled I went about doing some rough calculations to find out how many jars I would need. Turns out I had about 2 liters of honey. I started about filling my jars up, but once again my homemade valve made this process excruciatingly long. Eventually I managed to fill them all up, after which I'd let them sit a few days and then skim off any debris that made it into the jars and here's what I was ended up with.
Now that I had honey I need to decide what to do with it and sticking with my original plan I decided to make some Baklava, one of my favorite desserts. I stuck with the recipe of my favorite TV chef Alton Brown. It wasn't as hard or labour intensive as I thought it would be, however in future I might boil the syrup less to give it a slightly more liquid consistency. After a night of baking, I let it sit for a night to let all the syrup soak in. The next morning I had a piece, and in all honesty, I wasn't really impressed. However, it seems to get better with age as later in the week I was addicted and would recommend the recipe to anyone else who's a Baklava fan.
As for the bees I'm sure they've had a tough week, the weather has been really crappy of late. The nights have been dropping below zero and the daily highs have been single digits. The forecast for this week is looking better, double digit highs, so I plan to start getting all my winter prep done. This includes moving the hive to the acreage within city limits. I'll be sure to post about the move as soon as possible.
I waited a few more days to let the rest of the honey drip out and more importantly to let any rogue wax bits or other debris float to the top. After it appeared to have settled I went about doing some rough calculations to find out how many jars I would need. Turns out I had about 2 liters of honey. I started about filling my jars up, but once again my homemade valve made this process excruciatingly long. Eventually I managed to fill them all up, after which I'd let them sit a few days and then skim off any debris that made it into the jars and here's what I was ended up with.
Now that I had honey I need to decide what to do with it and sticking with my original plan I decided to make some Baklava, one of my favorite desserts. I stuck with the recipe of my favorite TV chef Alton Brown. It wasn't as hard or labour intensive as I thought it would be, however in future I might boil the syrup less to give it a slightly more liquid consistency. After a night of baking, I let it sit for a night to let all the syrup soak in. The next morning I had a piece, and in all honesty, I wasn't really impressed. However, it seems to get better with age as later in the week I was addicted and would recommend the recipe to anyone else who's a Baklava fan.
As for the bees I'm sure they've had a tough week, the weather has been really crappy of late. The nights have been dropping below zero and the daily highs have been single digits. The forecast for this week is looking better, double digit highs, so I plan to start getting all my winter prep done. This includes moving the hive to the acreage within city limits. I'll be sure to post about the move as soon as possible.
September 14, 2010
Crush and Strain
The weather finally decided to cooperate on Saturday which allowed me to head out the bee yard to harvest some of my honey. My parents were in town from Calgary so they joined me. When we got out to the acreage Mario was already suited up doing his own harvesting. Working as quickly as I could I picked out the best looking frames to harvest, and I was only able to harvest 2 frames. When taking frames for harvest you want to look for ones that are at least 80% capped, any less and the percentage of water in your honey will go up. Honey is around 18% water, but if you harvest too much uncapped honey that hasn't been concentrated it will raise the water content which can cause the honey to ferment.
Once home we started the process of getting our honey out. Being that extractors are expensive and I don't know anyone nearby that I could borrow one from, I have to use the crush and strain method. I felt bad doing this because it destroys the drawn comb, next year I will have to find/buy an extractor to avoid this. I started by using a plastic window scraper to get all the comb into the top bucket. This bucket had a bunch of holes drilled into it to allow the liquid honey to flow into the bucket below. Once both frames were scraped I finished crushing the honey with a angle scraper on a pole. I then added a few layers of cheese cloth between the buckets to catch any wax that may slip through the holes. After that it was time to play the waiting game.
Two days later the honey had all drained into the lower bucket. On this bucket I added a PVC spout I made from some stuff I picked up from the Home Depot. Normally you would add a honey gate onto the bucket, but the ones at the local bee store were $25. I built mine for $4.50, however I would soon learn there is a reason why you use a honey gate. Thinking that I would have more honey to harvest I picked up some 500ml canning jars, with only 2 frames worth of honey I would only fill 2-3 jars. All of my friends are quite excited about my honey so I need to go pick up some 250ml jars so I can spread the wealth. I did happen to have 1 jar in the cupboard so I cleaned it out and started to fill it up, which took a reaaaaaally long time. You see the cheaper alternative valve I put on my bucket was only 1/2" wide which didn't allow a large flow, the honey gates you get from the bee stores are 2" wide making them quicker and cleaner. Lesson learned.
My honey looked beautiful. It is very light in colour and has a very mellow taste. I'm not an expert in honey but I imagine it's mostly Alfalfa and clover. Now I just need to get started on making some Baklava.
Once home we started the process of getting our honey out. Being that extractors are expensive and I don't know anyone nearby that I could borrow one from, I have to use the crush and strain method. I felt bad doing this because it destroys the drawn comb, next year I will have to find/buy an extractor to avoid this. I started by using a plastic window scraper to get all the comb into the top bucket. This bucket had a bunch of holes drilled into it to allow the liquid honey to flow into the bucket below. Once both frames were scraped I finished crushing the honey with a angle scraper on a pole. I then added a few layers of cheese cloth between the buckets to catch any wax that may slip through the holes. After that it was time to play the waiting game.
Two days later the honey had all drained into the lower bucket. On this bucket I added a PVC spout I made from some stuff I picked up from the Home Depot. Normally you would add a honey gate onto the bucket, but the ones at the local bee store were $25. I built mine for $4.50, however I would soon learn there is a reason why you use a honey gate. Thinking that I would have more honey to harvest I picked up some 500ml canning jars, with only 2 frames worth of honey I would only fill 2-3 jars. All of my friends are quite excited about my honey so I need to go pick up some 250ml jars so I can spread the wealth. I did happen to have 1 jar in the cupboard so I cleaned it out and started to fill it up, which took a reaaaaaally long time. You see the cheaper alternative valve I put on my bucket was only 1/2" wide which didn't allow a large flow, the honey gates you get from the bee stores are 2" wide making them quicker and cleaner. Lesson learned.
My honey looked beautiful. It is very light in colour and has a very mellow taste. I'm not an expert in honey but I imagine it's mostly Alfalfa and clover. Now I just need to get started on making some Baklava.
September 10, 2010
To bee, or not to bee:
That is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The stings and arrows of honey fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
So after I said I would harvest some honey this week the weather decided it was going to be miserable. This puts me in a dilemma, do I got ahead regardless of weather or wait for a nice sunny day.
On one hand, I'd really like to have some honey for my party. I planned on using it to make some baklava and honey mustard sauce, I could also have some small jars to give friends. However, when I started beekeeping I did so with the mind set that I would be different than commercial beekeepers. Because for commercial beekeeping it's all about making money and they treat their bees like garbage, harvesting regardless of weather. Sure they "care" about them because without them they wouldn't make money, but they don't respect them. No matter how innocent I think popping the top of the hive in cold rainy weather only for a few minutes to grab a frame or two it isn't good for the bees, or at least I don't think it's good for the bees. It also makes things more complicated because during bad weather the foraging bees aren't out in the fields so that means a lot more bees inside the hive.
It is the exact thing I'm trying to avoid; taking advantage of my bees. This sort of practice has to stop if we don't want our bees to die off, but it's up the individual beekeeper and I have chosen to side with my bees. I'm not by any means granola or hippy, but like any family pet I just want the best for my bees.
That said, I'll wait for the weather to change so I can go harvest some honey. I hope my party guests will understand.
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The stings and arrows of honey fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?
So after I said I would harvest some honey this week the weather decided it was going to be miserable. This puts me in a dilemma, do I got ahead regardless of weather or wait for a nice sunny day.
On one hand, I'd really like to have some honey for my party. I planned on using it to make some baklava and honey mustard sauce, I could also have some small jars to give friends. However, when I started beekeeping I did so with the mind set that I would be different than commercial beekeepers. Because for commercial beekeeping it's all about making money and they treat their bees like garbage, harvesting regardless of weather. Sure they "care" about them because without them they wouldn't make money, but they don't respect them. No matter how innocent I think popping the top of the hive in cold rainy weather only for a few minutes to grab a frame or two it isn't good for the bees, or at least I don't think it's good for the bees. It also makes things more complicated because during bad weather the foraging bees aren't out in the fields so that means a lot more bees inside the hive.
It is the exact thing I'm trying to avoid; taking advantage of my bees. This sort of practice has to stop if we don't want our bees to die off, but it's up the individual beekeeper and I have chosen to side with my bees. I'm not by any means granola or hippy, but like any family pet I just want the best for my bees.
That said, I'll wait for the weather to change so I can go harvest some honey. I hope my party guests will understand.
September 8, 2010
And now for something completely different...
In the famous words of John Cleese I am straying from the path of beekeeping to focus on something completely different. What's so important to put beekeeping on the back burner you say? Food, glorious food.
You see, in complete honesty, if I was a woman I would want to have Alton Brown's baby or at the absolute minimum be married to him. For those who don't know who Alton Brown is, he is a Food Network chef who's television series "Good Eats" watches more like a Bill Nye: The Science Guy episode than a cooking show. On one hand he is a great cook and on the other a nerdy science geek, the combination of these two traits leads to a cooking show that explains why we do the things we do when cooking. As a slightly mad genius he is always coming up with basic, and cheap, alternatives that still adhere with what chemically needs to happening in cooking. This weekend I will be testing out one of his creations: the ceramic smoker.
BBQ, true BBQ unlike grilling that most people incorrectly think of as BBQ, is the low and slow cooking of tough meat with smoke to make it finger licking good. You can go out and purchase a smoker at a store for a few hundred dollars or you can follow these simple steps to create your own for under $100. According to my idol this cheaper alternative will do exactly the same job as one of those fancy $500 smokers. I have to decided to take up the challenge and will be the judge of this. In fairness everything else I've done under his tutelage has been true, so don't bet against me.
The Materials:
2 16" Terracotta flower pots - $45
3 Terracotta feet - $5
1 Hot Plate - $20
1 Heavy stainless steel pie plate -$4
1 14" Cooking grate - $14
1 Grilling/Candy Thermometer - $5
The premise is quite simple. Using two flower pots you create a thermally stable chamber which within you place your hot plate, the circular cooking grate rests above on it's own weight. Placing the wood chips in the pie plate creates the smoke as well as provides heat. The drainage holes in the flower pots provide a place to run the hot plate power cord at the bottom and to place to rest a thermometer on top.
Obtaining the materials was super easy, any large garden center (i.e. Home Depot/Rona) will have large terracotta pots. The largest at Home Depot was 20" however it was double the price of the 16", so in keeping with the cheap theme I got the 16" instead. The 14" cooking grate I got from my local BBQ store, it is a replacement grate for the 14" Weber Smokey Joe. The rest of the materials were purchased at Wal-Mart, does everyone else feel as guilty as I do purchasing all my cheap goods there?
Construction should also be as easy, however I managed to purchase a hot plate that was too big to fit in the bottom of my pot. It required a little McGyvering but I managed to take it all apart and get it threaded through the drainage hole to work, here's hoping I never have to BBQ in the rain. Once the hot plate was in it was just a matter of putting the pie plate on top, then the grate, then inverting the second flower pot.
Even after removing excess junk, the hot plate is still a tight fit.
I rigged the thermostat in a tuna can to keep it from causing any shorting issues.
Voila! A cheap smoker. I will let everyone know how it works, but I imagine I will be having all sorts of fun with it in the future; ribs, brisket, tenderloin, fish...the options are limitless.
You see, in complete honesty, if I was a woman I would want to have Alton Brown's baby or at the absolute minimum be married to him. For those who don't know who Alton Brown is, he is a Food Network chef who's television series "Good Eats" watches more like a Bill Nye: The Science Guy episode than a cooking show. On one hand he is a great cook and on the other a nerdy science geek, the combination of these two traits leads to a cooking show that explains why we do the things we do when cooking. As a slightly mad genius he is always coming up with basic, and cheap, alternatives that still adhere with what chemically needs to happening in cooking. This weekend I will be testing out one of his creations: the ceramic smoker.
BBQ, true BBQ unlike grilling that most people incorrectly think of as BBQ, is the low and slow cooking of tough meat with smoke to make it finger licking good. You can go out and purchase a smoker at a store for a few hundred dollars or you can follow these simple steps to create your own for under $100. According to my idol this cheaper alternative will do exactly the same job as one of those fancy $500 smokers. I have to decided to take up the challenge and will be the judge of this. In fairness everything else I've done under his tutelage has been true, so don't bet against me.
The Materials:
2 16" Terracotta flower pots - $45
3 Terracotta feet - $5
1 Hot Plate - $20
1 Heavy stainless steel pie plate -$4
1 14" Cooking grate - $14
1 Grilling/Candy Thermometer - $5
The premise is quite simple. Using two flower pots you create a thermally stable chamber which within you place your hot plate, the circular cooking grate rests above on it's own weight. Placing the wood chips in the pie plate creates the smoke as well as provides heat. The drainage holes in the flower pots provide a place to run the hot plate power cord at the bottom and to place to rest a thermometer on top.
Obtaining the materials was super easy, any large garden center (i.e. Home Depot/Rona) will have large terracotta pots. The largest at Home Depot was 20" however it was double the price of the 16", so in keeping with the cheap theme I got the 16" instead. The 14" cooking grate I got from my local BBQ store, it is a replacement grate for the 14" Weber Smokey Joe. The rest of the materials were purchased at Wal-Mart, does everyone else feel as guilty as I do purchasing all my cheap goods there?
Construction should also be as easy, however I managed to purchase a hot plate that was too big to fit in the bottom of my pot. It required a little McGyvering but I managed to take it all apart and get it threaded through the drainage hole to work, here's hoping I never have to BBQ in the rain. Once the hot plate was in it was just a matter of putting the pie plate on top, then the grate, then inverting the second flower pot.
Even after removing excess junk, the hot plate is still a tight fit.
I rigged the thermostat in a tuna can to keep it from causing any shorting issues.
Voila! A cheap smoker. I will let everyone know how it works, but I imagine I will be having all sorts of fun with it in the future; ribs, brisket, tenderloin, fish...the options are limitless.
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