Tales of a Beekeeper

Warning: Graphic pictures below!!!

This, my friends, is what happens when you don't zip up your bee suit properly! I mean all I was trying to do was help them rearrange their house a little bit and they obviously didn't appreciate my hard work! Two little martyrs decided to join me inside the veil of my suit and take their anger out on my face! Everything from my double chin to my forehead is swollen and I couldn't open my eyes enough to go to work yesterday! I'm on day 3 and the swelling is finally starting to subside. 

On top of that, I think I have a queenless hive. UGH, welcome to my life!

The Bees!

Since the human baby has been hogging the blog lately it's about time my other babees, our honeybees, get some face time!

 Flash back: I decided to start this little hobby of mine when I was about 7 months pregnant and obviously didn't know what I was doing. Hence the fact that we had no bees to pack up for the big move to Auburn! My failure didn't deter me and I enrolled in a beginner beekeepers class in the fall where I learned all about the things I was doing wrong!



Needless to say, once the days started to get a little warmer I was itching to bring my 50,000+ babees home! So on Easter Sunday we loaded up the truck and went to Central, AL to pick up our 2 nucs. A nuc, as is a small nucleus colony that has 5 frames of bees including a queen who is already laying eggs. I loaded those 5 frames into my 10 frame box with 5 empty frames and off we went.



We now have 2 happy hives in our backyard and both of them are doing pretty well. Each hive has filled up a box with brood (babies) and another with honey and now we are just waiting for them to fill up a second box of honey and we will be ready to harvest. So far the bees are already doing much better than last year! Knock on wood!

I really encourage you all to support your local beekeeping community. Not only is local honey so much tastier and healthier than the fake grocery store stuff but bees are incredibly important to our food supply. Without them we would not be able to enjoy a HUGE amount of fruits, vegetables and nuts that they pollinate. The honeybee population is shrinking dramatically so think twice before you spray your yard pesticides! And off my soapbox I go!

Beeswax!

As some of you already know, we lost a beehive a few weeks ago and needless to say, I was one mad pregnant lady when it happened! Seeing my hard earned moola literally fly out of a white wooden box did not make me happy! However, after pulling myself together I decided to turn lemons into lemonade in the form of a big hunk of beeswax!

We left the frames outside so the remaining bees could clean them out and boy did they! They sucked out all of the remaining honey and left us with 4 frames of empty comb which we scraped off and melted down.

Yep, they left some nasty looking stuff in there but at least its all "organic" and "natural" right?!

In case you are wondering how we managed to remove all the bee butts, wings and other various nasty bits from the leftover wax, we melted it in boiling water so that the wax floated to the top. Then we let it harden up so we could scrape off the crud that settled to the bottom. After repeating this process a few times to remove the big pieces of debris we boiled it again in a double boiler and filtered it by pouring the liquid wax into a yogurt cup over some clean pantyhose.  

Voila!!! 4 oz of beautifully clean beeswax!

My goal is to turn this into homemade lip balm. I think this chunk should last me a while and since lip balm practically goes IN TO your mouth I have gotten kinda funny about all the chemical packed chap sticks that I find at the store.  All the recipes I have found make it look pretty easy so wish me luck and I'll keep you all posted on how it turns out!

Best Day EVER!!

Well Tyler and I took quite the field trip recently! We realized that we were ready for our second beehive so the president of our beekeepers association put us in contact with a man who sells nucs (small colonies of bees) up in Central, AL. So Tyler and I borrowed his Dad's pickup truck and drove north to pick up our girls. Side note: we decided that since our hives are mostly all girls that they needed sorority names so this new hive is named Beta Zeta, BZ, get it? bzzzzz! Anyway, when we got there we were amazed, this man had almost 60 hives that were all painted bright pastel colors like an basket full of Easter eggs! He also had a beautiful organic garden which almost completely feeds he and his wife, numerous fruit trees and bushes,  a slew of guinea hens and a wood shop that Tyler would die for. Needless to say, Tyler and I found our utopia!

More than anything else, this trip was a great learning experience for us. The man opened up many of his hives and explained exactly what was going on and what we were looking at. This kind of education my friends, is priceless for a novice beekeeper like myself!

We even got to assist him in catching a swarm. Not so scary looking huh? We had to get the queen in the box so that all her worker bees would follow. IT.WAS.AMAZING.

The bees were so preoccupied with what they were doing that they didn't even sting his bare hand when he stuck his finger in the clump to find the queen!

You can see her in the picture below with the little white dot on her back. He marks his queen with a paint pin so that he can spot her whenever he inspects his hives. Think Where's Waldo!

The picture below in no way does his garden justice! It's huge and beautiful and he practices only organic methods to support his whole food vegetarian lifestyle. It really is an inspiration to see!

Check out that Dinosaur Kale on the left! Yum!!!!

 Tyler and I came home on cloud 9 and can't wait to go back and visit him again! There really is something so amazing about seeing how things grow and produce!

And yes, I know I am a huge dork!

The Hillwood Honey Project has Begun!

It's official ladies and gents, Tyler, Strongbow and I are beekeepers! Our bees were delivered on Friday and all 30,000 of them seem to like their happy new home.

The yellow thing on the front is a feeder which is filled with a 50/50 mixture of sugar and water and all I have to do for the next few weeks is refill it every other day or whenever they drink it up. They need to be fed for a while until they can get used to their new surroundings and repair any damage that may have happened in transit.

In case you are wondering, my bees were started from a nuc (nucleus colony) in early March by a guy in Alex City, AL so it's bigger and stronger than the average nuc or package. He sold me one of his own nucs because he wanted to make sure that I started my newest hobby with bees that he knew were docile and healthy so I was very grateful that he went over and above to make sure I got the "right" bees! I also purchased all of my equipment from him so he knows me well by now!

In about 2 or 3 weeks they will have filled up both of the boxes with babies (brood) and will need to be split into 2 separate hives so they don't get too crowded and swarm. When that time comes I'll take the top box off and put it on another base with a purchased queen and I'll go from 1 hive to 2 hives. I'll also add a smaller box to the top of each hive for them to grown into and store our their honey.

Here I am on my maiden voyage to the hive. I am well protected if you can't tell!

 Doesn't Strongbow look excited to introduce himself to the bees?! He decided to follow me out to the hive and "help" me change the feeder by sticking his nose in the opening. Brilliant idea bud! After being stung by about 5 bees that all seemed to get stuck in his fur he decided to back off. 

Check out that swollen eye that he is sporting! Maybe he has learned his lesson?!

Yet Another Hobby

So a few weeks ago I was hanging out with Tyler and a few of his colleagues when something funny came up in the conversation and one of his coworkers responded with, "she is pregnant, not stupid!" We all had a good laugh over this statement then it kind of got me thinking, I'm pregnant, not disabled, I'm pregnant, not in a coma, I'm pregnant, and my life may be changing but I'm still the same ole me!

With that said, in usual Sara fashion, I figured now is as good of a time as any to pick up a new, somewhat "different" hobby! It may not be conventional for someone who is almost 7 months pregnant and living in a midtown neighborhood but I don't care; I'm becoming a beekeeper! Yes you heard me, a beekeeper. I already have my 2 hives and the majority of my gear and I have even joined our local beekeepers association. Now all I need is my bees which should be in here in about 2 weeks.

In case you were wondering:

1. Yes, I am aware that I am about to have a baby
2. Yes, I know I will probably get stung
3. No, I am not allergic
4. No, Tyler is not allergic
5. Yes, I have cleared it with my neighbors
6. Yes, Strongbow will probably get stung too
7. Yes, Tyler will help when the baby comes
8. Yes, it is legal in my neighborhood
9. Yes, I know what I am getting my self into
10. Yes, I do love honey, THAT MUCH

I'll be sure to keep you updated on my beekeeping/sewing/cheesmaking/breadmaking/vegetable gardening (which is looking AMAZING right now BTW), baby growing progress!