Green Beans, Dryer Balls, and Bees

Summer vacation after my first full year of teaching is somewhat bittersweet. It is too short and I'm too tired! But, alas, after an entire week of doing absolutely nothing, I have gotten back on track with my goal to use this time wisely to improve our sustainable living habits.

Although today was not our first harvest from the mini-farm, it is the most promising. With dozens of green tomatoes waiting to ripen, several melon blossoms waiting to pollinate, and tiny crowns of broccoli waiting to grow, the future looks mighty tasty. There are a few orange tomatoes, but the harvest of today is from my Kentucky Wonder Pole beans. A few weeks ago, I plucked a single green bean from the vine and graciously offered it to our sugar gliders. They were thrilled. Today, I received seven green beans. Just enough for a good side to my dinner. These are more plump than the haricot vert you typically get at a Chinese restaurant, so you need less of them. My favorite way to eat them, however, does follow the Chinese tradition. I simply blanch them for one to two minutes (basically place them in a pot of boiling water) or until the green color seems the brightest. Then I put them in a frying pan with either butter or sunflower oil and some browned garlic. Eat 'em while they're hot!

Something I have always wanted to try is using wool dryer balls. I have heard great things about them. They apparently tumble out the static from your clothes, they decrease drying time by creating

air pockets between clothing, and if you put essential oils on them, they are as good as scented dryer sheets but better for the environment and your family. The downside:  to get four of these things it is almost $40. Well, for $8.24 I bought wool yarn, and for free, I looked up the directions on how to make them! Here is the link to the actual site where I learned how to make them:  http://www.seasonedhomemaker.com/2012/11/how-to-make-felted-wool-dryer-balls.html. I pinned this after coming across it on another site that I am officially in love with:  http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/. They also have a facebook page. Anyways, I have created six dryer balls and still had some yarn left over. Laundry day is Sunday in our house, so we will see how they work out.

Lastly, I wanted to update the beekeeping events of late. My husband and I discovered that the bees have been so productive, that they had nearly filled the entire hive. Four medium hive boxes had all been drawn out with comb and filled, two with brood, and two with honey! To give them some more space we removed one of the frames from one honey super (really...it was for their space...not for the desire to have honey...really). Currently it sits in the freezer, because we are not sure which is the best way to extract the honey just yet. Our investment in this project has been higher than expected and we really don't want to invest in extracting equipment just yet. We had read that it would be a year before we would be able to take from them. So we had some decision making to do in regards to the hive.

Our mentor told us that we should go ahead and put in another brood box and add two more honey

supers. This requires a little more investment as well. We had already ordered a single box when we were able to reach her, and the shipping is not cheap. She also told us that only one honey super needs to remain for the bees over the winter. (If we also intended to provide sugar water.) To be on the safe side, however, we have decided to keep the hive small this year. While having eight hive boxes might be a reality at some point, it is a little more than we can handle right now. Besides, the queen seems to be laying at a good rate and there appear to be bees in all stages of life present:  egg, larva, pupa, bee. It appears that she is handling the space just fine. So, today I have added the new box as a honey super. Our goal is to leave them with two honey supers for the winter and harvest one for ourselves. That still gives us about 30 lbs of honey!

We are very excited and happy about what we have accomplished already this year. We drive by two locations in our area with bee hives, and in comparison, ours appears much more active and healthy. It might be because they are new and healthy, but it also might be some of our own skill and care.

Happy Homesteading!

Spring Work and Its Rewards

“Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.”
― John Muir, The Wilderness World of John Muir

Well, it's not all joyful, but most of it is. It has been an interesting seasonal transition to say the least. My first round of seedlings, planted according to the earliest start date for transplants, did not last very long at all. Quickly, I adjusted my planting calendar in my journal and started a second batch. Now that batch has also perished. I have never had much luck sprouting seedlings indoors. I think I will just go ahead and purchase some tomato and broccoli transplants. The good news is, I have an abundance of life happening outside!

On a beautiful afternoon (March 29) I began planting some outdoors seedlings. 50 potatoes (19 small yellow, 13 red, and 18 large yellow), 4 square feet of carrots, 2.5 square feet of lettuce, 16 green beans, and a second round of 21 spinach. Today, all of these were showing beautiful green signs of life. Of course, this downpour/tornado tonight is not very promising, but at least I took photos to prove I didn't do it all wrong! Surely everything will do fine. They all survived the hail just two days after being planted, and a few nights near freezing.


In addition to edibles, I splurged a little on some annuals and an azalea, in preparation for my bees. I picked a semi-shady bed where I have had little luck, so I chose light colored begonias and some petunias. From my time spent working for a landscape architect (a very good one), I learned a few things. One thing is that plants can sometimes be like people. For example, there are different types

of begonias, those with dark green foliage and those with lighter green foliage. Like skin, the darker leaves can handle more sunlight without burning. So if you have a sunny spot, get the darker variety and vice versa. Anyways, I planted one azalea surrounded by 12 white blooming begonias, and 18 pink petunias. We'll see if they last, and if they don't, oh well, they're annuals!

Now for the most joyful, enthusiastic news:  we have bees! At the April Lady Beekeeper's Association meeting I gave a nuc box complete with 5 frames to the president. She had promised a swarm for me and I wanted to be prepared. Then, just two days ago, on the way home, I got the call. "Stephanie, we have your bees. You can come get them today." So off we went, bee suit at the ready, and jumped in my husband's car (I drive a hatchback, which is no good for transporting a box of bees, unless you want to drive in your bee suit...). We arrived to find the bees neatly packed in a box and tied with a piece of twine. Just like a beautiful, buzzing present. After some discussion, we headed home where they were set atop our hive to spend the night. To keep them fed while they were enclosed, we mixed 4 lbs of sugar with 1 gallon of water, heated until dissolved, then put in a spray bottle, and sprayed the bees through the air vents.

With the impending storms of Wednesday, I rushed home Tuesday to see if they were situated enough to be moved to the hive. Sure enough, I saw lots of activity and heard lots of buzzing. When we originally picked up the box, a number of bees had been trapped on the outside. They were still very much attached to their colony and not wanting to be separated. We managed to make it home with at least a dozen or two attached to the outside. Yesterday, I could tell that these bees had been exploring and bringing back some pollen and nectar to the box. All very good signs.

Once my husband arrived, we lit the smoker, prepared two feeders with the sugar-water solution, and took all our gear outside. The moving process was fairly easy. It was very exciting, but we were both nervous. At one point, my husband even mentioned that his confidence was not as high as when we had our "mentors" with us. In fact, we video taped the entire process and I realized while watching it later that I got a little too happy with the sugar water and probably overdosed everyone in a five mile radius on sugar. The good news is we got all the frames into the hive, added some more empty frames to fill up both hive boxes, and put everything back. Naturally, there were some bees who did not make it inside the box with the frames, but by dark, most had found their way into the hive and were safe and secure.

First hands-on Beekeeping experience

I started the day at an Organic Gardening Seminar learning about how to run an organic farm. Although most of the information in this seminar was well above my ability and land availability, I did learn a few new things about extending my growing season, how to build a seedling shack, and some basic organic pest control. I also enjoyed learning about some of the tools and tractors that are available. But the real fun came this afternoon.

While at the seminar I received a call from the president of the Lady Beekeepers. She was going to inspect her hives today and wanted Kevin and I to join them to get some real hands-on experience. Naturally, I first had a moment of panic. Was she really wanting us their? Would we be imposing? Would they be finished before we got their? But, as he always does, Kevin managed to keep me calm and insist that we should go and learn as much as we can. So we grabbed our bee garb and hit the road.

I purchased a jacket and bee hood combination that is conveniently sealed quite well. This combined with my XXXS gloves made me very confident. I simply tucked my blue jeans into my socks and was ready to go. Kevin, on the other hand, was not blessed with an outfit. He simply got stuck with the standard equipment from the beginner's kit we purchased:  helmet, veil, gloves. We managed to make it work, though. We duck-taped his waist and the veil to try and keep out any curious bees.

We cautiously walked across the field behind the house. I suddenly became very aware of how tiny our yard is and how close our hive will be to every square inch of my garden. But anyways, we were ready to encounter our first cloud of bees. President and husband are very friendly people and they greeted us first by inspecting that we were sufficiently protected. (It was their idea to tuck our jeans into our socks and tape down Kevin's veil.) Then, we dove straight in. I watched as they unstacked a hive box, carefully loosened each frame, and then inspected the frames for content. Some contained honey, some contained brood and honey, and some were just being laid with brood by very busy queens. We did get to see 3 queen bees (each in different hives, of course). Very beautiful creatures.

We talked about scraping off comb that was built on the outside of the frames and removing the propolis (bee glue made from pine sap to fill cracks or otherwise seal all the frames and boxes together). We also talked about things like feeding (5lbs of sugar per gallon of water, with a hint of peppermint oil in the first batch to prevent tracheal mites). We learned about removing a few unfortunate drone larvae to inspect for varroa mites and also how to spread a bead of food-grade mineral oil on top of each frame to prevent the same.

Kevin also learned what it feels like to get stung (or rather was reminded). After about an hour, one managed to get inside his veil. We were able to remove this one without any problem, but then while walking one innocent bee was resting on his Achilles heel and was smashed against the back of his boot. In response, she stung him through his sock. He managed to not scream profanity, but he did seem quite surprised. So far, it only hurt for a little while and there doesn't appear to be any swelling.
Needless to say, we learned a great deal. The best part is that hands-on experience is priceless. Having just a little bit of time gives you the confidence to do it on your own. You can read and research all you want, but it just isn't the same as getting your hands dirty. She told us of an old man who helped them get started with their hives. Now they are passing that to us, and one day we will pass it to another.

Equipment and tools are the biggest challenge in terms of investment. Honestly, when I chose bees over chickens, I assumed we would be spending less money, but this does not seem to be the case. So far we have purchased the following items:  Hive kit (boxes, frames, base, screen bottom board, inner cover, metal-topped outer cover, foundation), a nuc box, beginner's kit (helmet, veil, gloves, book, bee brush, 2 feeders, hive tool, smoker), hooded jacket for me, gloves for me, another book (kids book for my students), a frame spacer tool, wire, wire embedder, brass eyelets, eyelet tool, a backup hat/veil for guests, a frame holder, and eco wood treatment.

I am sure this list will continue to grow, but we have the main items needed to get the bees for sure. (I am still awaiting the arrival of the foundation. I have emailed Kelley Bees a third time regarding the foundation that was supposed to be in my original order. I have only heard that they were checking to verify that it was not shipped, but nothing else so far. This is frustrating given that the bees will swarm in the next month or so, and our frames aren't complete until we have it.)

So, now we wait. We wait on the remaining tools and foundation to arrive, and for the bees to swarm. The swarm will most likely occur in April. We installed a reed privacy fence of sorts around the part of our yard that touches our neighbor. This will be good to keep the bees out of sight and it will also cause them to fly above anyone outside the yard as well. Bees tend to fly up and over obstacles and only descend on a source of pollen, so getting them to fly up usually keeps them out of people's hair (literally). Honestly, my only concern is when the neighbor mows, since the noise might disturb the hive, but the reeds should help with this too. Today we also "painted" our boxes with the eco wood treatment. Really, my next steps are to continue growing my yeast starter, and tending my garden. I am well aware of a busy growing season ahead, so a little down time, while in some ways disappointing, is still appreciated.

The Power of People - Preparing for the Bees

I have a lot of information to share about my adventure of preparing for my bees. Here is the first bit of information, gathered this past Monday:

Tonight was the March meeting for the Lady Beekeepers  of Arkansas. They usually meet on the first Monday at Whole Foods, but tonight is a special annual event with food and labor. All the ladies got together with their new equipment and we basically had an assembly party. I learned a lot more than just how to put together a frame. Some things I learned seem very vital and yet have been left out of all my previous research. But let's take a step back for a moment.

Per advice from the president of the Lady Beekeepers I ordered a particular hive kit. It's called the All Medium kit. Basically, there are 3 sizes of beehive boxes - brood boxes, medium supers, and small supers. Super just means it is a box that goes on top of the brood box where the queen does all her laying. But due to the ridiculous weight involved in wax and honey, the bigger the box, the less likely

I will be able to maneuver the hive pieces by myself. So the goal is to avoid the brood boxes and go for all supers. This also makes all the frames inside the hive the same size, instead of a different frame for each piece. I will find a diagram to make this more easy to understand, but basically you are saving money and your back. I picked up this kit direct from the vendor at the Arkansas Beekeepers Association Conference on Saturday. Unfortunately, I didn't have the opportunity to open the boxes and inspect the contents while the vendor was there, so I am naturally missing a vital piece - the foundation on which the bees build their comb! I have contacted them about this, but have not heard any feedback yet.

While playing, I mean working hard to assemble the frames tonight I learned some other important and useful info. One is that I can still assemble the frames even though the foundation isn't here yet. Two, is that I should have ordered brads and wire so I could add a horizontal wire to the foundation to keep it from sagging in the summer heat. And three, is that once I do have that foundation, I better keep it in a refrigerator or a box of moth crystals until it goes in the hive or I will get an infestation of wax moths.

So far, I have now built the hive boxes and assembled 20 frames, minus the foundation. More work to come. Stay tuned...

Here is a size diagram from someone else's blog: