Cleaning up the Mess

Last week I said goodbye to the bees for the last time, in that I cleaned up the havoc the bear had wrought. 

The picture above is after the first time the bear visited and brought destruction.  I set the hives to rights afterward, got stung twice, (which took 2 weeks to go down) and left the bees alone.  When the bear came back, the scene was much worse and the bees were done for.  Total destruction.  Between that, and the fact that I've become quite allergic, it was time to give it up with the bees.  Disappointing?  Yes.  But necessary.  Twice I have tried, and twice I have failed.  I can take a hint--this is not for me.

So I cleaned up.  I picked up all the pieces that were widely scattered about and thought about any way at all to make the situation turn out to the positive.  There was no honey.  The bear had seen to that.  But there was wax, and I use the wax to wax my cheese with.  Hmmmm....if I could harvest that, I wouldn't have to buy wax, and then I could use it and the bees would not be a TOTAL loss (just mostly a loss).  So I spent several hours scraping the frames that were not completely shattered into a pot like so:



This is a messy, sticky job

And piled all the "cleaned" equipment neatly.

Definitely better than pieces strewn all over the yard, no?

I have rendered beeswax once before, and I remember nothing about how to do it.  What I do remember is what I will tell you here:  Never use anything in rendering beeswax that you want to either keep clean or use for something else.  Beeswax is so sticky, you're pretty much guaranteed to ruin anything you put it in.  That I knew.  But the rest?  I made up as I went along. 

First I put the bits in a pot that I will never use for anything else ever again.  Unfortunately, it was a small pot, so this all had to be done in many stages.  But I put the wax mess in the pot and added water.  Then I heated it up.

Why add water?  Wax burns, baby.  On top of that, there are so many disgusting things in the wax from a hive that you don't want in the wax from your hive, and all of it makes the wax stickier and then it won't separate out.  When the water is in there it will keep the dirt, and the the wax will be clean (presumably) and float on top of all the muckiness.  So it's a helpful thing.  Basically, you take this yucky mixture and heat it up to boiling and then let it boil for a while.

 

This smells pretty bad.  It's all full of dead bee bodies and icky bee stuff and probably larva and icky stuff like that, and it smells like beeswax (which is nice) and hot dirt (which is not).  But you can see that the wax is starting to separate here and cling to the spoon that I'll never use again for anything else ever.  Eventually, when you see a lot of yellow wax sort of floating in the mess, you pour it into your separator.

 

This is a highly technical tool, consisting of a piece of old window screen alligator clipped to a disposable turkey roasting pan.  Neither thing which can ever be used ever again for anything other than beeswax harvesting--trust me.

Anyway, you pour your smelly, messy goop into this, and the screen catches all the bee bodies and dirt and cooked larva bits, and the wax and dirty water go through.  Then you wait until the wax hardens on top of the water, and you scoop it out.

This wax is mostly clean, but still has some icky dirty things sticking to it's underside, so it's necessary to warm it all up and filter it again.

This time, don't use water.  Just break up the wax sheets and put them either in a double boiler, or just use a low, low heat.  Melt the wax and then filter it through here:

 



 This fine piece of craftsmanship is a plastic container from something someone ate once, with a nylon stocking over it.  It is very fancy.  The wax will drain through, like so:

And it will leave the mess on the top, like so:

 

 But through the stocking, all the nice beeswax will drip, and then you will have, after you have waited impatiently and stuck your finger in it a number of times, a nice cake of beeswax.  Taa daa!!

And that's how it works.  This a long process, and I can see why beeswax is so expensive to buy when I do this.  But I am happy that I did, because now I have more cheese wax, and the hives were not a TOTAL loss--just MOSTLY a loss.  It's so much better. 

The only thing I cannot tell you is why beeswax that I've rendered is so much yellower than anything I've ever bought.  It's probably got something to do with pollen in there or something, but I have no idea.  Either way, it's super yellow and smells nice, so that's alright with me. 

And there you go!  Now you know how to do it, so go on out and render some beeswax today!



And PS--I finished a little table runner yesterday.  It was a kit given to me by a friend, which sat unopened for 3 years.  I finally opened it, and all told, it took me about an hour to make.  3 projects down!!

 

Bearmageddon

We live in the woods.  In case you had forgotten, I am reminding you, which is necessary to preface this story.

Woods=coyotes, raccoons, snakes, big bugs, frogs, weasels, mink (we also have water), squirrels, and blah blah blah.  Lots of predators, lots of chances for something to do something I would really they rather not.

Last night, we heard someone's hounddog going bonkers.  This happens from time to time, and usually means coyotes.  Coyotes like to take my ducks and chickens and whatnot, but at night, everyone is locked in, so I wasn't worried about it.  However, a bonkers dog can also mean bears.  Big, black ones.  We've got 'em, and the first time I saw one, I didn't actually see it.  Rather, I saw my geese, who are LOUD, shut up and run like their butts were on fire.  When I saw what they were running from....it was a bear.  Since then, they've been up and down the backyard and in the woods, and they look at me, I look at them, and they steal someone else's garbage.

Well, last night, that bonkers dog meant bears.  Who came to Chicken Scratch for the first time ever to have a snack.  Want to know what he/she ate?  This:

That, my friends, is what it looks like when a big, hulking black bear kinda dude/dudette decides that what you've got is DEEEEELICOUS and hunkers down for a nice meal.

It ain't pretty.  So far, I am only able to clean up the smaller yellow hive, as the girls within are less aggressive than the green hive.  The green hive wants me dead, no matter if I am trying to help or not.  So I will wait until sundown, hope they are a little sleepy, smoke the hell out of them, and put them back together.  Today, after I am done butchering broilers, I will need to research how to keep my bear friend out of my beehives.  Then I will have to enact that thing.

And there you go.  A first for me.  Never let it be said that this life isn't always interesting or a learning experience, because it certainly is.  It never gets dull, and that's what I love.  'Till next time!

Steps to Install A Package of Bees

Today I installed my bee packages.  As always, it was an experience.  This is how it's done.

Step 1:  Put the hive together and set it on the stand.  Put bee package on the hive and admire it.  Think about how peaceful those little bees are.  Think about how ticked off they're going to be in a minute.

Step 2:  Remember that you not only have to annoy bees once, you have to annoy bees twice.  Begin to rethink the sanity of what you're doing.

Step 3:  Say to yourself "They're just little bees.  They can't really hurt me".  Suit up anyway. 

Step 4:  Pop the top of the package and remove the queen cage.  Take a look at her and try to ignore the bees that are already buzzing around you, as well as the ones clinging onto the cage.  Be glad you have gloves.

Step 5:  Open the queen cage's tab and place her between two frames.  Make a space in the hive by removing frames for the bees you're about to shake--yes, shake--in there.

Step 6:  Remove the feeder can from the package, which makes a big hole in it's top and then bang the bees on the ground.  Proceed to hold breath, turn package upside down, and shake 10,000 bees into that space you made in the hive.  Try to ignore the angry buzzing.

Step 7:  With your gloved hand, push the bees that are in the way of the top out of the way so they don't get smooshed.  Put the inner cover on, put the feeder over the hole, and place the empty hive body over it.  Put the top on and step BACK.

Step 8:  While you try to ignore that the air is full of thousands of confused and somewhat ticked off stinging machines, admire your work.  Then remember that you have to do it all again.

Step 9: Know that the package you haven't installed yet knows what you're about to do and doesn't really like the look of it and would rather opt out of the whole deal, thank you very much. 

Suck it up and  repeat steps 4-7.   

Step 10:  Ignoring the fact that there are now twice as many confused and someone ticked off stinging machines in the air all around you, place the fairly empty packages under the hives so the bees that you only annoyed by shaking, but did not manage to get into the hive, can get into the hive. 

Step 11:  Go back several hours later to see that all the bees went into their homes.  Take the packages and gently flick the "slacker bees" into the hives by the feeder so they don't freeze all by themselves.  Close them up and walk away.

Step 12:  Go have a stiff drink and know it was a job well done.



PS--Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas!

Totally. Worth. It

I don't know....can anyone really convey sarcasm via the web?  If not, then I'll tell you off the bat that that was sarcasm, folks.

After all that boiling and melting down of beeswax and other stuff for what seemed like forever, this is the nice beeswax that it made:

Wowee.  Pardon me if I'm slightly underwhelmed.

There was so much "stuff" in the wax that I resorted to squeezing out the "stuff" in order to get the wax it was hiding, which was messy and hot. 

At least it didn't go to waste--I guess.

Well, that's over with.  Now to decide what to do about next year.  Hmm.....

Expensive Failure

Never let it be said that I don't share my epic fails with you.  The potatoes were one, but this one was probably worse.

Yup, those were the bees.  At least, some of them.  I have no idea what happened to them, so I couldn't even presume to tell you.

I went in to the hive today, as it was mild, to see if they needed the feeder put in.  I will say, it's looked pretty quiet over there for a few weeks.  Of course, it's also been really cold, so I thought maybe they were all laying low.  Not so.  When I got the hive open, this is what I saw:

Empty dead comb after empty dead comb.  Done-o.  Finito.  Adios. 

Sad. 

I have no idea what happened.  It's not CCD, as far as I can tell, because it's not like they just died and left everything behind.  It's like they moved out. 

Maybe they swarmed.  But then there would be some bees left.  Maybe the queen died and they didn't replace her.  I have no idea.  All I can tell is that there weren't enough dead bees in the bottom to make up a whole hive, so most of them went somewhere else. 

You got me.  What a failure.

Anyway, I'm not one to let all of this go to waste.  I scraped a fair bit of comb for the wax and brought it inside to render.

It's not really nice stuff.  Some of it is, but a lot of it is crappy.  I'm doing it anyway, so I can see if there's anything salvageable about this disaster.  I currently have it bubbling away over a double boiler to melt it, and then I'll strain it through some layers of cheesecloth to get out the yutz, which is probably most of it.  Whatever I get will be fine.  Word of advice:  Beeswax fresh from the comb takes a long time to melt down, so be patient.  I've done this method before, and it took a long time.  A long, long time. 

The only question left is; do I get back up on this horse and try again next year, or do I give it up?  There's a lot of expensive equipment involved here that would go unused, so I'm tempted to try again.  However, this was a big, expensive bummer.  Should I sink the money in again or not?  Choices, choices.  I'm going to have to think it out. 

In the meantime, I will render wax.  I'll show you a picture when it's all done, and hope for bee-ter days ahead.

So It Turns Out....

I'm fairly allergic to bee stings. 

While trying to flip over the inner cover on the hive on Saturday, I tripped and banged into it, causing the bees to come flying out at me, ready to sting.

Man, they were angry.  I wonder if they are still reliving the honey stealage from the other day.

Anywho, I got stung 9 times; 5 on my back, once on my head, once on my eyebrow, and once on each arm.  I look like a boxer who went too many rounds-one eye is fairly swollen.  My arms blew up and they ITCH.  My joints hurt.  The side of my head is all puffed out, and my back is nicely bumpy.

Good times.

I'm going to need another plan of attack if I plan on keeping bees--which I do.  I'm thinking armor?  Having my husband do it?  Keeping a doctor on retainer?  I haven't decided yet.  Stay tuned for a solution (I hope)!

Imperfect Harvest

Today was the day that it finally stopped raining and dried up a little (a very little) and I could finally harvest honey.  It's already getting late in the season, so I did not harvest a lot.  I want to be sure they have enough for the winter. 

I took 2 frames that were full, but they were only really full on the fronts.  The backs had little on them.

My very scientific method of gathering was this:  open the hive, pull out the frame, shake all the bees off, brush the remaining bees off, and walk away very fast so the bees couldn't get me.  Then quickly put the frame in the bucket in the house and close the door.  Repeat.  Add smoke fairly liberally throughout.

I didn't get stung.  Happy day!

That part worked pretty well--it was the uncapping that was not pretty.

It is WAY too easy to cut the comb right off the frame without meaning to.  I need a lot more practice.  I did what I could, over the bucket, and got a bunch of it in.  However, I did remove more comb than I would have liked and it's now sitting in a strainer over a bowl on the warm stove, so it can drain.

This was pretty messy.  I didn't get much on the floor, so that's good, but it would have been nice not to get so much comb.  I can see the allure of the extractor.

After I was done and got as much honey off as I could, I brought the frames back to the bees  to clean and repair.  I did not get stung, although they were more ready for me this time.  Happy day!

And that's the honey harvest for this year.  You know something?  The honey tastes like flowers.  More bees next year!  No doubt about it.

Edited to add:

The results are in!  After letting it set in the bucket overnight, this was the take:

That's a 1/2 gallon jar, so it was about 1/4 gallon and a cake of wax, which I rendered afterwards.  Not a bad haul for what turned out to be one complete (front and back) frame of honey.  The taste is incredible, and I am so happy.  I am surprised at the color of it, though.  It's so much darker than I would have thought.  I wonder what those bees were eating??

Exponential Growth

This time it's about the bees. 
The girls have been busy.  I noticed quite the bee cloud going into the entrance the other day, and I thought "Gee, I bet it's getting crowded in there".  And lo and behold, it was.

The feeder hides the mob

Remove the feeder and the bees bubble up

Bees building things they shouldn't on the inner cover

Looked at the hive body itself, and yep, crowded.

Help!  Not enough square footage!  We bee crowded!  (ha ha)

They'd used all but the last two frames.  Time for the second hive body.

All done

And I got some lovely beeswax to boot.  This was all stuck to the inner cover, and I though I would have preferred to put it back for them to use, there was nowhere to put it gracefully.  So yeay!  Beeswax!

Easy peasy. 

Oh, I thought I'd show you my assistant.  He's my go-to guy for pumping the smoker.  He also stayed nearby during my work on the bees today ---basically he crouched in the corner by the tree and said helpful things like "They can't get me because they can't see me" and "EEEEEEEW!  What is that?" and "How come I don't see the queen?  Can I see the queen?  Where are the babies?  Can I see?".

 My responses, because I like to be calm around the bees as to not get stung, mostly were "Reid, stop talking.  Stop talking Reid.  Really Reid, you have to stop talking.  Reid, I don't want to get stung, so stop talking.".  Mostly done out of the side of my mouth.  Such talent. 

I did not get stung.  Woo hoo!