Bees

We're back down to ONE hive. The hive that had died, died again. No sign of disease, no sign of parasites--just dead. And the hive that had all the honey ate it in late summer, so we're feeding them for the cold weather. Next spring, we're going to pinch and replace the queen with one that tends to produce more honey and save it for the WINTER. And we're going to install another package of bees, after we clean out the dead hive. Two years, and we've not had a DROP of honey out of our hives. Meanwhile, our friend in Baltimore has 4 hives that gave him 500 POUNDS of honey, and he ignores them...

Pottery

Debbie has always wanted to throw pots. Living with Steve gave her the opportunity! (It's a joke ;-) We bought a Brent wheel from a private school, and a kiln from a private construction contractor who had received it in lieu of payment. Debbie is practicing and is frustrated that she can only make bowls. We had a 220V, 40A circuit put in the spare bedroom where the breaker panel lives. Now we just need to make sure we don't run the oven, dryer, water heater, kiln and well pump at the same time... We need to replace the fire sprinkler head in the kiln room with one that will stand slightly higher temperatures. When we have enough items, we'll fire the kiln and see how it works.

Eggs?

We waited. And waited. And kept waiting. The hens were apparently in no hurry to produce eggs. Finally, Steve began to suspect that they weren't producing eggs because of the quality of their feed. They had been eating the bagged Purina Layena for a while. Instead, we bought them a fresh new bag of the Southern States Crumble for Layers. Two days later, we started having eggs. Purina needs to pay attention here...

The Great Flood

Well, we survived. We had no power for several days. We would run the generator long enough to cool the refrigerator, and while it ran, we'd get online and send reassuring emails to our families. We're not likely to forget September 2011. September 7, 2011. Debbie wrote to Steve at work: "Croom Station flooded!" "Croom Rd too!  Heading to Molly Berry!" "Molly Berry flooded, too!" "Duley Station to Croom is OK." "NOT! Croom closed at store!" September 8, 2011. Steve wrote to work, "I am not likely to be coming in today. "Between Upper Marlboro and Waldorf, approx 15 miles, there are TWO small roads which are still barely passable. If I come to work, with the expected weather, I will not be getting home. "301 is closed. Brandywine Rd is closed. Croom Rd is closed. Croom Station is closed. Molly Berry is closed. It's a royal mess. "Plus, I have water on the floor of my basement. Not much, but enough to make MY day complete." September 9, 2011. Steven wrote to his sister: "Hey, happy birthday, Sis! "No doubt, I would have remembered yesterday if I hadn't been distracted by the power being out, and by being almost trapped in our neighborhood by the flooding. "Yes, I'm sure I would have remembered. "After Debbie reminded me the next day."

Looking Back and Moving On, Part 5

We are getting about 3 eggs in 2 days from our chickens. The chicken killer managed to kill our BEST layers, and leave us our low-end hens. But we are using at least 2 eggs EVERY day, so we worked our way through that 5-dozen egg overstock pretty quickly. We needed to build up our flock again. Debbie went and bought 4 new chicks. We brought them home, made them as comfortable as any chick could hope--food, water, heatlamp, towel. One ingrate went and died overnight. The nerve! But the other three grew! When they were too large for the storage bin, we set up a dog crate in the coop and moved them out of the sewing room before the smell grew overpowering. Our theory was that the older chickens could get used to the 3 new chickens, and vice versa, without anyone being killed establishing pecking order. It seems to have worked, in part, because we now let the chickens all mingle together, and no one gets hurt. But if you look closely, they're NOT mingling. The four older chickens hang out together, and the three younger chickens hang out together, and they all live in the same building. But it's more like 2 small flocks in the same coop. I don't care. As long as they don't kill each other, and produce eggs, I'm OK with whatever social order they establish. Now if they would just PRODUCE EGGS. We expect them any day.

Looking Back and Moving On, Part 4

Several weeks passed. Opening the hive for an inspection, Debbie found that the workers were planning a revolt. They had built queen cells. Before that happened, we decided to intervene. We took the queen cells, some brood frames and some bees and used them to recolonize the empty hive. Then we sat back and watched. It seems to have worked! We have two hives again, although we aren't sure about this new hive. It just doesn't show the same kind of activity as the older hive. But there are bees in the hive, and they seem to be storing lots of pollen and raising lots of brood. We just don't see them flying very much, and they don't seem to be making honey. But the older hive! You can SMELL the honey, 10 feet away! We've had to add another box to the top of both hives, and maybe we'll be able to get some honey this fall. We intend to let them keep MOST of their work for the coming winter. But it would sure be nice to taste something for all our efforts!

Looking Back and Moving On, Part 3

Back in January, I was cheering about how both hives of bees had SURVIVED the winter! I was premature. Spring came, first flow was starting, and the bees were buzzing away. And a week later, there were dead bees on the porch of one of the hives, and in the grass. The ones in the hive were sluggish and slow, and nobody was flying. And 3 days later, they were all dead. And that had been our STRONG hive. Our best guess is that they found an attractive source of nectar or pollen that had been sprayed with an insecticide, and the whole hive was busy collecting poison. It's also possible that some of them starved in the midst of plenty, as we had provided food over the winter, but this hive hadn't seemed to notice. The hive stood empty for awhile. Then the other hive swarmed. Thousands of bees were coating the branches of the peach tree next to the hives. I got a cardboard box and the ladder. We swept the bees into the box, and watched as some of the workers started fanning the queen's pheromones from the edge of the box, saying "Here she is! Come home!" The circling bees started settling into the cardboard box. We walked away for a few minutes to give them a chance to collect into the box. When we came back, they were all gone. But the hive seemed to have just as many bees as ever. Did they all decide to move back IN?