Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 42) October 28

Free Republic | 10-28-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[trisham]

That was fascinating! You're an excellent teacher. :)

Prayers are on the way for your good friend Mark. Please keep us posted.

[who knows what evil?]

Much appreciated...I’ve been looking into this, but would rather get into a more permanent southern location first.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Will remember Mark in my prayers.

Now, for you! Good grief, girl. you are making the rest of us look like pikers! Not only are you raising bees, you are removing them from other people’s homes and barns. I hope you wear a bee suit, and I’ll bet you look fearsome in it. And you are stalking wild game at the same time. Is there anything that you can’t do?

You are simply awesome and put the rest of us to shame!

[greeneyes]

Prayers up.

[tubebender]

My Prayers for your FRiend and may he have a successful recovery. Thanks for the excellent photos of your Bee Keeping adventures. Who helps you collect the wild hives?

[Sarajevo]

Do you worry about Africanized bees in your area? I think that is the only thing that keeps me from trying to raise bees.

[Red_Devil 232]

Wow you are as industrious as a Bee! Looks like you will have the makings for a great Mead or a nice Honey Porter Ale! With the figs you have available from your tree you could make a Fig Honey Mead - that could be an awesome combination! Fruit of the gods with the nectar of the gods.

Prayers for your friend Mark’s rapid recovery!

[Red_Devil 232]

Wow! Your garden is looking good! Hope you get a few nice papaya’s off your tree!

[Red_Devil 232]

I will second visiting and posting on the Weekly Cooking and Recipe thread. Great stuff shared by FReepers over there!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

How cool!! My BIL has offered me all of his bee-keeping stuff in the past - wonder if he’ll still give it all to me come spring if I ask?

I’m torn between being the local authority on/supplier of Heirloom Chickens, or learning about and keeping Angora Rabbits for the fur. I’ve got room for both, so it just may be both!

Your hive looks happy, healthy & successful - but I would expect no LESS from you! :)

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Thank you all for your prayers, and boy do they ever do wonders! I received a series of text messages from Mark's wife tonight, and the surgeons and doctors say that it is a miracle that Mark is not paralyzed from the waist down. The tests after his surgery indicate that he will walk again. He has two plates and 4 screws in his lower back. He may get to have visitors as early as tomorrow.

The phone just rang, and my husband is talking to Mark!

[Red_Devil 232]

Here is a honey extracting honey ;)

Making Honey at the Davis Bee Farm

[tob2]

Had to cover up the remaining basil and the tender lettuce plants. Temperatures going into the upper 30’s overnight. At least there is no snow to deal with.

[tubebender]

I’d have my inventive grandson hook that extractor to a stationary bicycle

[Red_Devil 232]

But it was more fun watching this hand cranked method ;)

[cherry]

of course we'll pray for your friend....

btw, are you like Superwoman or what?.....

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"How do you harvest honey when ready?"

We remove the boxes of honey from the hive and take them to the work shed. There the cappings on the comb are removed with a heated knife, hopefully in one smooth motion, and then any remaining caps would be scraped open. You have to remove the caps so that the honey will flow.

We then place up to 7 frames at a time into racks in a stainless steel drum centrifuge with an electric motor. The motor spins the frames, extracts the honey, and send it to the bottom of the drum where there is a spigot that opens to a bucket.

After extraction, you will have perfect frames of honeycomb that are now dry. Those are stored for later or immediately given back to the bees, depending on the time of year. The bees will fill the cells once again and you have saved them the time of rebuilding all of that wax comb.

"I’ve always considered learning beekeeping but I guess I’m too afraid to do it. I hate bee stings."

I was hesitant too, but honeybees are very gentle for the most part. Most all of my stings have been when we were cutting a hive out of a wall or roof, and the bees tend to get irate when you are destroying their home, their brood, and their honey food source.

A good bee suit will prevent most stings, but a determined bee is going to get you every now and then. Most days I can sit right next to a hive in shorts and a tee and watch them come in loaded down with pollen and nectar.

My absolute, hands down, worst day with my bees got me 27 stings. It was my own fault really ... I had forgotten to bring my smoker device and was too lazy to go back to the house to get it. Going in a big hive without your smoker is asking for trouble and I found it big time!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"you are making the rest of us look like pikers!"

Oh, no I don't!!! There are many folks on the gardening list that leave me slack-jawed with the work that they do.

Yes ma'am, I wear a bee suit. I would even call it a reinforced bee suit, because I've added shoulder pads and extra layers in places that I've been stung most often.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Who helps you collect the wild hives?"

Mark and I do the bee cut outs. He did his first one alone, which compounds the difficulty factor, and I begged him to let me come along and help on his next. Before long, we improved our techniques and actually looked like we knew what we were doing!

Mark got online and looked at some bee vacs and then built one for us to use. Made a big difference! Now we look like the BeeBusters when we unload all of our stuff at a cut out location.

The strangest cut out that we ever did ... in a very small town not far from here. We are in the truck on the way to this old farmhouse when Mark gets a call. It is the son of the lady that hired us and he wanted to make sure we were going to be there for the start of the party! Party???? Are you kidding me???? Removal of a hive of bees that are angry about you destroying their home is not, and I repeat, not a spectator sport.

We arrive and there are at least 50 people outside, each with a camera or camcorder. Children are running and playing. There is food and punch.

Mark and I don our bee suits, set up two 8 ft. step ladders with some boards between them for our work area, and start to remove the shingles and boards from the roof where we expect to find the hive. Took all of 3 minutes with the angry bees to drive all of the folks into the house, running and swatting. Several were stung.

They continued the party and taking photos from inside the bay window, their spirits dampened, but not defeated.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

We have not had a report in this area of a hive becoming africanized, so it is not really anything that concerns us. If it were to happen, we would destroy the hive and keep on going.

Don't let that worry keep you from trying some bees. Maybe you could contact a local beekeepers group and see if they've had any problems. There are beekeeper directories online that will give you contact numbers and email addresses.