The Hives

Well, I knew it. I didn’t know it but I suspected something was wrong. I have been watching the hives for the last week and a half and knew there was something going on. I have seen little to no activity out of my girls so I asked my friend Jonathan to come out and take a look. He came out last Thursday night. He checked the newer hive first because that is the one I noticed had almost no activity. He showed me the honey in the comb, but there is no brood and no queen. (I forgot the camera).

The older hive, the one that I have had for a year, had very few bees inside. There were wax moths and hive beetles inside along with maggots. *sigh* As far as he can tell, the bees got into some pesticide. Again. None of the comb had honey on it at all. We live on 7.5 acres but we have incorporated neighborhoods all around us and around the lake so there are a lot of people making their lawns & flowers ‘pretty’ with fertilizers and such. I am not blaming the neighbors by any means, just wish this hadn’t happened. Again. He said it had only taken about 5-10 days too. I can't believe it happened so fast. :(

Thursday night was also our local bee meeting so we were very interested to see if anyone else is having any issues in this area. Some people are having issues with heat but not necessarily with poisons that they knew of. I am so bummed and ready to throw in the towel but I do have options. Here are a few:

·        I can take the hives off the property and have him put them somewhere else. We may just be to close to ‘civilization’. There are people in the city limits that do fine so that is why we think it is a particular poison on a particular flower.

·        We can build up one of the hives and bring it back until January, then move it into the orange groves (a little north of here) and not bring it back until June. The other hive will be cleaned up real good and possibly brought back depending on the first hive.

·        Or I can quit altogether and just buy my honey from Jonathan.

There may be other options, maybe someone has some ideas and can leave them in the comments?

No matter what I decide it will take a few weeks to build the hives back up so I have time to think about it. Oh, if you do nothing else, keep notes on your hives. Having notes from last year’s fiasco really helped us to figure out what happened this year.

For now, Ray (Jonathan’s dad) has come and picked up the hives. Now when I look out our big picture window I see plain cement blocks. No girls flying in the sunlight, heading out to find nectar or home to make the honey.

I hope this post doesn’t discourage any new beekeepers. Everyone has different circumstances and although mine are unfortunate, I am not going to let it get me down. Everything happens for a reason and God is good all the time. It will work out for the best.   

Thanks for reading. Enjoy your week!

Barn Hop #13

This past week I set up my rain barrel. Actually, it has been set up, but i haven't really "featured" it). The top has a screen over it to keep out the mosquitoes, pine needles and any other dropping/flying things, lol. This is a food grade barrel that I received from my county extension after taking a Rain Barrel course they offered. The top had to be refurbished by me after a big miscommunication between my brother & I. I didn’t put it under the eaves of the house because I understand there could be toxins within the roofing materials and I don’t want any good rain water getting contaminated and poinsoning my edibles. I could use the water from our roof on grass or flowers, but not in the veggie garden. The barrel works and that is what matters. Now, if we only had some rain.

I alos planted my sweet potato slips. I had no idea they were actual plants until I ordered them. I expected them to look like the potato seed I planted earlier this year. (You know, actual potatoes, lol). I have read that sweet potatoes are hard to kill so I am hoping for a good crop of those this year too. I planted peas and fertilized with a good organic fertilizer.

They look pretty droopy after I planted them, but they are looking better today.

Come back tomorrow for a bee update; but for now, head on over to the Barn Hop and join in the fun. J

Preparedness Challenge #8

Another week of accomplishment for me. Not a huge amount, but definitely makes me feel better. I finally received my crank flashlights! These things are so much fun. I read a post over at Safely Gathered In and she talked about the scariness of being in a bad storm a few years back. (Read the post here). She had a BOB within reach, but some of the items were still in their packages. Trust me; read the post, you won't regret it. I immediately took mine out of the packaging and tested them out (played with them) to make sure they worked ok. These things are great.

I also put my emergency car kit together. Inside there is a first aid kit, disinfecting wipes, granola bars (not pictured), almonds, sunscreen, matches in a waterproof container, flint & striker and two emergency blankets.

Head on over to the Homestead Revival site to link up to the Preparedness Challenge or just read some great posts! Enjoy the weekend and thanks for reading. :)