What a Week !

Golden Beauties...
Green Galore...Sweetest Spring Greens...Compliments of a well built raised bed. We planted an assorted mixture of favorite EZ grow veggies; Broccoli from starts; Cilantro, Spinach, and both Green and Red Mustard started in six packs; Late Broccoli and a few Collards started from seed and placed between the early broccoli; And both mini Carrots and heirloom Beets were planted directly. The bed is about 2 feet high, and it is filled with a basic mix of 1/3 compost, 1/3 soil and 1/3 peat moss. I supplemented with a small bag of Dr Earth 4-4-4, and of course, some chicken shit in the form of Stutzman's - in pellet form. Note: If you haven't tried the chicken shit in pellet form you must give it a go. In appearance it is like rabbit or horse food, the bags are quite heavy, and they cost about $10/ea - but go a long way. The pellets break down wonderfully integrated into the soil, or if used as a top dressing. Major appeal? NO SMELL!! This bed has remained covered for the most part since planting with a couple layers of floating row cover...actually I have a good source for that - will link. Below, check out the Flock of Ravens that came for a visit on my birthday.
Spring brings renewed hope and inspiration for most. For me, it has delivered 2 boxes of honey bees and one bum knee - very bad combo. My bikejoring escapades brought yet another (not so minor) injury, this time to my right leg/knee. We are all just really glad its not broken! For the full story you'll have to check out my mushing blog where I intend to whine about it in full...In the meantime...The rest of the story; The bees arrived in splendid shape on Friday, thanks to Ernie and the good folks at the Branscomb Center. It was a hot day and they were running over the screen quite a lot. I misted them with water, to cool them down some on the way home. I was instructed to wait ONE WHOLE DAY prior to installing, to allow the package time to bond with the queen. The queens are raised for this purpose, and prior to shipping, the worker bees are literally shoveled into the boxes with the queen in her own cage. They don't know the queen, and must acclimate to her scent. In retrospect, I wish I'd have gone with my first inclination to install them immediately - while I still had two good legs! As it was, they were placed in a cool well ventilated area, and I started to mist them with sugar water with a ratio 1-1. Then I took my fateful ride, and damn! Things got a lot harder after that. Living on the beautifully steep homestead that I do, even though the area where hives are has been leveled, access to that area is only for the sound of body. Still, late Friday evening I hobbled up there on crutches with the help of the hubby and kids, and with little fanfare we installed the first package. I did wear a veil, but was literally clad in short shorts, and long sleeved shirt. I received NO stings. Check out the videos (not mine) below for the process. The bees are quite docile in the package, because they have nothing to defend. In this instance they were indeed docile, like little lambs. Into the hive with you. In spite of the fact that I had to crawl back to the house, we considered it a success, and because light was fading (read DARK) we were forced to put off the installation of the second box, one more day. I'm truly gimpy at this point (oooh! the day after the wreck. Everywhere - ouch!) I fed them just twice on Saturday, it was also pretty warm. So when we went to install this second box we were greeted with quite a few dead bees at the bottom. Maybe 3x's as many as the first box. We say, don't worry, this is cool...just hobble your broken butt up there and "git er done. " When I injured myself initially, I called an old bee keeping companion for assistance, and he said to me "The girls can do it!" Hmmmmm... I'm glad I did not listen to him in this instance, because what followed was not the smoothest of installations, and is indeed part of our steep, steep learning curve in this new venture. So, I got myself up there (somehow) and right away things started going poorly.... The feeder can, which plugs the hole was completely jammed. (Stuck up with sugar? Bad fit? I will never know...) We (the hubby is there - no veil) are wiggling and jostling that fricking can for about 5 minutes! Finally, I used the hive tool to literally break it out. By now the bees are all pissed. One immediately flies up and stings my helper on the lip -very bad. The primary reason for using a veil at all times, is to protect the highly sensitive face area from stings, which can cause quite a reaction there - as you will see. I got the queen cage uncorked, with still far more hassle than the night before, plugged it with a marshmallow, and tacked her in place. I then dumped the whole feisty load out into the hive. These were some pissed off bees - not docile. I managed to hobble my body back down the hill, stripping bare naked in the path to free myself from those that had somehow found a way up into my LONG PANTS, and evenually dunking my head under running water to dislodge the 10 or so that had burrowed into the hair that was hanging out of the veil (another lesson learned the hard way)...by now the hubby's lip is already pendulous...and his eyebrow area looks a little suspect as well. Pretty stressful compared to the night b-4. The entrance reducer got all half cocked in the process, and someone still needs to go up and move that around...they do have access, and most of the bees made it into the hive although there were still a good cluster outside; not so good considering the first box was completely empty in the morning after. Below, the morning after- box 2. So bee it. Now we feed for the next 5 weeks while the hives build up. I will be refilling feeders, and checking to see that the queens are out and laying, in few days. Click photo below to learn more about the fascinating world of honey bees. Below that, The LIP...
Nebees Package Bees Installation - 5 min.


Bee Master Package Bees Installation - 9 minutes

.Snow is melting and flowers bloom....The photos that follow, and the header photo, were all taken by my Middle Daughter, R - she has two good legs and went on a photo venture to brighten this post. So much color in the world...Almond, below...Followed by Pansies...Lilac...and Cherry...
Pink Pearl Apple...And Snoopy, looking towards the future. It'll be bright!