Celebrating Grandkids

We began a week with our oldest daughter's five girls by going to Mass together this morning. For more about our day go here.

More Than Honey: A Bee Movie!

This documentary attempts to explain the disappearance of honey bees. Certainly pesticides are part of the problem and a class called neonicotinoids are believed to be a major source of honeybee death. In an attempt to aid the comeback of the bees, the European Union will enforce a two-year ban on three neonicotinoids come December. The disappearance of honeybees has gained the attention of the world in recent years. Will we care enough to save these amazing little creatures? This film is all about raising awareness.

Bee Keeping Resources: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Honey Bees!

"Bearding" can happen when it's hot in the hive.

I think I need a resource page so I can find answers to all my beekeeping questions easily. Obviously, our mentors will be the primary sources since they are local and know the problems and challenges specific to us here in Virginia. But I've found so much good stuff on the internet (despite our classroom teacher telling us not to go to the internet -- Sorry, Brenda) especially videos, that I will continue to google my questions and read a variety of what comes up. My question last evening was why are all these bees congregating on the "front porch?" The answer: They were probably out to cool off because the hive was warm. One way to cool it off -- give them a little more space, so I added a bee shim which provides extra ventilation. We'll see if that sends them back into the hive.

Here are some good sources I've found with lots of great information some of which keeps me from "bothering" our mentor.

The Practical Beekeeper - Lots of great information on just about everything related to bees.

Beemaster.com - A forum for beekeepers to share/exchange information. I've already had answers to questions. Great site!

American Beekeeping Federation  I found a great article here for beginners that gives the feel of excitement and enthusiasm beekeepers seem to have.

Health Benefits of Honey - Here's a honey of a site (couldn't resist!). It has lots of fascinating information about honey including the method "honey hunters" use to find a wild bee colony.

Well, I guess that's enough for starters. I have several books about bees that I'm working on and look forward to learning as much as possible about these fascinating little insects.

Hiking and Praying the Rosary on North Mountain

After several days of rain and more expected this week, we decided we'd better grab today's good weather and head out for a short hike. Since we've haven't really hiked or even walked much this season we decided to do a one-hour hike into the woods and a one-hour backtrack along the Tuscarora Trail beginning at Route 55 on the Virginia/West Virginia border. On this particular trail that's about 3.5 - 4 miles. (We estimate about half an hour per mile on a medium difficulty trail.)

Since the mountain laurel are in bloom we hoped to get a great show, but except for some bushes at the beginning of the hike they were few and far between and mostly well into the woods. But it was a great two hour walk with some lovely wildflowers that always make me think of Matthew 6. "Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed as one of these!" If you need a lift, go hiking in God's beautiful world. Even before we reached the trail my heart was singing. And once we got started, it was a delight from start to finish.

The Tuscarora trail is blue-blazed and the blazes are helpful. In some places the path was completely overgrown, although it would be hard to get lost because, at this point, Tuscarora runs along the ridge of North Mountain which isn't very wide in many places. We could see down into the valleyoccasionally through the trees.

We were out on the trail about six weeks ago for a short walk without our hiking gear, but these blue and white ties were new. They indicate that there was some kind of event up there on the trail. There was a 100 mile run going from the Shenandoah County Fairgrounds a few weekends ago and we wondered if this was part of their route. Seemed too far but 100 miles is quite a distance so I guess it was possible. There were about half a dozen on the two mile stretch we covered. A butterfly must have thought one was a flower. I tried to get a photo of it flitting around but couldn't get my camera out of my pocket fast enough.

So many beautiful wildflowers. These had lovely yellow stamens hanging down. They weren't abundant, but were like little ruby jewels popping up here and there along the path.

Some of the insects are as decorative as flowers. This fellow was agreeably still. There were some little blue butterflies flitting around like flying flowers, but they did not cooperate as well.

This fellow resembles a caterpillar, but instead of being fuzzy he seems to be wearing armor! Must be a warrior centipede. I can think of a few of our grandkids who would happily have collected him in a pocket.

I only saw this tiny golden star in one place along the path. What a little treasure!

I think this is a wild rose, another rarity as we walked along. It caught my attention on the way back. Hiking on a path where you have to retrace your steps is interesting, because the path looks totally different from the opposite direction. You notice different things about the trail and you see different flowers. You also have a different walk. We started from a gap so the trail was up, up, up until we reached the ridge where it was fairly level. On the way back it was down, down, down. The up is hard on your back; the down is hard on your knees. I was very grateful for my hiking polls!

If you come visit us at Camp Kreitzer, we will happily take you for a walk in the woods and a rosary of thanksgiving for the green cathedral. You can choose the difficulty of the trail from a handicapped accessible paved short hike to the Luray Valley overlook, to a five mile round trip to Kennedy Peak and back, to a walk along a stream, to one of the ridge trails on Massanutten or North Mountain. And if you are very good, we may take you to one of the  frozen custard/ice cream stands. Talk about a guilt-free reward at the end of the trail! Life is best when you take it slow and stop to smell (and photograph) the roses.

Checking Out the Bees and Naming Our Queens

Last Friday was our first real examination of the colonies since they arrived and it was thrilling!

When we opened the first hive which is made up of two medium boxes (supers) there were bees all over the top box so they've begun building comb in the upper box. In the bottom the queen had laid plenty of brood and some was capped and some was uncapped but filled with little curled up larva. Go, queen! We saw her walking around with her court.

We've decided to name our two queens after Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton since she was a mom of four and a spiritual mom of hundreds of girls over the years. Seems appropriate since the bees are mostly girls. She also opened the first Catholic orphanage in the United States. So our two queens are Elizabeth and Ann.

The second box, Queen Ann's domain, saw little activity in the upper super because the bottom is a deep. So they still have plenty of room for everything they're doing. We'll be checking up again within the next few days accompanied by our mentor, Gordon, who is the bee expert!

And I'm happy to say that I was all wet about seeing mites. I was looking at the circular markings on the bees and once I got a closer look, I could see that's all they were. So the bees are busy, collecting nectar (It's locust tree time and they love it!), and pollen (I could see the pollen sacks very clearly on one of the bees.), cleaning out the cells where brood has hatched, feeding the baby bees, etc. It's pretty clear where the saying "busy as bees" comes from!

First step: remove and examine a frame.

Lots of capped brood in a good filled out patter!

 Bee in lower middle right with full pollen sacs. Notice shiny nectar in cells on bottom right.

Everything A-okay. Finished for today!

Good Day for Flying: Feast of St. Isidore

It was up in the 80s today with a light breeze, perfect for the bees. Larry uncovered the pool and rescued a few bees who decided it was a good place to drink. We are hoping the pool will NOT be the favorite water source. There is a pond next door and hopefully they will like that a lot better. We placed our hives where the pond is more of a straight shot than the pool. We haven't put any chemicals in the pool yet and hopefully chlorine is a real turnoff for them.

I saw a few bumble bees flying around today and landing on my flowers, but I still haven't see a honey bee in the garden -- maybe when the lavender blooms.

Today is also the feast of St. Isidore the Farmer. Maybe he was also a beekeeper. We're asking his intercession with our bees. St. Isisdore, pray for us.

Second Bee Feeding: Getting the hang of it already!

I made up a gallon of bee syrup this morning: ten cups sugar, ten cups water, and two tablespoons Honey B Healthy which is a feeding stimulant added to the sugar water. I think I may put some of that solution in a spray bottle. The label says it can be used in place of smoke to calm the bees. When we opened the hives and started stripping out the old ziploc bags, mostly empty, the bees got pretty testy and started buzzing like crazy around us. A little soothing sugar water sounds like a good plan for the next feeding. I imagine if we weren't suited up we would have been stung multiple times.

Making the bee syrup is a snap!

 Feeding the second hive. First one finished with spent feed bag on the grass.

The bees weren't happy when we removed the old bag!

Good to the last drop!

Ready to slit the new bag for feeding.

A good, sharp razor makes the slit.

The hive lid makes a good table for corralling our tools.