Week 3 hive check

Well today is Mothers day. Happy Mums day to all of you hard working moms !

I decided to do a hive check. it was 68 deg and sunny with a slight NE wind.

Hive no 1

Opened hive 1 and this is what i saw.After smoking 1 puff. Feed and closed it back up.

Now I just slid some frames outa the way and took a peek for my eggs and saw some in the first frame i grabbed also here's a frame with bees from hive one.

Hive no 2 Here's what i saw on first opening. The girls didn't want to listen to me about building cross comb.

So i cleaned up the cross comb and checked for eggs. Saw some and a lot of brood larva hers a good pic of that.

Walter hive this is what i saw. I check this for eggs and found some. So i fed and closed her back up.These seem to be the most docile now. They cling to the brood instead of coming out to say hi.

Heres a couple pics of the frames outa his hive.

And for the first time this hive was more active than the others. Hers a cool pic of the entrance with the bees guarding it and one with a good load of pollen.

That's all for Now. Next week we should have New baby bees ! The hives should really take off then. And also more and more flowers are opening up ! Subscribe to get my updates !

Bees and Booze

I went out and checked the bees today. All 3 hives were busy. And i added syrup to all 3 but im going to cut back on the middle hive. There starting to cap some of there's so they really don't need as much.

The first hive i opened had 4 1/2 frames filled out . And had a really good brood pattern. Some brood was being capped as well. Only had 3 small sections of burr comb. Looked good to me. I also took the pollen patty off and put it on the inner cover next to the feeder. Its getting to be a pain to check the hives with the patty sticking to everything, I did the same to all 3 hives .

Second hive had alot more burr comb. I was wondering why when i noticed the inner cover had one side with more of a gap from the top bars to the ply the the other. ( bee space Issues) There were 5 1/2 frames filled out. Again nice brood pattern and capped brood was seen. Looked good to me so i closed it up. This time i flipped the inner cover over and that should solve the burr comb issues lol.

Walters hive opened it up and saw no burr comb. ( This hive has bought frames)  4 frames were filled out on this hive. So its the slowest but not lagging behind by any means. There was capped brood and a really good pattern. More pollen was seen in the hive as well. Every thing looked good to me so i closed it up.

All in all the hives are looking great !

Now for Booze updates

I still have a 5 gallon batch i should rack of Hard lemonade. So tomorrow i think ill take care of that. And the last batch i made of the 5 diff flavorings all taste great except the apple kiwi straw. Its just not my cuppa tea. But ill try a glass of that tonight and see if its gotten better since stabilizing and flavoring. I haven't made any other wines yet. Gotta pay bills first ! I'm thinking about trying my hand at making a beer....... I dunno im not a fan of beer but i know some one with all the supply's to make it...... time will tell....

Feeding bees

Well i refilled the ol feedbag the bees as well today. Now i'm comfortable enuf to just wear my veil while i work them. As i was feeding them i noticed that the Middle hive had some stray comb built. so i poped the top for a peek and wow there going all out and have 5+ frames drawn already ! So i took the time to clear the stray comb so it wouldn't interfere with the nice foundation there working on. I dint mess with the other hives i want to wait till Saturday to get a good look at whats going on in there. Friends of ours want bees so if i have to do a split later in the year they might want a hive as well !

I stopped feeding with baggies on Walter's hive. They just weren't taking as much. Now that i switch to inverted jars. There taking a whole lot more in. So im not going to use baggie any more.

1 there a waste cant re use them
2 you have to open the hive completely to re fill
3 The bees don't take in as much that way.

I started a new job this week as a carpenter for a local pest management place. So if there are any swarms that get called in i'm the first to know !! Mabey that will mean more bees...... Well see

Wine update

The dandelion wine is going on day 2 of fermentation. Here is what i'v done since the last time you saw this.

Sanitized a pot and stirring spoon with 1 tbsp bleach per gallon ( sit 20 min) and rinsed.

I poured the petal mix into the pot and turned the stove to high. While that was heating up i mixed 6lbs (12 cups) sugar into it when it was nice and hot. And peeled 6 lemon's  and 3 oranges. No pith just the nice rind. And added that to the pot. ( please forgive me for the dirty stove i had a boil over lol)

Then i boiled it for 1 hr giver take.

While that was boiling i took the time to clean and sanitize the fermenting bucket. That also got bleach soak then a thuro rinse.

I dumped the mix ( now called a must) in the now clean bucket and covered with a clean dish towel. It was 11 pm and i had to work the next day so i left it on the counter to cool down to about 70-80 deg. The next morning i took some warm water and added a pinch of sugar and the yeast ( used Montrachet) after about 15 min i pitched the yeast into the must and gave it a stir with a sanitized spoon. Also added some yeast nutrient. ( i rinse it after each use and let it soak in sanitizing solution) covered with the towel and went to work.

Stir 2-3 times a day to keep the top of the must from drying and to let air in for the yeast. Tomorrow ill filter and rack into a carboy and seal with a air lock and bung. And let it sit for a while ( ~ 1 month) to let the lees settle.


And if all That goes right  ill rack my Skeeter pee ( hard lemonade) and add some different flavors.

I have Blue berry pomegranate, Kiwi strawberry , Cranberry razz, Berry blend and Cherry pomegranate. I haven't made any other than the blueberry pom before. These all seem promising !

Ill update the blog with pics soon on this .....

Dandelion wine

Well yesterday was a nice day outside so we decided to go to a local field with a friend and her kids. Thought we could let the little munchkins runaround and we could pick some flowers to make wine. Kids lasted about 30 mins before the crabbies started in. we picked enuf flowers for a 5 gallon batch. But after getting home and spending 3 hrs trimming away all the stalks from the heads, I decided that i had enuf and just started a 3 gallon batch.

Here is the steps i took and a couple pics to follow.

1 Remove all green from flowers ( would make it taste bad)

2 Boil 3 gallons of water and pour over the flowers petals.

3 cover with a cloth for 2 days ( Im at the end of day 1 tonight)

More pics and details to follow in the upcoming days

Skeeter pee ready for bottling

Hive check no 1

Decided to check the hives today. All have eggs and nice even comb being drawn out. The center hive is going way faster than the first tho. Well see in the end. Bees were out today collection pollen from the only flowers blooming now..

 This is the second hive. Look at how much pollen patty they've eaten !!

And i wonder why people are afraid of honey bees ? This lil girl landed right on my chest and crawled to my finger. Look at how much outa focus pollen she has !

Here you can see a landing board with pollen laiden girls

Now here is my watch ducks. They like to watch me look for bees in the yard. Lol 

Wine testing

Well i just bought a Vino-Meter and tested a batch of my skeeter pee. ( lemon wine) Well what i thought was 10-12 % avb Is more like 17%-18% !!! Whoa didnt know that it was that potent. Its only 4% away from Malibu Rum.

Its really fun making your own brews..... Ill post more when i get to bottling what i make and starting a new batch. We might go out this weekend as a family and pick dandelion's for wine.... Weather permitting that is.