My friend Michael had a chicken coup he built at a place he was renting. Since he had moved he wasn’t using it and he took it down and reconstructed it here at the house. It’s a great coup with four built in laying boxes, plenty of roosting space, and enough headroom where I can stand up inside. We hope to have 8-12 laying hens when we are at full speed.

Another friend gave me the 10′x10′ dog lot. We took apart one corner and then attached the sides to the chicken coup. Michael put in a lot of sweat equity and buried some fencing a foot deep all the way around. I put up some netting across the top to keep predators out from that direction.

It’s right next to our shed where we’ll have feed storage and a rain barrel. Should make it much easier to take care of them.

Posted on January 4th, 2009 by John
Filed under: Country Life | 3 Comments »

Have been very excited the past few months about building a new shed. I’ve been very blessed to have my dad help me out a lot with it and my friend Michael pitched in some free labor as well. Phase 1 has turned out very nice. Stall width is 12 feet and depth is 14 feet. This gives a shed size of 36 feet wide by 28 feet deep. We left enough room on the left to add another 12 feet of width if we need it.

The current plan is to build a workshop in the back right and back middle stalls. It will include workbench space, table saw, band saw, and a radial arm saw. I’ll also have an area setup for woodcarving, both hand and power carving. The rest of the shed will be used for shelves, hanging tools, and keeping things dry.

Since the shed is higher than most of our property we plan to catch the rain water and use gravity to water the yard and other plants. I found a gentleman on Craigslist who was selling 275 gallon rain barrels pretty cheaply and was able to pick one up yesterday. I like the fact that the shed can be very multi-purpose including catching the rain off the top.

Posted on January 4th, 2009 by John
Filed under: Country Life | 2 Comments »

Am visiting Mandi’s dad, Sam, in Ketchum, Idaho. Most people know the area as Sun Valley because of the ski resort but the main town here is Ketchum. Not very big but since it’s a ski resort there is a lot of fun things to do here even if you don’t ski. We do enjoy skiing and I’m sure I’ll post on that later.

This morning I got up and had breakfast with the family and then decided to go out and have some quiet time. My favorite coffee shop is Java and that’s because they have the ‘Bowl of Soul’. I think Java is just an Idaho institution. I’ve never seen or heard of one outside the state but I could be wrong.

The ‘Bowl of Soul’ is hard to describe. They don’t advertise the ingredients but you can taste cocoa, cinnamon, and many other spices. It’s made like a latte but calling it a latte is almost insulting. It’s by far the best coffee drink I’ve ever had.

Town this morning was pretty quiet. Light snow with much more on the way (14″ expected). Sat down with my Bowl and read Proverbs 3 and some on renewing the mind. A great way to spend the morning. If you are ever in Idaho look around to see if you can find a Java and a ‘Bowl of Soul’.

Posted on December 21st, 2008 by John
Filed under: Country Life | 1 Comment »

Shave and a haircut, two bits! The melody to that line is used extensively in bluegrass banjo to end songs. If you watched “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” you’ll remember it as well. In case you don’t know a bit is one half of a quarter so it’s equal to 12.5 cents. I’ve always thought that was peculiar. If you bought something that cost 13 cents and paid with a bit they’d owe you .5 cents in change and there isn’t a .5 cent piece. I don’t understand how that works. I guess that’s why they don’t let me work on international economic policy.

Anyway, I want to discuss power carving bits not bits of currency. We’ve already talked about the basics of power carving and then covered dust collection in more detail. Bits are very a very important and vast subject and they deserve to have their own introduction.
Read more…

Posted on December 7th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Woodcarving | 4 Comments »

Made my first attempt today at melting and filtering raw beeswax. This beeswax was a mixture of old and new beeswax. It also contained some larva, bees, pollen, and other ‘junk’. I decided to use a double-boiler method and then filter through cheesecloth.

Here you can see the beeswax before it was melted. I crushed some of it to the bottom and left some of it in bigger chunks. I wanted to see how long it would take to melt the beeswax and figured this was a good test. The bowl is hard plastic. I set it in a pot of water. To keep the plastic from touching the pot and possibly melting I put two canning rings in the bottom of the pot and set the plastic bowl on top of these. After the water began to boil the beeswax did not begin melting for a long time. I put a large lid over the top of the beeswax to hold the heat in. This sped up the process a good bit even though it was not as fast as I would have thought.

Once the beeswax began to melt I checked it from time to time and stirred the unmelted beeswax on top into the melted beeswax in the bottom. This really helped the process as the heat just wasn’t enough to melt beeswax that was too far from where the bowl contacted the water.

Once the beeswax was melted it was time to pour. I had a cheap plastic container with doubled cheesecloth across the top. The cheesecloth was fastened with a rubber band. I’ve heard that it’s important to pour all your beeswax at once to keep it from cooling in the cheesecloth and thus clogging it. I did this and it seemed to work well. My only issue was that there was so much trash in with the beeswax that I’m afraid it kept some beeswax from getting through. It would be better to find someway to get the major trash out first.

Once the pouring was done I let the beeswax cool. It solidified pretty quickly but it does take a long time for it to really harden. The beeswax looks good after this one pouring but I can tell there is pollen and some other small solids in it. We are most likely going to make a candle out of it this round so this isn’t a major concern.

Since I use top bar hives I should have a good bit of wax and am really interesting in making beeswax candles, lip balm, and other items. Overall I’m pretty pleased with this first go around.

Posted on December 6th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | 4 Comments »

I started my TBHs with 5-frame nucs. I wanted to get off to a strong start and thought this might be the best way. Over time I decided that I did not want the frames in the TBH. They did not work well with the overall philosophy I have. Since the frames were part of the brood chamber I needed to figure out a way to stop the queen from laying in them and start laying in a new area.

The first thing I did was enlist the help of my online beekeeping friends. If you’ve never taken advantage of online forums you are missing out on a great opportunity to get some expert help. The best forum I have found for TBHs is at www.biobees.com. The focus is entirely on top bar hives.

I asked my question and got back a great answer. You can see the thread here – http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1581&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= .

The advice that came back was to turn the frames upside down.  Bees build their comb with the cells pointing upwards at a slight angle. If I turned the frames upside down the queen would detect the ‘wrongness’ of the situation and wouldn’t lay there. The nurse bees would continue to take care of the other hatching bees but with no eggs being layed it wouldn’t be too long before the bees established a new brood chamber and I could take the frames out.

The pictures show a frame with brood and then me putting the frames in the back upside down. I kept them close enough together so the nurse bees could maintain good coverage. Once the bees abandoned these frames I cut the wax out and tied it to some top bars. Once the bees attached the wax to the top bars I cut the string and removed it.

I was able to get advice to use a method I would have never guessed on my own. If you are interested in TBHs be sure to drop by the biobees site and drop everyone a line.

Posted on September 20th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | 1 Comment »

Was doing an hive inspection and a friend was taking some pictures. Got very lucky and noticed he got a really good shot of the queen. Look in the lower right-hand corner on the wooden frame and you’ll see her!

Posted on September 19th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | No Comments »

Had several things on my mind for this inspection. My dad assisted again. It’s nice to have an added pair of hands and thoughts.

How was hive N1 responding to the added brood?

• Seems that the N1 bees were doing well. They are flying really well and the frame of brood I put in is 3/4 full of brood. The hive is full of uncapped nectar. I mean really full. They do seem to have a place to lay now.

What was the status of the two queen cells in N1?

• The queen cells in N1 were both empty. One had the capping chewed away and the other had a flap like something had chewed around the outside of the capping and opened it up like a door. My assumption is that the one with the flap was the loser and she was cut out by the bees. From seeing this we assume that we were queenless in this hive like we feared but now one on her throne. We looked but did not find her. The bees are working away and seem happy so we take this to mean they are not queenless.

Was N1 taking any sugar syrup?

• N1 had eaten all of her syrup this week (just 1.5 pints). I made up more and put 3 pints in this time. Also added 3 pints to A1. I want them building comb and figure this is the best way to keep them going.

How were both A1 and N1 doing with comb building?

• A1 has built out two complete bars in 17 days. N1 has built out 1 complete bar. N1 still has nuc frames to build out as well. Overall these bees seem to be poor comb builders. Is that typical of Russians?

How can I stop bees from coming out the side of the frames and out a crack under the top?

• Purchased some black fiberglass screen from Wal-mart, layed it over the top of the bars and frames. When the top is put on this makes a barrier so the bees cannot get out under the top from inbetween the frames. Was the easiest solution I could come up with.

Dad saw something that looked like a little roach and knocked it onto the ground. I never saw it. Was hoping it wasn’t a small hive beetle. Looked for others/damage. Saw none.

Posted on May 24th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | No Comments »

Had a pretty interesting inspection this morning. Bees were great except for one angry one. It buzzed my head, circled the girls, chased the wife, and then stung my father-in-law on the lip. Can it get better?

Hive N1 (Naomi) is still pretty far behind Hive A1 (Abi). Found a wax moth larva on a top bar but not in the hive. Inspected the hive for damage but found no other larva or damage. The following pictures should give you an idea of where they are. Also, notice my coverings for the bee frames from the nuc. This keeps the bees in and keeps the feel of a TBH.

I would like to see more activity inside this hive but think they will be ok. There are lots of bees flying. They aren’t bringing back as much pollen per bee, hardly any pollen. But they are doing something. They won’t take sugar syrup so they must be hitting the poplars. Also, some brown streaks on the front of the hive so I suspect Nosema.

 

Hive A1 is doing great. They have built out a whole bar and have two to three times as many bees flying as N1. They are bringing in tons of pollen today. Some bright yellow-orange but most of it was gray. Never seen gray pollen before. Also, they’ve started on a pure honey frame so that’s nice. Here’s a couple of pics:

 

All in all the bees are doing ok. I’m hopeful that N1 will pull through and start expanding.

Posted on May 17th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | 2 Comments »

Got 5 frame nucs. Bees first full day was Wednesday. Put in feeders on Saturday and added 4 tops bars. Added 2 in the brood area on the ends and 2 in the honey area. Inspected today. Several bees were concentrating on the popsicle sticks in the honey area. I assume they are ready to build wax. Pulled a bar in the brood area and it was close to built out! I removed the feeders as they had been totally ignored.

I can’t believe how fast they can build. They had some building left to do in the original frames and they got this done as well. Tulip Poplars are almost full bloom and blackberries are full bloom. Mountain laurel almost open and sourwood coming next month! Already saw about 1/4 frame of honey. Dark like tulip poplar. If you can’t tell I’m very excited.

My dad thinks these TBHs are great. He was amazed at how they are doing. Even my weaker hive is flying like gangbusters. What a difference 3 days makes.

Posted on May 13th, 2008 by John
Filed under: Beekeeping | No Comments »