Free-Bees!

The swarm cluster from far

This weekend Jackson was mowing and came in to let us know our bees were swarming.  He said it was like a hurricane of bees in the air.  Sure enough our 8-frame hive decided to split into two colonies.  Unfortunately we were not prepared and had no knowledge of capturing swarms.  We found enough equipment in the barn to come up with a hive until we could get more appropriate materials ordered.  What we lacked was the knowledge,  but we can be very resourceful!

After reading that you have 1-hour to 3-days to catch the swarm or they will find a new home on their own,  we were anxious to capture them.  After all, a package of bees costs about $125 and free bees sounded good to us!  We researched how to shake the branch and let the bees fall into your hive body or use a sheet to be sure bees don't fall into the grass etc.  The main idea seemed to be if you can get the queen then the swarm will follow her.

Closer view of the swarm

Our swarm had come to rest in a pin oak tree about 25 feet up.  A box on the end of a couple of two by fours would do the trick. Easy!  We went to the barn and found an old Lou Malnauttis Styrofoam cooler and two really long PVC pipes.  PVC and Styrofoam are light materials and would make it easier to reach the swarm, we thought.  The PVC poles ended up not being long enough so we backed Chris' truck into the brush and he climbed into the bed and just barely could reach the swarm. 

With a firm knock of the branch the majority of the cluster fell into the box.  What we didn't plan on was how heavy the bees were and in slow motion those PVC pipes began to bend and the box fell onto Chris' truck and the ground and we had a mess.  Bees were everywhere!  There was a puddle of bees on the windshield, a puddle on the hood,  a puddle on the ground and surprisingly still a bunch in the cooler.

So we just sat and kinda watched what was going on for a while.  Mostly we were dumbfounded at what happened,  be lets just say we were studying the bees behavior.  No bees were going back up into the tree,  the puddles were disappearing and the box looked about the same.  After about 10 minutes Chris saw the queen in the cooler.  It was the queen from the package we bought this year and she had a bright blue spot on her back.  WOOHOO!  We dumped the cooler into our makeshift hive and crossed our fingers and went in for the night.

Two days later we still have bees in the new hive.  This is not a story I would share with anyone from our bee club as they might kick us out for the crazy way we caught our swarm,  but needless to say, we are quite proud to have got the job done!  We now have 4 hives and have high hopes for a nice honey flow in July.

Never a Dull Moment

I am always amazed that I can find things to write about each month.  Although, Chris does not want me to blog about him hanging out of the scuttle hole in the ceiling when the ladder fell out from under him as he was climbing down, so I will have to focus on other interesting tidbits like the snake I found in the basement.  He must have just shed his skin because not far from him I found a snake skin that we were able to measure 42 inches long. Once again I found myself in the job of snake wrangler and armed with a broom and two sticks helped this one fine his way out of our basement. 

oooooo  snake

We had a rainy weekend and decided to work under cover and began working on the porch railing.  It took the whole weekend to figure out the how tos of installing a railing.  So we didn't make much progress, but we did finish it up over memorial day weekend.  It makes the porch feel so much bigger and gives the house a more finished look.  We decided that not a lot of people put in their own railings because the hardware store does not stock the parts in very big quantities.  To gather all the pieces we needed for this project we went to Lowes in the following cities: Sterling, Frederick, Winchester, Chantilly and Gainesville.  We finished an audio book with all that driving and every time we get in the car the kids say 'We aren't going to Lowes again are we?'

Front porch with railing.

Our beloved excavator, Ron, has been bringing in lots and lots of free dirt in the past weeks.  We think he is going to do our final grading any day now.  I sure hope so because I keep buying landscaping plants and I am afraid if I don't get them in the ground soon,  Chris is going to have a plant sale when I am not home.

New tennants

We have some new tenants here at Watermark Woods.  We have yet to run into them, but we are sure they have settled in as they have really spruced up the landscaping in their front yard.  Below is a photo of their place.

 

We have been working on the outside of the house bit by bit each weekend.  We have all but two walls up finished which just leaves the gables and the front angles.  Areas that are going to take a lot of time and certainly a lot of cuss words.



It is just a few days until the eggs begin hatching.  We have been candling the eggs to see inside and we think there are two 'yolkers' which are eggs that were not fertilized.  Several of the eggs we can see the network of blood vessels and the chicken moving.

We were able to get in a little target practice this weekend.  It was a lot of fun and a nice respite from all the construction work.  Zombies beware. LOL

Due in 21 days

This week I have been so fortunate to spend some time in the garden.  All the beds are ready for planting and the chickens have been feasting on weeds!  Now I am just waiting to be out of the frost danger zone.  We have lots of plant babies and several packets of seeds that cant wait to get their new home in the ground.

I have also been hanging around the local nurseries trying to find some native shrubs for our landscaping.  Not an easy task especially when you want some things to be evergreen and some things to have color. I think we are going to have to work  to find a balance between native plants and ornamental plants.  I do have a few great finds sitting in pots just waiting for the final grading to finish up. 

the new babies

After the fox attack we(I) have been considering more chickens.  We put 7 eggs in an incubator and in 21 days we should have new baby chicks.  We can't wait to see if this really works.  The only problem is that we are bound to end up with a couple of roos.  I guess we really are going to have to make chicken soup.  Anyone with experience butchering birds want to come for a visit in late October(you know who you are)?

We are looking forward to nice weekend weather and hope to once again get moving on the outside siding and trim.

April Showers bring........Foxes

Fox den near the barn

Well,  Not a whole lot has been going on.  We traveled for spring break and have had some scouting events keeping us from any major projects.

Chris did get some of the finishing trim up for the bath and kitchen cabinets.  Mostly our efforts have been focused on your typical honey do list.  Fix that door, hang that picture, paint that room,  hang these curtains....you get the gist.

I am trying to get the garden ready for planting.  Most of the beds have been turned, composted and turned again.  I have loads of seedlings ready to go in the ground as soon as the danger of frost has passed.  It is hard to wait especially after we had such a mild spring last year.  I did get lettuce, onions and a new variety of rhubarb into the ground. 

We had some unfortunate circumstances with the chickens this week.  The boys and I caught a fox red-handed.  We came home to find him munching on one of our girls and a whole mess of every color feather you could think of.  All he did was eat the heads.  Eeeeewwww.  In total I think we have lost 5 chickens.  The flock is dwindling, which is OK because our coop was pretty full.  I think our egg customers will be the most disappointed.

We Passed Gas

Our final inspection stickers

The gas inspection that is.  As of 2/22 we passed our final inspections for the trades.  That is HVAC, Plumbing, Gas and Electrical.  The inside of the house is finished except for trim and Cooper's closet door.  We still have a small mount of siding and exterior trim as well.  Once those things are off our list we will be very close to getting our occupancy permit. We need to re-order that door since the opening is too big.  Chris is going to re-frame the opening and we will get a new door. 

I have been pouring over seed catalogs gearing up for planting.  the garden look a mess but I am hoping for some warmer weather to get the beds turned over and cardboard down between the rows.  I did plant some lettuce and spinach in a pot on the front porch.  My hope is that the slugs will stay away since it is up on the porch and that we will eat it faster than it grows since it is so accessible to the kitchen.

We lost another chicken.  We think to a fox.  We found her,  and whatever got her just had a little snack and left.  That brings our total casualties to 3 due to predators.  This week egg production s back up due to rising temperature and longer days.  We are getting 13+ eggs a day.

Kitchen,  still needs some trim on cabinets, but it i fully functional.

The last week of February Jim and Marie came for a working visit.  Unfortunately Marie had the plague so we couldn't work her to hard.  We did get the barn all cleaned and organized. It looks so civilized now and we can find things.

Marie and I put up a tile back splash above the cook top.  What a great mom! It came out better than expected and we are getting lots of compliments. 

My purple bathroom, which I let Chris use.

Now that we are all moved in,  I decided to change some paint colors.  I repainted the family room a dark brown and our master bath purple. I don't think Chris is too crazy about the purple,  but I love it!

Welcome Leonard

The house projects are slowing down,or maybe we are slowing down.  We passed both Electrical and Mechanical final inspections in the past couple of weeks.  Once we pass plumbing then I have to go back to researching what else we need to do to get our occupancy permit.

During this whole project the boys have been so helpful and so good at self entertaining that we treated them to a day at Madam Tussuad's Wax museum in DC last week.  While it was fun and interesting,  Jackson's only comment was that it was creepy. The boys have also been taking advantage of the slow time to work on some scouting merit badges. 

We lost two chickens recently.  The two roosters had been battling it out and the lesser dominate roo was refusing to go into the pen at night.  I told him that if he didn't go in he would get eaten and sure enough,  after 3 nights something got him. There was quite the mess of feathers in the yard. We lost the second to a hawk.  It was one of the smaller leghorns, and one of only two we had that lay white eggs.  We are down to 19 chickens and getting anywhere between 8 and 12 eggs a day,  not bad for winter.

Jackson added another pet to our menagerie.  He saved his money for a very long time and bought all the supplies and a leopard gecko.  He named him Leonard after a character from the show "Big Bang Theory". He is cute...behind glass.  If he gets out I may move back into the RV.