Smoker Build

This is a 105 gallon propane tank that was built in 1942 in Ft Worth Texas. It was used on the farm for years.

Now being recycled to be my new vertical smoker.

Cutting

and cutting...

and cutting...

and cutting...

and cutting...

cutting...

This is a propane tank smoker that I have built this winter. Ready to try it out. I have more photo's to come of this. I know, it is not about Bees but I just had to show it off. It is kind of weird that some one would want to build a smoker but believe it or not I have had a blast building this smoker. I hope to add some photo's of me cooking on it later.

What's Going On

Wild Plum

Dad with his bees

Changing the oil.

New Oil

Dad has 3 hives on his WRP land.

Well it is now March 17th 2010. Here in La the plum trees are budding and the bradford pear trees are in full bloom. We also have a wild plum tree that is in full bloom. The bees are very active now. This weekend, I went to my Dad's and we observed his bee hives. All look healthy. Today I installed 3 swarm catches with the pheremone attached to each. Maybe I will catch another swarm this year. Last year the bees began swarming toward the end of this month. I think Dad caught 4 or 5 swarms last year (he had the time to do that). I have been building a smoker cooker out of an old propane tank this winter. I finally finished it the other day. Check out the photo's. Hope you enjoy.

That was not a good idea.

Today I attempted to harvest castings from my worm bin that I built. (See earlier post). I could not move the rake. The weight of the worm dirt/castings was too much to allow the rake to slide to or fro. So whatever you do, do not copy what I did.
So, I removed all the worms and dirt, removed the rake, and put a layer of fine screen on top of the grate that was already installed. I then returned the worms and dirt to the bin. I had copious amounts of worms and some castings, but not too much. I plan to use the bin as is and simply manually harvest the castings once or twice a year. O well, you live you learn. By the way, the bees were happy today, lots of sunshine, solar panels produce 29 kwH today.

Warming Up A Little

This past weekend I went to my dad's where I now have 2 bee hives (had 3). The two remaining hives are very healthy. I changed their bottom board oil trap oil for new oil. These hives were surprizingly clean and the wax was a healthy buttery yellow color. Lots of bees.
It will not be long before my dad will be catching swarms for us. Last year he captured a swarm at the end of March. He loves doing that and has now come quite adept at this. He also loves the honey and like me, he eats honey every am. He is a semi retired farmer and enjoys managing the bees with me. He has a 500 acre parcel of farm land that he placed in WRP program where this was planted in native hardwood. He walks around it every day and checks on the hives. There is lots of food there for the bees. I am looking forward to see what this bee season affords us. If you are looking for a project to spend time with your father with, beekeeping is certainly a good option. I plan to include photo's of us together working the bees this year.

Lost Another Hive

This weekend the temp warmed and some and the bees were flying. As I check on my hives, 2 of the 3 hives were busy. Not much action at the 3rd hive. You guessed it, they starved. I have now lost 2 hives this winter. It has been unusually cold here. If I was not working all the time I could have time to actually feed the bees. It is just so inconveinent for me to do that when I usually get in after dark and leave early. O well, at least I have 2 hives for now. I will probably buy a couple of nucs this spring to replace the ones that I have lost. I really need to harvest more honey this year than last year because I have more and more people requesting the sweet honey. Although I have lost these hives, it has not broken my beekeeping spirit. I am still learning more about how to manage these little insects daily.

On a different subject, the compost worms are multiplying beyond my wildest expectations. I am going to have to come up with a larger compost bin for them this spring. I am still thinking about what I am going to do about that.

Bees Gone Crazy

Ok, It finally warmed up a little with highs in the 60's for the past couple of days. The bees are flying in and out of the hives with lots of pollen (from somewhere) on their legs. I have no idea where they are getting this from, everything appears to be dormant and I can find nothing obviously blooming. Anyway, I am pleased as punch to see the hives doing well. Hopefully if the have made it this far, they will make it to spring. I am now starting to get the itch to build a couple of more hives for new colonies this spring. More and more people now know I have honey and I am asked for this more often than not now. It is nice to know that there are folks around here who appreciate good local honey and recognize the health benefits. Teach, teach, teach.

Compost Worms

This is a view of the screened vents, one on each side of the lower castings harvest tray.

This is a view of inside of the worm bin. The bottom grate allows for worm castings to be raked to the collection tray by the rake that is mounted on top of the grate. The thought is that as I pull the rake, the castings will be dislodged to the collection drawer below. I insulated the inside of the worm bin with 3/4 inch rigid foam insulation to help keep a consistant temperature in the bin. The insulation also protects the worm bin from moisture.

This is a view of the rake that has been swept across the grate.

This is the handle of the rake that has been pulled to show you how this works.

The rake is now in its storage position

This is a view of the complete worm bin. It is mounted on 4 casters and has a drawer at the bottom to retrieve the worm castings. A top is not necessary. The idea is that the worms will stay in the top 4 inches of compost (where the food is). The waste will remain at the lower label where this is dislodged with the rake to be harvested. Simple in concept, I just hope it works.

A view of the lower collection bin and drawer. Ventilation holes are also seen.

A better view of the collection tray with collection drawer.

Drawer open for collection of excellent quality worm castings.

Ok, So nothing is going on with the bees other than occasional feeding as needed. The remaining hives are looking good. I started reading about composting and thought this would be a good winter project. I began reading what I could on the web and decided to build a flow-through worm composting bin. I've seen several commercial ones on the net and a few basic ones made from plastic totes. I decided to build one of my own design based on a flow-through system. These systems are easily cleaned and castings are harvested relatively easily. I purchased about 2000 worms from a local worm grower for the bedding of my new worm bin. Check out the photo's. Maybe you will be entertained some how.

Fed the Bees

I removed the dead hive from the apiary today. I'll keep the wax in a sealed tote for use next year with a new hive. No sign of disease, the simply starved. So, you guessed it, I fed the other bees today. It was a beautiful day at up to 60 degrees F. The bees were active as well. I fed the bees honey, one quart each hive. Hopefully this will make a difference. I'll keep a check on them.

Hive Lost Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

Ok, I have been busy installing solar on my house and I have neglected to check on my bees like I should have. You guessed it, I lost a hive. There were many dead bees at the entry, I opened the hive, there was about 4 inches of dead bees on the bottom board, that made me frustrated. The combs were empty of any honey. No obvious sign of disease, I think they starved to death. The other 3 hives are doing ok though. This was a hive that I split later this summer. It seems like anytime that I attempt to mess with a hive late in summer, something bad happens to that hive. I must have left them with too few honey stores. O well, you live, you learn. I should have been checking them more often. My fault. Come on winter solstice December 21. I do not like cold weather.

Just an update

Well, Winter is near and the bees come out when it is warm but otherwize nothing exciting has been happening with them. I have not been doing much with them. I have been involved with installing a solar panel grid tie system on my house. I have been making post related to that on my other blog. If you are interested in that sort of thing you can see the blog at www.mygridtie.blogspot.com

Hedge Hog Mushrooms

Yesterday I picked 2 hedge hog mushrooms from the back yard and I had a strong desire to eat them just to do it. I washed them, and cut them lengthwise. I then added the mushrooms and margarine to a pan as well as onions and then saute'ed them.
In another pan I put 2 chicken boullion cubes (I had rather have beef boullion cubes)and added sliced bell peppers and carrots. I then combined the two and simmered over low heat for a little while until slightly soft. I then served these over white rice. It was excellent. I could not get my wife or little girl to eat it though.
Anyway it was fun to prepare a dish that came from my backyard (except the rice).

New Hive doing ok.

I know its late to start the hive but but I kind of had to. This was a hive that had declined to almost nothing, so I added more bees from my other hives, added fresh honey and added a new queen. I opened the hive last week and I have fresh brood, and the bees are steadily working in the pollen. I have the opening reduced to about 2 inches. Hopefully they will make it. We shall see. The goldenrod are still in bloom but I think there are more fall daisies now.

New Queen Arrived

Today, my new queen arrived from Alabama (Rossman Apiarys). I placed her in the nuc hive accordingly and moved the hive about 5 miles away to another location. The nuc has 3 frames with lots of honey and I placed a honey feeder in the place of the 4th frame. I filled the frame feeder with about 1 pint of honey for the bees to enjoy while all of the change is going on. Hopefully they will prosper. I used the stand that I built in the demonstration video in the blog below.

Fall Harvest

Today I extracted the honey from my 4 hives today. Actually only 3 of the hives had enough to extract but I ended up with 3.5 gallons. I made sure to leave the hives with plenty of honey for the winter as well. We are having a major blooming of flowers here in La and the bees are working like crazy. I think they still have time to replenish what I took. The honey was somewhat darker than the spring honey and I thought it would not be as sweet, but I was wrong, this darker honey is actually smoother tasting and sweeter for some reason. So far this is the best honey I have ever tasted from my hives. I also took 2 frames of brood/honey/and bees from my best hive and added it to my new nuc hive, the queen will arrive this week and I will introduce her to her new nuc. I hope I am able to keep it through the winter. I have plenty of honey to feed the nuc. This weekend I mounted my John Deere and plowed several acres of my tree farm land and I planted a white clover for the bees next spring. I do not know much about the clover but it is suppose to have a large white flowering head. The type of clover is called Ladino.

Hive Recovery

I gave my father in law a hive earlier this year and it did not prosper. In fact, it lost the majority of the bees. He is not a bee keeper but he wanted a hive for his garden. I inspected the hive the other day and there was only about 2-300 bees in the hive but the queen was still present. No eggs, no brood. I took the frames that had the bees and queen and placed them in a nuc hive. I ordered a new queen and she is to arrive next week. I also added a couple of frames from my good hives to the nuc hive to strenghten the numbers. I am hoping that with the addition of a new queen (after I kill the old queen) will at least allow the hive to survive until next spring. I plan to feed the hive often through out the winter and hopefully will have a nice healthy start on a new hive for next year. We have wildflowers in full bloom this time of year especially the golden rod.

How I build my hive stands

Hive stands are often overlooked to new beekeepers. I feel as though a simple and effective hive stand is of utmost importance especially here in the south where crawling insects can totally destroy a hive. I have included a video on how I build my simple but strong hive stands. I hope this helps.

Photo's of the garden

Ahh, Louisiana Jalapeno

Tomatos

Tommytoes

These are great with a salad.
We eat these bell peppers on home made pizza and home made spaghetti omong other food.

They are as good as they look.

O yea, the watermellon is nearly ready to harvest. See the earlier post to see how much it has grown.

Golden Rod Now Blooming

I just noticed that the golden rod wild flowers are now blooming around here. I just checked my hive this weekend and they have not grown very much. Hot, dry, not much to feed on. Hopefully they will now grow with the fall flowers beginning to bloom. I planted 2 rows of english peas last week and they are up and looking good. I also planted 9 broccoli plants but 2 were cut down by cut worms. Still harvesting bell peppers, cucumbers, squash, and jalapeno peppers.

Not so smooth landing I made this weekend.

My wife and I went flying this weekend. She recorded the landing and once we reviewed the video at home, it looked like we were in a NASCAR crash. At any rate the landing was not all that bad. I am sure the bees do better than this though.