I still need to add a few decorations to make it cool. Unfortunately, the supplier has delayed delivery of the colonies by a week to allow the queens more time for their mating flight since the weather didn’t cooperate so far.
8 Buff Orpingtons
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Stabbing wasps
Living closer to nature means having a higher chance of competing in the great game of “survival of the fittest”. Having had my share of problems with yellow jackets and paper wasps, I want to annihilate them with great prejudice.
Before it gets too warm the nests need to go.
Oh so you can sting? Well I can stab you with a pole mounted knife.
Welcome to freaking wasp central
Bare feet offer optimal traction on a metal roof.
The knife’s angle is perfect for getting in there and cutting the single point attachment of these nests (horrible design btw but I expect no less of wasps).
They will be squashed and buried in snow for good measure.
Getting ready for a new season
New hive, with all the bells & whistles
With plastic pierco frames, the smell of beeswax (of which the frames are coated) and pine is great
The hive is dead…
Sad doesn’t begin to describe it
Pulling what can be used, no way we’ll eat the honey.
The last stand of the last nucleus of bees, all frozen in their last action. Barely decomposed as they probably lasted until a couple of days ago when the temperatures reached -15F.
The hive is a lighthouse
The hive helped me find my way back home from the forest on more than one occasion. On an unrelated note, I ordered a borescope to see if the bees are still alive. If they are, I will built another top bar hive for next season for sure. If not I’ll have to consider what to do.
I don't think I'll ever be able to live in a city anymore
Waking up to freaking paintings does not get old.
Stacking wood is art
I feel like I’m creating something new every time. Or maybe I just have too much time on my hands.
Hive & a ton more snow
I’m thinking about getting a snake scope to see if there’s any activity in there. I couldn’t hear anything by sticking my ear to the hive but they’ve slowed down so much I didn’t really expect to.
Chicken patio
Seems like Rhode Island Reds refuse categorically to have anything to do with the snow. I kinda felt bad that they were staying inside all day so I made them a little patio with the help of my sister. It’s removable and will be extended upon next season.
Hive & snow
I hope they’re warm enough.
Chicken cam – back online!
But with a serious loss of functionality. Given the internet connection that I have (cellular) I can’t reasonably set it up to do live streaming. I’ve also disabled interaction with the cam. What’s left is an image uploaded every hour. Not super duper cool but I’ll take what I can get in this neck of the woods.
Hopefully this will get better when better internet is available.
That's as close as they let me get
2 hours tracking them, they were very very sneaky. Given that I was on a sloped terrain, I naturally went for high ground which was a mistake, they can fly away from you much faster going downhill.
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Food reserves for the Winter
Not enough for a family but definitely a step in the right direction. All our harvests.
Tunbridge World Fair 2012, ribon loot
No “best in show” but not too shabby for a first year.
New toy :D
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Plastic foundation integration
This is what my hack looks like as it is being assimilated by the bees.
Everything is back under control in the hive
The unfortunate effect that I had in the hive by trying to fix things and enforce straight comb drawing had me pretty pessimistic about the chances of my bees this winter. Everything was completely disorganized with brood and honey in random places, way too many drones and barely any honey.
The lesson I learned is that the hive is self healing and surprisingly so. Today’s inspection was an amazing discovery of their capacity to adjust. They reorganized all the frames, gathered some very good honey reserves late in the season and have a very healthy population.
And the best part is that the approach of enforcing straight comb drawing with plastic foundation every other frame worked! It’s still not an ideal scenario to have plastic in my “natural” top bar hive but it definitely takes care of the problem and I still get half of the frames 100% built by the bees.
