New episode of the podcast is up! You can find it on Podbean or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Homestead updates:
-need to sell some eggs! My fridge is full
-shopping has mostly evened out but some empty shelves again; seems to come in waves
-my first tele-appointment online!
-some dark days. Weather? Anxiety?
We are in baby season here now! My pink tongue skink, Europa, gave birth to 24 feisty babies on the 21st. She is a first time mama and I have been watching her like a hawk. She did great! My second female, Pandora, is looking ready to go any day now. Maybe within the next 2 weeks based on her size and behaviour. She produced my litter last year so she’ll be taking a break in 2021. I don’t want to breed the girls every year as I’m worried about the toll it will take on their health and life expectancy. So she’ll get the next breeding season (late Fall to winter) off.
Hive news:
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll already know that my weak hive died during the recent cold snap. I was gutted. Here are my notes for my hive inspections:
Sunday, April 19th
54F, 2pm, overcast, moderate wind
Hive #1 (Cerridwen):
Queen, brood, eggs
Queen in middle box (deep)
Brood in both bottom and middle box
Bustling with bees!
Started wax production
Removed burr comb
Removed leftover drone comb (they’d filled it with honey before winter!)
Looks like they are starting to pull wax in the upper box
Wrap on
Hive #2 (Macha):
Queen, brood (couldn’t see eggs due to light; pretty sure they’re there based on pattern)
Queen in upper box
Beautiful frames of capped brood
Good population with noticeable increase; active
Candy board still on (they’re still eating the fondant)
Wrap on
Hive #3 (Morrigan):
I suspected the colony had died and this was my first chance to open them up
Found them clustered in the top box, all dead
Brood dead
Just not enough bees to cluster successfully
Some dead, stuck in cells, looking for food; starved
Most clustered and cold
Meticulously searched through the bodies for the queen but didn’t find her; possible she died early on and they disposed of her body before clustering around the brood
Candy board might have helped for additional food but, honestly, think they would have died anyway
Sorted through frames and left 1 deep box with build up frames out as a potential swarm lure
Took 1 deep of honey frames and froze them (in case of disease)
Tuesday, April 21st
Received an email from Queen Right Colonies that my package of bees had shipped!
Good reminder in email to call my post office and ask them to call me to collect the package
Took 5 frames of honey out of the freezer to thaw
Prepared leftover fondant
Made sure my equipment was ready
Wednesday, April 22nd
Cold day (30s to low 40sF) with brief snow flurries (didn’t stick)
Picked up bee package ay 12.30pm; looked good; bees cool but active
Prepared hive; 1 deep with 5 frames of honey & 5 built up frames
2 built up frames in middle, open nectar/honey next to those, honey on edges
Queen alive and signs of acceptance from workers
hung/wedged her cage between 2 drawn out frames; dumped some bees ontop
Added candy board with fondant and pollen sup
Placed inner cover
Put empty deep box on top
Put package, open side down, on inner cover; didn’t want to shake bees out as so cold
Outer cover on
Hive wrap on
Checked in around 6pm and majority of bees had left package and were in the hive
Quite noisy; definitely sound different to a queenright colony
To do: check queen (and release) in 4 days (weather permitting)
Saturday, April 25th
Warm (55-58F), sunny, light breeze
noon-ish
Hive #1:
Queen, eggs, brood
Queen in middle box
BIG population; lots of new bees have emerged!
Lots of eggs and young brood in all stages
Some drones!
Burr comb; cleaned it up
Some wax build up in the top box
No sign of swarming yet
Might be able to make first nuc from this colony soon
Wrap on
Hive #2:
Queen, eggs, brood
Building up nicely
Noticeable population increase
No signs of swarming
Might be able to get honey from these girls this year!
Monitor for more space
Would like to get another deep box on before honey harvest
Some drone cells! (not as many as hive #1)
Candyboard and wrap on
Hive #3:
Queen and eggs!!
Checking to see if queen had been let out of her cage; found lots of eggs!
Queen in bottom box
Queen is quick and shy; couldn’t get a good picture (and didn’t want to spook her)
She looks bigger than I originally thought, which is a relief
Multiple queen cells; why? Practice?
Girls are active and bringing in pollen
Added a deep box with 8 built up frames and 2 new ones
Candyboard and wrap on
Book Review #2: ‘The Bees’ by Laline Paul
This is a fictional book that was published in 2014. It received critical acclaim, and has been classified as suspense, fantasy, and even dystopian fiction.
About the author (from the book): “Laline Paul studied English at Oxford, screenwriting in Los Angeles, and theater in London. She lives in England with her husband, photographer Adrian Peacock, and their three children.”
In 2018, I saw mentions of this book everywhere. Many people were recommending it in online forums and groups, and I kept seeing it on shelves at various stores. Amazon recommended it to me and I ended up adding it to my wishlist then promptly forgot about it until I received it as a gift. Still, it has sat unread until this month when the ‘shelter in place’ order prompted me to look at my unread book shelf and decide what to read next.
This is a non-spoilery/safe summary:
‘The Bees’ follows the life of Flora 717, a sanitation worker in an anthropomorphized hive that is arranged in a rigid caste system with the Flora caste firmly on the bottom. The Queen is their Holy Mother, who spreads her Divine Love throughout the hive, and whose fertility is the seat of her Holy power. Her priestesses (the Melissae) enforce the Divine law of the Hive, are of the caste Sage, and appear to have special advanced communicative and religious powers. The Fertility Police jealously guard the Queen’s divine right as the seat of fertility; searching out and executing any worker who dares sin by laying, while also examining newly hatched bees for signs of ‘difference’.
Each caste works a predetermined task in support of the hive as a whole. Flora, even for a sanitation worker, is particularly ugly and large and has the ability to speak (highly unusual for her caste) but is spared from death by the ever-watchful fertility police by a Sage, who instead puts her to work producing Flow (royal jelly) in the nursery. This single act places Flora 717 on a path she could have never anticipated, until she finds herself beginning to question everything she thought she knew about the hive and Holy Mother.
Although not always biologically accurate, this book is beautifully written and I highly recommend it!
If you'd like to hear my full review with spoilers and passages read from the book, please listen to the podcast!
Thank you so much for reading and listening! Please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook, or shoot me an email at homesteadhensandhoney@gmail.com
Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay self-isolated!
As always, hug your hens and then wash your hands. Take care!