Spring Checkerboarding

Haven't visited my hives in almost a month!  The weather has been too cold and wet.  I was afraid that the massive rain storm yesterday would linger into today and keep me from visiting my girls, but Mother Nature cooperated.  It was a beautiful sunny, spring-like day with temps breaking into the 60s.  I timed my visit for around 1:30pm to peak with the highs.

My purpose today was to check that everyone was alive and kicking, and to checkerboard the two brood boxes (switch their positions) in an attempt to mitigate the chance of the hive absconding/swarming this spring.  By swapping the two brood boxes, the bees (which have moved high up into the hive over the winter leaving the lower brood box empty, will think they have plenty of expansion room for laying eggs - and won't be tempted to find a better home.)

Both hives were massively busy - lots of comings and goings - every returning bee loaded with pollen legwarmers - so puffy that they'd even make Jane Fonda envious.  Most were carrying the boldest red pollen that I've ever seen - I'm talking carmen red!  I wonder where they found that?  Inside the hive was a veritable rainbow of pollen ranging from bright yellow and orange, to muted green and blue.  It's nice to see lots of pollen - there's been so little since the drought started.

Both hives had eggs and larvae in various stages of development, so I'm pretty sure both queens are alive and active.  As a special treat, Maybelle made herself seen today.  I've haven't sighted her since August.  As you recall, Maybelle's hive has become quite aggressive.  And I've been unable to get a good look inside the deepest brood box since October due to their nasty pelting behavior - bad bees, bad bees!  I was convinced that they had re-queened the hive and it had become Africanized, but obviously I was wrong.  Oh well, off with her head anyway.  A few weeks ago I ordered a new queen that will be delivered later this spring.  Once the new queen shows up, I'm going to play the role of King Henry VIII and pinch Maybelle's little head off.  I just don't like dealing with an aggressive hive - regardless of how much more honey they produce.

Speaking of honey, I was expecting to find the hives depleted after our relatively dry winter - but was excited to see that the top-most supers were loaded with capped honey!  In both hives, 6 of the 8 frames were capped out.  Guess we're getting ready for a big flow - can't wait to pull in my first spring harvest (last year there was no flow because of the drought).  Perhaps this will coincide with our short-lived morel mushroom season, that is looking great from a weather perspective.

I'm struggling whether to order more honey jars or not - afraid I'll jinks things if I order before the flow.  Sorta like counting your honey before it's capped.

Saponification!

I'm not one for making New Year resolutions - instead, I make an effort to try something new early each year.  I don't obligate myself to sticking with whatever newness I expose myself too - I just put myself out there, and see what it brings me.

This year, I decided to tackle handmade soap.  Some of you out there will argue that I'm giving in to my post-apocalyptic fears about the end of life as we know it - and yes, there might be a bit of that in my choice of class, but dammit - I get to choose - and soap it is!

So yesterday morning, I dragged my sorry butt out of bed at 5am in order to get to my soapmaking class by 8:30am.  It was worth it - it was one of the best classes I've taken in a long time.

Before I start waxing (pun intended) on my new appreciation for homemade soap, let me put a plug in for a local jewel we have here - The Ploughshare: Institute for Sustainable Culture - located in lil 'ole Waco, Texas.

http://www.sustainlife.org/

They offer some of the best hands-on classes that I've ever taken.  If you have some time, take a class.  You'll meet some truly delightful people, and learn something about mother nature and sustainability at the same time.

One of the things I most love about the Ploughshare courses are the class limit.  They cap most classes at 10 people - small enough that everyone gets personal attention.  We were fortunate yesterday that they were training new instructors so that the 9 of us students had the benefit of 5 or 6 seasoned soapmaking teachers - what a treat!

Before we jumped into our first recipe, we learned how to render tallow from beef fat - much easier, and less messy than I imagined.  After that, we were taught two methods of making glycerin soap.  We first made an olive, coconut and tallow spearmint soap using the "Hot" method.  We followed this with a goat's milk, lavender, and oatmeal soap using the "Cold" processing method - this included the use of olive, palm, and coconut oil.  Both turned out great!

I've included a picture of two of the soaps I finished yesterday - a goat's milk pine/rosemary bar - and a peppermint glycerin bar.  Thought my gargoyle, Kobal, who stands watch at our front door, would provide an appropriate backdrop.

Time to Move

I've been struggling the last couple of months with the location of my hives.  As you recall, they currently overlook a beautiful duck, fish, and turtle-filled pond between the 15th and 16th hole of a Audubon-certified golf course here in the Texas Hill Country.  It is truly an idyllic setting, though it's a real pain the the pitutie to get too.  I spend 10 minutes driving to the course, then schlepp all my bee stuff onto a golf cart, only to drive the cart another 10 minutes to reach the site.  It's not too bad on a beautiful spring-like day, but in August - when the high temperature breaks the 100 mark, it's brutal.  Worse yet, when I forget something and need to run home to get it - I usually don't.  The one time I forgot my gloves, I came home with 6 stings - yowza!

It would be ever so much nicer to have in my yard.  So home is where they shall be.  Tom - gratefully - is supportive of this and spent a good deal of time with me mapping out the best location in our yard.  It's important to consider things like - where the hives will get first morning sun, is it close to a good water source, and are the hives far enough away from weed wackers and other equipment that makes a lot of noise.   Sweet Tom - even went with me to Home Depot today and picked up supplies to make the hive bases - AND he installed them this afternoon!

Now the next big decision - when to actually move them.  I think I'll move Roxi's hive over first since it's a lot more docile than Maybelle's hive.  Once I get Roxi and her girls settled, I'll deal with Maybelle - ugh - not looking forward to that!

Seed Time - Summer Garden Planting

Got a jump on my summer garden last weekend - planted 288 seeds including a number of varieties of Italian seeds that I've picked up during my last two trips to Europe.  Also a bunch of heirloom seeds that they don't offer locally - special order.

I know, I know - 288 plants are too many for my garden, but I'm not sure what my germination rates will be.  And, if I'm lucky, I'll have many to share with my green-thumbed friends, right?

My justification is that I'm in the process of building a distillation still so I can make my own essential oils - so I need a lot of plant material.

I even invested in a grow light and heated germination mat this year - the guys at Tom's monthly poker game got a laugh out of my setup.  It was interesting to note which friends thought that I was growing something illicit under those bright lights - and who didn't.  Somehow the distribution all made sense.

Check out what I've planted:
     Lavendar
     Lemon Balm
     Hibiscus - Red Thai Early
     Melone Supermarket
     Melone Cantalupo de  Charentais
     Pomodoro Pantano Romanesco
     Pomodoro Successo
     Pomodoro Ciliegio
     Zucchino Diamant
     Tomato Black Krim
     Tomato Tappy's Finest
     Genovesi Basil
     Detroit Dark Red Beet
     Touchstone Gold Beet
     Cal Wonder Red Peppers
     Black Beauty Egg Plant
     Lavender Vera
     Purple Cone Flower