When I decided to start beekeeping, I looked in all the catalogs. I wanted all the gadgets. But it was overwhelming to decide what I needed. I attended my beekeeping class and the instructor spelled out what was required and what was just nice to eventually get. I figured I’d show what I have in my beginner’s toolbox and give a brief idea of why I have it. I’m sure this will change, but worked fine to install the packages of bees.
My bee tools
Welcome to this week’s homestead update.
Built up beds
I think that I’ve mentioned it before, but my garden beds are made from 2″x6″x8′ pine lumber. Some people use pressure treated lumber, but I don’t like to use chemicals when I don’t have to. I have to replace the wood on occasion. I find that it lasts 3 or 4 years. This week I increased the depth of several garden beds. For a couple of years, I used a single layer of lumber for each bed. But in my area, there is a lot of Creeping Charlie growing. Creeping Charlie has no problem climbing into a 6″ garden bed. But it doesn’t get into a 12″ bed quite as easily. Continue reading
Posted in 13 Skills, beekeeping, weekly
Tagged bees, garden, homestead, planting, tips, vegetables, weather
As I mentioned in my weekly post, I finally received my bees. I thought that I’d post with the pictures of the installation. This is my first install, so I’m sure that I made some mistakes. I didn’t have any glaring problems, though. It went fairly smooth and I didn’t get stung. I’m not going to have a lot of text, I mainly want to put up my pictures.
Heading down to the hives
I loaded the packages of bees into my yard cart. Put in my tool bag. I had to mix up some sugar-water to put in a spray bottle.
A new package of bees
Just a shot of me and one of the packages
Removing the telescoping cover
Off comes the telescoping cover.
Tearing down the hive
Then tear down the hive to put them in.
Suiting up
Put on the safety gear.
Removing the queen cage
Pull the queen cage. I sprayed them down with sugar-water so they wouldn’t immediately fly off. Popped off the cover and pulled her out.
Preparing the queen cage for installing
The instructor gave us the idea of using duct tape to make a sling to hold the queen cage. I used this idea and we’ll see how it works
Installing the queen
Then just hang the hive from 2 of the frames. One thing that I forgot to do was poke a hole through the candy plug. This isn’t required,but it allows them to them release her a bit quicker.
Removing the can of food
To get to the rest of the bees, I removed the can of sugar-water that fed them in transit.
Dumping in the bees
Then just dump the bees into the hive. I made sure most of the bees went on the queen cage.
Closing up the hives
Close up the hives and that’s that.
All done
The boxes in front are the packages. All the bees don’t come out of there. I put most of them in and allowed the hangers to go in on their own. I put the Boardman feeders on and left them alone. I’ll check on them in 3 or 4 days to make sure they released the queen.
Hopefully this is just the start of a long beekeeping hobby.
Welcome to this week’s homestead update.
2006 Fleetwood Bayside
We sold our popup camper. We listed it on Craigslist about 2 months ago. We had several people look at it. The people who bought is are an older couple who plan on camping with their grand kids. They also have 3 children that plan on camping with their own families. I’m thrilled that the people who bought the camper will make use of it. We had some great trips and memories made in that camper. I would hate to see it sitting in someone’s driveway without being used. It sounds like they will use it a lot like it should be used. Continue reading
Posted in 13 Skills, beekeeping, weekly
Tagged bees, camper, food, garden, garlic, harvest, preserving, vegetables
Welcome to this week’s update.
Campsite shot
This past weekend, the family went camping at our “home” campground. This is only about 25 minutes from home, but is very quiet and a nice little campground. This was only the second time we used the new camper, so we are still learning about it. We had a really good time. This is the reason that I didn’t do all that much on the homestead this week. I did some work, but not a lot. Continue reading
Posted in 13 Skills, beekeeping, weekly
Welcome to this week’s homestead update. This week is going to be a short update since I have a minor medical procedure to endure.
Tomatoes and peppers
I was able to plant the tomatoes and peppers into the garden this past weekend. Last year I planted 3 tomato plants in each bed, and 4 pepper plants in each bed. They ended up being too close together. So this year I decided to try planting a tomato at each end of the garden bed with a tomato cage. I then planted 2 pepper plants in the middle section of each tomato bed. I hope to get much bigger pepper plants. I also hope to keep up on the pruning of the tomato plants. I usually let them grow as they like. This year I will ensure there is a single vine growing up in the cage instead of sprawling. Continue reading
While taking some photos of the tomatoes for this week’s weekly update, I decided to take some additional pictures to show planting progress. So here is what I have in the garden this week. I’ve had a couple of people have asked to see more pictures of the garden. I’ll attempt to do this a bit more often throughout the season.
Tomatoes and peppers
Broccoli (left) and Cabbage (right) Garlic behind
Brussels sprouts (right), peppers (center), tomato (left)
Garlic and 2 basil plants
Peas and onions
Salad greens
Squash and watermelons
Honeyberry plants
That’s what my garden beds look like right now.
