Hunting Bees

Three of us newbee beekeepers went out on a call Wednesday morning: Farmer Jeff and I and the beautiful Ms. Kristine. A swarm, the second swarm in a week in this particular yard, landed in a plum tree on Tuesday at noon and was still there the next morning.

The rescue/hunting team went into action. We took our extension ladder, our chain saw on-a-stick, a swarm box baited with used drawn out comb, a smoker, bungee cords and our bee suits.

We entered the yard and located the swarm. WOW. The first one I have ever seen UP CLOSE!!!

We received permission from the owners to cut the tree if necessary (it hadn't been pruned in a couple of years, so the trim wouldn't hurt the tree!)

We extended the ladder. Farmer Jeff climbed up and trimmed away all of the pieces of the branch that was sticking out of the swarm. He got down and then I climbed up, holding the open box above my head with my arms fully extended. Kristine was holding the ladder stable as this was going on.

Farmer Jeff then cut the branch with his trusty chain saw and the branch fell exactly into the box, the rest of the bees that had been swirling around flew in, we lowered the box to the ground and cleaned up the vegetation a little more, and then slid the lid onto the box, leaving a little opening. Then we jumped up and down with joy!!!

The entire operation took 45 minutes and Farmer Jeff then asked both of us, "Is that how it normally goes"? To which I had to tell him, "...um, Honey, this was our first one. Now you know as much as we do"!

Follow up - What did we do next?
(Answer given as though talking to fellow bee keepers!)
We set up a new hive in a new location in the "veggie corral" on a metal box that lifted it off the ground 20 inches. We put in the follower boards in positions 1 and 10. Then we put in new wire reinforced bee's wax foundation in position number 2, and 3. In position 4 we slipped Kristines's built-out frames from which the honey had been extracted. We left position 5 open for the frame that was in the swarm box. Position 6 was another frame of the built out frame from the honey extraction, position 8 and 9 new bees wax foundation.



We lifted the lid off of the swarm box, lifted out the one comb which was COVERED in bees, and set it into the center of the super.

We lifted the branch out of the box (which we had cut off the tree, now covered with bees) and shook it over the top of the new super. Just as we have been told, the bees fell in a clump onto the top of the frames and slid down the sides of the frames like ...honey!

We then lifted the lid to the box and shook/tapped out the remaining bees.


We did all of this with cool and collected heads, no sudden movements and no anxiety (because I felt as though I knew what I was doing!). It was like poetry in motion. I am IN LOVE.

Later that day:
BRAVE Knight Susan captured a wild swarm of bees, Brave Knight Susan moved thousands of bees from box to box.

Gardener Susan was out picking carrots when a bee came charging up and STUNG me on the tip of my NOSE!!! Then she proceeded to call her friends and they got into my hair! During all of this I was swatting at them to get them out of my hair and whacked my blue tooth into the stratosphere.

Sigh...First thing I did was get the last little buggers out of my hair, then rinsed my nose with cold water, then put blue toothpaste on the end of my nose ( a new fashion statement)...and then feeling very silly, rinsed it off and put on some sort of cortisone cream. Sigh...that is how I lost my blue tooth...out in the carrots!

Okay, now feeling calmer, I went outside dressed top to bottom in my bee keepers suit to finish picking carrots! Why didn't I think of that in the first place!

Someone asked me how often I am stung by my bees. The last time I was stung was 40 years ago!!! Really!!!

Here is a video that Farmer Jeff took while I was futzing with the bees!

A Weekend in Heaven on Earth

This past weekend I was able to visit heaven for a few days...or at least it felt like what I would imagine heaven to be! My father and I have been the fortunate ones to be invited to a quiet and peaceful fishing camp on the Fall River in northern California. It is a 5 plus hour drive and worth every minute.

My father is 84 years old and is mentally sharp now as he was 35 years ago. We spend these 4 days together just chatting about this and that. He is fascinated by geology and we discuss the hillsides as we drive. He tells me about the kinds of rocks, how they were formed, what glaciers will do to rocks, how far rocks fly during a hard volcanic eruption...stuff like that. Now I know where my brother gets his fascination with ...well, everything! My father is a curious man and is not afraid of doing the homework.

I digress...

We left on our long drive on Thursday morning after he got a tour of the greenhouse. Farmer Jeff built it since he last visited here a year ago for our last fishing trip! He also got to see the bee hives, the new sproutlings of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and now eggplant.

We arrived in Fall River just at the precise moment the thunderstorms began. It was quite intense and ...fun! I am not one terribly excited by storms, but I felt safe and secure with my Papa there.

The company was wonderful. The host is married to a sweet, contemplative woman and she, in turn, has many sweet friends, several of which were there. Most of the same people have been fishing together for 20 years and have very established routines and relationships. I won't even go into the fabulous food we ate up there...but as a teaser, we had the BEST scones waiting for us each and every morning, thanks to baker Steve!!!


This is Steve with a turtle he found in the middle of the road and rescued.


We fished, we ate, we talked, we slept, we ate, we read, we ate, we fished...for 2 days...and then packed up to come home again! The fishing was great...I didn't catch any but I got to hold my father's rainbow trout (as I removed the hook and slid it back into the water). Papa sketched one afternoon...I took pictures and cooked. My holiday!



Chicken News:
We lost a Marans hen over the weekend. No sign of distress or illness...just dead on the bottom of the pen. Sigh...

Our little gray Silkie rooster, Madison, is finding his voice and testing his moves on the ladies. He isn't very successful, but at least he is a polite suitor.

The little female Belgian Booted Bantam, Lucretia Borgia, is a sweetheart! She is so tame and friendly. I love to hold her as she looks at me in complete bewilderment...

Something I learned today: one of the top 10 searches on the internet is... How to raise your own chickens! GO CHICKENS!!!

It's Official! We are now Bee Keepers!!!

No surprise to many just how busy we have been. Yeah, yeah, yeah...you've heard it all before..but REALLY! We HAVE been busy!

Last weekend we were in Chicago for the National Restaurant Show (had a great time, LOVE Chicago!) and then came home to build the bee hives! This is what happens when you take something as earthly natural as Bees...and do what you can to replicate what they naturally do in nature. I think they are all chuckling as they go collecting nectar and pollen because we humans are looking after a lot of their needs and getting very little in return. Or so the bees might think!

We have had fun taking the classes (me), reading about it, building the hives and all that goes into the hives, visiting other bee keepers, reading the Sonoma County Beekeepers Yahoo emails (FABULOUS resource even if you don't live in the area) We have found beekeepers to be passionate, opinionated, passionate and oh, did I mention, passionate? It is the ultimate hobby if you like puzzles, mysteries, strategies, design, honey, and the general love of bees and what they do for us. Farmer Jeff has had loads of fun building and painting (the hive stand and the supers) and I have had fun putting the wax comb foundation into the frames and then embedding the support wires. It is a much more complicated process than I was previously aware. I was a little wary/daunted by the task, but then I figured if my brother could do it, so could I! (Sorry, Pat, I guess I am competitive at heart!)

We have been having lots of fun taking pictures and documenting the whole process of building the hives and bringing them "home". I have scads of photos posted on our official farm website: www.eastsidefarm.com

Just click on the photo gallery page and you can see all of our latest photos. Actually, we are getting ready to move the blog over to this website, so please take a moment to change your Eastside Farm Chronicles bookmark over to www.eastsidefarm.com and you will always have access to the blog and pictures! The general store is still in the works, but SOON!!!

Chicken Update:
All of the "little kids" have now been integrated into the various pens. The Ameraucana teenagers now look like young adults and are getting accustomed to living with the slightly bigger girls. The two males of the group still haven't discovered "their equipment" and probably won't for another couple of months.

The Welsumers and Lucretia Borgia, the bantam Booted Belgian hen, are spending lots of time together and are very docile, almost friendly. Lucretia is actually quite tame and not at all flighty like her counterpart, Katerina.

The four French feather-legged Marans are just now getting used to being out of their little cage. We tried letting them out last week but their little back feathers we too small and therefore drew attention. Attention = pecking mercilessly so they were protected until those feathers grew in...this morning! They are running around the pen like deer caught in the headlights...but they will get used to it all!

Bully, the Brahma, defending her eggs

In living with as many animals as we do, I find myself "zoomorphosizing" folks, giving them animal attributes, the opposite of anthropomorphizing, which ascribes human characteristics to either animals or inanimate objects, like our cars or sewing machines or...?

Just the other day I found myself describing a friend's actions as that of a wounded dog, not wanting to show the vulnerable side for fear of attack. I also caught myself describing someone unwilling to give up total control by describing when I am collecting eggs and can't pick all of them up at once. The hen will quietly and discreetly extend her wing over the egg, slide it back towards her body and glide over it, now hiding it from me. I have a real hard time taking it away from them again after this sly maneuver.

The most embarrassing...when I am in the middle of imitating one of my animals behavior, complete with body contortions, facial expressions and deep, guttural noises. There is no lady like recovery from that show!

I love my animals and can't even begin to count all of the mouths we feed. The numbers will jump exponentially when we get our bees in two weeks. I am dizzy just thinking of that many creatures I will be mothering. What is another 30,000 mouths?

The Earth's Axis MUST be Spinning Faster

Doesn't it feel as though life is speeding up...or is that just me? Maybe it is just Spring and that is our time to hurry up and grow! I mean, work! Whatever the reason, we find ourselves very busy!

We have been experiencing a late Spring storm and are expecting another 2 inches of rain today. So much for mowing the lawn. I can't complain...we so badly need the rain! It did slightly dampen the spirits for our first Healdsburg Farmers Market...but only slightly. It was fun to finally make it to market and I couldn't stop smiling, even in the rain!

It was a bit dreary picking in the rain. I was not a happy camper. On the other hand, we ended up with a "body" of Swiss chard!

I found myself with time to spare while at market and took pictures down the aisle.

While I was at market, Chef Jeff was over at Relish Culinary Adventures teaching a class on Cheesemaking! (yes, another skill!) I wandered over to the school after market, dried off, and was able to take some pictures as well as sample the fabulous fresh mozzarella (in a beet salad and on pizza!) and then fresh Meyer Lemon ricotta in Cannoli. YUM!!!

Yesterday was the Annual Gathering for the membership of Sonoma County Farm Trails. Chef Farmer Jeff and I, along with other board members, produced the food for the event. It was great to be able to visit with everyone! Farm Trails also gives scholarships to 4 high school seniors that are heading into a career in the agricultural field. It is so great to meet and recognize the next generation of farmer.

We are getting ready for another week of...work. All good...but it prompted Chef Jeff to decant our vinegar (yes, he does sleep, but he wakes up with far more energy than I!!!) Here is a picture of our first BIG batch of Eastside Farm Vinegar!

Have a great week!

Earth Day Farmers Market in Windsor

This past Sunday was the official Earth Day Farmers' Market in Windsor. We luckily had some chard, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs and eggs for sale. The chard has held on since last year! It is "Bright Lights" chard and it is "decorticated". I had to look up that word...it means that the ribs are soft enough to be eaten. It also means "de-boned" but that doesn't apply to vegetables, does it?

I have finally given in to recognize that folks don't know our connection to the restaurant, Zin, so now it is officially on the sign. "Zin Restaurant's Eastside Farm".
One of the things I love about Farmers Market is that it slows you down. As a vendor, you don't always have customers right in front of you and this gives you an opportunity to talk to your neighboring vendor or catch up with friends wandering down the aisles with their kids. We were lucky enough to have our friends, owners of Syrah Bistro in Santa Rosa, stop by to visit. I consider their son to be part of our family! You can see why!
Happy Earth Day! Go plant something! We are now planting only food crops or plants that feed the bees. The bees like some VERY pretty flowers!

Note to self: Post more often!

(The first of our eggs from 4 new Ameraucana hens! A banner day!)
A vow has been made...I promise to post more often! I manage to take pictures, so I will just pop them up even if it means there is not a lot of text! Sound good?

For some reason, I can't get pictures to load today. Hm...I guess I will just have to come up with a list of what we have been up to! (Now I can...on Sunday)

The baby chicks that were featured in video are now living in the greenhouse and have grown! Heavens they are big! I make it a point to hold each one of them everyday because they are just wild. They still respond to my clucking noises, but I found one of them tucks her head against me when I hold her. I came inside after a holding session and my little cat, Chloe, climbed onto my lap and tucked her head against me. I found it fascinating that two very different animals did the same thing...

Also sharing the greenhouse are 7 other baby chicks: 4 French feather legged Marans, they are supposed to lay very dark brown eggs, 2 Welsummers, also dark egg layers, and a Belgian Booted Bantam. They are about the size of the first set of chicks in their last video.

Of course the greenhouse also has 1,000 tomato plants along with some marigolds and sweet alyssum and lavender, all bee friendly flowers. Farmer Jeff and I ...and some volunteers if we can find them, will plant the tomatoes on or around May 4th. He also has 1,000 peppers growing in the sprouting room. No, he doesn't know when to quit, but why should he? He has SO MUCH FUN!!!


Of course, the big deal of the week, Farmer Jeff is building display crates as well as fruit/vegetable crates for us! Give that man a couple of pieces of wood and a new nail gun and look out! So far he has made 10 display boxes, 22 picking crates and is about to start on the market display. It will be very cool!

All of this was started because tomorrow is our first Farmers' Market in Windsor. It is to celebrate Earth Day! A handful of farmers, knitters and spinners, as well as Farm Trails kid booth, will be there on Sunday, April 19th from 11 am - 2pm. Farmer Jeff and I will have a couple dozen eggs, broccoli, green rhubarb, Swiss chard and maybe even some roses! We are going to go great guns come July (tomatoes) but until then, we will just have fun at market!

The other fun thing going on...I have had my first workday with bees! I have a couple mentors and was lucky enough to go up and work for 3 hours yesterday. I had no idea whether or not I would panic with all of the bees around me, but I didn't. I have been standing very close to pollen gathering bees and observed them. The more I learn about bees, the more I like them. I am also connecting the holistic approach of bee keeping with raising a closed flock of chickens. All very interesting!

I promise to post pics as soon as the system allows me (Sunday!) Until then, get outside and commune with nature. This is what feeds our souls!