The Birds and The Bees and a Racoon

It’s been wildlife central here lately.  Last week, my indoor cat accidentally snuck out the door.  I head down the steps in the front yard where she has paused to smell something, and scooped her up by the neck.  Just as I looked up, I spotted no more than 15 feet from me, a coyote crossing the yard.  Damn, am I glad I caught my cat before she had time to disappear into the blackberry, I may have never seen her again.  Just today there were several reports of found dead kitty remains not too far away.

Our property is ridiculously overgrown.  I’m sure the neighbors are thrilled.  Unfortunately, this is the way is was when we got here.  I love yard work, but I can only move so fast.  There’s a lot of ivy and blackberry out there!  In the mornings, I tend to hop on the trampoline (pun not intended) and lay down and stare at the the tree tops and the sky.  I’ve seen at least 4 red tail hawks in flight.  They *could* be the same one, but I like big numbers.  Among my favorite yard birds are the Western Tanager and the Northern Flicker.  I’ve got a thing for bright colors, too.

After our honeybee swarm experience, we all became awestruck with the honeybee and decided to get a hive. Setting up with a new hive and equipment can run between 200 and 400 dollars.  I ended up finding an ad on craigslist for someone who was moving away and selling A LOT of hives.  We picked this up for about 50 dollars.

Lucky for us and the bees, the frames already have comb.  What this means, is that when a new swarm moves into our hive, they will have a lot less work to do.  All they will have to do is clean up, clear out the unwanted, and make repairs.  That’s going to free up a lot of time to build up their stores.

The comb is absolutely amazing.  Each hexagon is exactly the same size.  They are also multipurpose.  The Queen lays her precious eggs in the comb, and they store honey in there.  Hence the name, honeycomb.

Each frame must be a certain space apart from each other or the bees will glue them all together with propolis.  That’s bee glue, and it’s freaking strong too!  In the picture there are reddish dots around the frame, that’s the propolis and they use it to fill in gaps and holes and well, glue stuff together!

The boys helped TJ prepare the area where the hive is going to go.  It’s amazing what happens when one develops an interest.  Skylar wanted bees like, yesterday!  He’s been doing research and yard work, and being attentive to any conversation about beekeeping.  He filmed the bee swarm we had and the beekeeper catching the swarm.  He even went with TJ, 1.5 hours away to pick out a hive and instead of running around with the 7 kids that lived there, he chose to stay with TJ and discuss bees.

Here it is.  It’s not pretty, but it’s there.  It’s possible that a swarm moves in on it’s own considering there are probably lingering Queen pheremones but we’re not betting on it.  So hopefully we’ll find a swarm soon and not have to purchase one.  Luckily for us, we happen to know a beekeeper now.

Sunday morning I got up bright and early to do some yard work before the feral bees (bumble, honey and otherwise) hit the bushes.  They are none too happy when I start pruning their favorite trees.  I didn’t get much pruning done due to an uninvited visitor.