Bee swarm removal

We have been wanting to get bees for a long time but have so much going on in our backyard already (most of which is completely new to us) that we have decided to wait a little while until we introduce bees to our little homestead. However, Bryan is extremely excited to get familiar with bee colonies and seeing as one of his friends started his first colony this year, Bryan jumping in to help out and learn! On craigslist there are quite a few ads for "free bees". Basically, a hive has "swarmed" and has taken up residence in a location that the property owner is not very happy with a colony of bees living like a tree or inside a wall.

• "Swarming is the natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies. A new honey bee colony is formed when the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees, a process called swarming. In the prime swarm, about 60% of the worker bees leave the original hive location with the old queen. This swarm can contain thousands to tens of thousands of bees. Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon, usually within a two- or three-week period depending on the locale, but occasional swarms can happen throughout the producing season." - as stated by the trusty Wikipedia!

In this case, Bryan found a strong hive that was located inside the wall of someones barn. They didnt know how long the hive had been there, but once the wall was cut out it was obvious they had taken up residence there for at least a year if not more. Before digging in, Bryan and Nate took a look at the situation to get a better idea of where to start cutting out the outer wall.

Nate gives the "thumbs up" and they are ready to get suited up!

After taking off board after board they could see the hive was very well established and going strong!

Now that they outer wall is out of the way they can start removing the honeycomb. There are different methods of bee removal but Bryan and Nate chose to slowly remove the comb piece by piece bringing bees along with it. Once the comb was safe in the boxes they were able to go back and brush off any remaining bees and gently put them into the box with the comb as well.

The process took several hours but once the comb was all removed they bees were attracted to the box so they were able to close up the box and bring the bees to their new home.

Bulk Bake - Bread & Bagels

I am not a big fan of baking when it is really hot outside, until I get a solar oven anyway! I just don't like heating up the house! So it has been a while since I have been able to bake a good bulk batch of goodies. Today presented a beautifully cool day as well as wet and drizzly. Since it was so wet I knew we wouldn't have much outside playtime so I thought we would make the most of it and have a good "inside playtime"!

Henry and Addie love to help in the kitchen. Yes, sometimes they are not the best "helpers", but they sure do make it alot more fun...and messy, definitely more messy! I love getting to experience the desire for knowledge that my kids show and their pure excitement over the little things in life. They both love to know how things are made and how they work. Bread is always exciting for them to participate in because we start from whole grain wheat berries, put them through the wheat mill and they get so thrilled to see it turn into flour. Then the real excitement begins because they get to see how the yeast and sugar react together in water! As we mix the wheat that they just ground in with the "exciting yeast mixture" they love to get involved with kneading and forming the dough. And when you have 2 kids involved who needs to set a timer for the dough rising portion? They both take off to play and about ever 2 minutes they love to run back and see how much its grown! Addie jumps up and down almost every time in joy that the yeast is actually doing what it is supposed to be doing...it raising!!! Once its done raising we all start forming our special loaves. And what is more exciting and rewarding for a child (well, adults too for that matter) than to see their hard work turn out to be their very own food!! Ive never seen these kids eat as well as when they get to help make it!

This morning we made 8 dinner loaves, 14 cinnamon cranberry bagels and 12 plain bagels. A few will be eaten right away :), some will make it to the dinner table tonight and then the rest will be frozen for another day. It is nice to have some homemade loaves in the freezer ready to be thawed and served for dinner on a hot day when I don't want to bake anything, or on those days that are just too busy for baking!

Making Mead (honey wine) Step by Step with Photos

Mead or often referred to as "Honey Wine" is impressively easy to make!

Step 1: Measure out 1 pound of honey for every gallon of water. We decided to only start with a 1 gallon batch, but as soon as we have the space we will get a 5 gallon batch going!

 Step 2: Funnel your honey into a sterilized glass jar or carboy and add water (1 gallon to every 1 pound of honey).

Step 3: Add Champagne Yeast

Step 4: Secure your bung and watch the yeast and sugar start working!

Make sure to leave enough head space for the yeast and sugar to "work" and not have overflow. You can see in the photo that it is already foaming and if we would have topped it off too high, the pressure from the activity would have overflowed a bit.

Now we wait! The next step will be in about 3 months and the whole process for mead is about 9 months.

Summertime Remedies from your garden

Mountain Rose Herb has a wonderful article on Summertime Remedies that I highly recommend you all read. I have been wanting to get into making my own oils, lotions and soaps at home for a long time and this article sparked my interest and got me thinking about it!

I have barely touched the surface of homemade remedies. I have made a few herbal infused oils with mint and chamomile from the garden, but I look forward to skimming more and more off the surface and finding ways to use herbs and home remedies!