May My Favorite

Oh May! My favorite time of the year here. Finally the flowers bloom and the plants start their fast and furious reproductive sprints. I find myself walking circles around the house over and over again, checking and double checking every plant possible for signs of sudden growth. What an exhilirating time of year!

Yesterday it struck me, though, that besides the inherent beauty of a lush landscape, every effort I make, every plant discovery that excites me, every future dream I build - all of that somehow revolves around my passion for food. Good food. Real food. Not the kind of stale produce we can pluck from the grocery store, certainly not the ubiquitous nausea of corn syrup or obscure frankensteinian corn additives, not even the tasty treat of a tired day restaurant dinner. Nope, I'm talking the kind of food that bursts in your mouth in an explosion of colorful flavors, the kind of food that only can come from lovingly tended soil, the kind that withers within minutes of disturbing. Oh, food, glorious food. There is something almost magical about growing or making one's own food. Knowing the cycles of life and nutrients that produced whatever amazing chemical reactions that might briefly caress the tongue. Knowing the honest cost of the bite. Perhaps its the knowing that really instills the savoring. Regardless, taking a snip of spring terragon here and a tip of new garlic green there, something inspiring transpires: the quest for flavor drives all the labor and time and thought and makes it all worthwhile.

Parmesan Ice Cream

Finally we have our raw cow's milk. Fresh cream... ohhh nothing better! Above is pictured one of my favorite uses for cream - Parmesan (actually Asiago in this case) "Ice Cream" with snipped fresh rosemary and garlic. Smooth as butter and absolutely addicting! Here's a recipe:

Parmesan Ice Cream

Ingredients: 2:1 ratio of high quality block parmesan cheese to cream.

garlic, thinly sliced, to taste

a sprinkle of nutmeg

freshly ground black pepper to taste

sprigs of fresh rosemary

Warm cream, garlic slices and nutmeg til boiling. Meanwhile, grate cheese. Turn cream mix to very low. Add cheese and stir continuously until smooth. Mix in cracked pepper and rosemary if desired. Temper at room temperature then refridgerate. Spread on fresh bread.

This can be scooped with an ice cream scoop to resemble french vanilla ice cream. Try drizzling with a reduced balsamic and everyone will swear its vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce. Its a good trick to play on an unsuspecting dinner guest. :)

"comb cling"

Now... the bees. They arrived 8 days ago in fantastic condition from an overnight plane trip from California. I allowed them to accustom themselves to their very new queen for another 24 hours before hiving them. Hiving went well enough - the weather was far more cooperative than last year, and everyone settled in quickly and calmly. I placed both organic sugar water and the package feeding can within the hive, then checked feed levels once during the following week. They did not eat much. I think the later hiving time (May rather than April like last year) probably gave them more opportunities to gather wild nectar and pollen.

Today was my first real hive check. I did not observe the queen, but was surprised to find a fairly large comb with nectar and EGGS already constructed. Unfortunately, it was hanging diagonally off the still attached queen cage. Obviously the queen is there somewhere, and becoming prolific at that, but the comb had to be detached and the queen cage removed. I placed the comb at the bottom of the hive in the hope the bees will know what to do with it and will start building comb in the appropriate places - off the topbars! They did have good "comb clings" hanging off multiple bars, so I suspect next week there will be more order - well, human order - to the hive.

The serviceberries are once again in full bloom... the entire hillside is smothered in their white blooms... there is no other sight quite like it.

Catastrophe

Catastrophe. Destruction. Devastation.

It all looks so idyllic. It has taken me a whole 24 hours plus to ready myself to blog about the incident. Yesterday, I made my rounds as usual... observing new garden growth, shaking my head at my tomatoes and their disappointing blight of some kind, smelling the hillside's herbs and flowers, then noticing something I couldn't quite place... down the hill, something askew, something off... something... oh the drop in my stomach at the slow realization, at the immensity of what was already impossible to undo. no... a quiet whisper... My dad happened to be in town, and I quickly nursed the baby, handed her and my son over to grandpa, suited up and headed down the hill.

The sinking feeling overcame me... I momentarily wanted to run, didn't want to face the gruesome reality. But the moment passed and I methodically prepared to confront the carnage. Nothing, not a thing I could do now but survey and salvage as much as possible, if possible.

It was obviously a bear. Not just any bear - THE bear. The same albino blackbear that loitered here last year, that strewed the neighbor's garbage about several weeks ago. I know this only because it came back late again in the afternoon, to lick up the scraps I suppose, and my dog gave me ample warning in growls. I ran out and yelled that mangey, yellowish, LARGE (much larger than last year) creature back down the slope.

To confront such a loss is so disheartening, so sad. So many bees lost. Every single topbar scraped clean of comb. The remaining comb pieces scattered about baking in the hot June sun, the young larvae and new emerging bees already dried and shriveling. I couldn't believe the efficiency of the ants. A steady line of ants were carrying eggs, larvae, dead workers out and away, cleaning up the scene before I even knew it existed.

I carefully picked up each small fragment of comb, searched with a small glimmer of hope for the queen and placed them back in the hive. One by one. Most comb simply gone. The few bees still alive were scooped up, and gently lowered into the hive. They were so disorganized, so frenzied, so angry. I cannot even count how many stingers were on my clothes, how many bees I witnessed dying on me as I tried to rescue them. The once gentle bees fighting with their lives...

I never found the queen. I'm fairly certain she is in the belly of the albino bear.

Well, this is life in its most natural sense. I have learned so much through this process... the biggest lesson being PUT UP A WILDLIFE EXCLUSION FENCE IN BEAR COUNTRY. Its up now, thanks to my husband. Its up and ready for another colony. I will check the survivors tomorrow. Check to see if there is any sign of cohesion, any sign I could possibly requeen them this late in the game, despite the complete absence of comb, despite the great stress, despite the minimal number of bees... there is always hope, even in the greatest of losses. I know... its only bees... but the lessons are applicable in all realms, and I am strangely thankful for that.

Evening Diversions

There is an odd feel to the air tonight, to last night. A moon rose veiled by a smokey-thin red cloud cover - no fire, no smoke in sight. The wind howled lowly, constantly through the fir boughs and cottonwood branches, bending the birches across the river into one uniform, uncomfortable southwest angle. There is a jitter in the air, like the energizing O3 increase before a thunderstorm, but I don't sense that kind of storm. Typically my half amputated middle toe lets me know when a storm is coming... its true what they say... "I can feel it in my bones", in my case, my toe bone that's no longer there... but not tonight. Tonight its something different... and I like it.

New Comb

I checked the hive again yesterday. Not a lot new to muse over this week. The seventh bar has been built upon - new translucent pale-cream comb, so different from the brilliant yellow dandelion comb of the early spring. Still beautiful, just in a new way, a more peaceful, angelic way. I am noticing one anomaly that may prove difficult in the future: the bees built a double comb on the sixth topbar, knocking off the spacing ease of the first five. I almost destroyed comb between the sixth and seventh bar before I noticed that the seventh bar also has two combs... hmmmm... at least its straight comb, not wavily attached to multiple bars. I should still be able to remove and access future topbars... I hope.

Good Brood Capping The old combs are darkening from yellow to gold to swarthy sunflower to dazzling dirt. They are FULL of larva, capped brood, drone cells and new eggs. One thing is certain, Flower knows how to reproduce!



The final object of writing interest this evening: Garden salads. Yes, those greens I longed for for months, dreamed of during the long whiteness of winter, thought of which I would never tire... those greens. They are just beginning to overwhelm me. We have been eating salads every day since that first exhilirating salad last week, and the salad keeps on coming. I've given several bags of greens away, but they're reproducing like rabbits, or, well, bees. Tomorrow I am harvesting spinach and possibly turnip greens to freeze, then probably will be compelled to eat yet another salad for dinner. So many salads, so few salad permutations. Tonight I got creative with what was hiding in my kitchen... here's a blanket recipe for tonight's salad - a little different, a little more exciting:

Tonight's Thai Shrimp Salad

1 can coconut milk (though I think ideally coconut cream)
a couple Tblsp brown sugar
quartered button mushrooms
fish sauce to taste
Curry paste or a garlicky seasoning to taste

Bring to low boil, cook mushrooms. Add
Shrimp
Cook until shrimp are pink and add juice of
one lime
and a handful of bean thread noodles or rice noodles

Add to Salad:
Garden greens
thinly sliced Green Onion
thinly sliced onion or shallots
thinly sliced hot pepper (serrano in my case)
thinly sliced lemon grass (if you have it on hand)
peanuts or cashews
about one inch finely grated ginger
fresh mint leaves
fresh cilantro
water chestnuts

Basically anything in your kitchen that sounds good... :) Enjoy!

Hives and Produce

Inspecting for the Queen

How glad I am! For the last week, anxiety has welled up at the thought I may have inadvertantly swatted the queen away last inspection. After reviewing the queen photos and noticing her long black shape, I recalled swatting a long skinny wasp-looking thing away from last week's comb. Was it the queen?! Could I have been so flippant? Waiting, waiting, waiting to find out... then, on this inspection I saw plenty of new eggs, capped brood, larva, no new queen cells - all good signs of queen health. Finally, I found Flower yet again, diligently poking in and out of the cells. Phew! The anxieties of a beekeeper once more relieved!

A Followerboard Comb

The bees have built this bedraggled looking comb once again on the first followerboard. I pried it off last week in the hopes they'd build only upon the bars, but its back. I'm not sure what the purpose is, as it is accessible by only one side, not uniform in shape at all, and storing only nectar. I decided I'd leave it be now... it must be a food store at least.

The rest of the combs look good - definitely progressing appropriately. There are now six fully built combs, with a seventh beginning. The sixth bar holds a new find - a double comb full of either nectar or honey... I'm too inexperienced yet to differentiate. I am hoping this doubled up comb does not create difficulties in later comb spacing but left it alone for the time being. My interference does not seem to help much, rather hinder - the bees know their comb building much better than me!

Double Comb

Yesterday was a day of the new. New gardens planted, new plants sprouting, new food. My son and I planted the summer garden... lets see... cucumbers, crooknecks, zucchinis, butternut squash, pole beans, bush beans, more tomato and peppers, basil, dill, marigolds, nasturtiums, sunflowers, my celery seedlings (started months ago), corn, some more mesclun mix. Then we harvested a delicious salad for dinner - FINALLY! The salad was a mix of spinach, mustard, little tiny radishes, young turnip leaves, mesclun mix, lettuce, green onion, chive, terragon, lemon mint, and some purple leafy plant my dad previously scattered about. It was... flavorful!

First Garden Salad of the Year

The sun has been shining with an increased intensity lately - it makes me feel joy and ambition, and it seems to incite similar attitudes in the garden. Each day I watch as new things appear and old things advance... potatoes are sprouting all over the place, spinach leaves double in size nearly daily, peas are now able to be trellised... oh, and weeds are finally threatening their mass usurpation. No worries there, however - I just can't seem to stay away long enough to let the weeds abound. I find myself drawn out there morning, noon and night. Drawn out to wander, poke around, beg and plead new seeds into sprouts, nibble older things here and there... My kids are just as enticed by the greenery and know nearly every plant by name and taste and danger level (no potato leaves, kids!). The thrill at seeing one of our honeybees alighted upon a tomato leaf! The titillation of a spicy mustard leaf upon the tongue! Its all so sensory, it has to somehow advance young brain development.

The Finished Salad
A few additions - tomato, cheese, garbanzo beans and leftover chicken, and the salad was a complete meal!

Hive Inspection II

Serviceberry Blooms = Happy Bees

It is springtime... warm, shorts, bare feet springtime. Suddenly everything has awakened. Stubbornly slow leaves now unfurl in an afternoon. Cherry blossoms appear one day and bloom the next. The whole slope down to the river is covered in thousands... millions! of white serviceberry flowers, all arriving within the last couple days. I walk back to the garden and am happily assaulted by a sweet, fruity fragrance that must be savored... it will only last a moment til something new will take its place. Its so intoxicating I could walk circles around our house all evening. The bees must smell it too - they are actively pursuing the spring show, and (for this week anyway) are healthy and happy.

Comb Number 1

I inspected the hive Sunday afternoon to find five topbars with well developed comb and a sixth bar comb beginning. The eggs have progressed, and some areas are capped. There are new eggs in all the comb, more nectar stores, more pollen stores too. I am venturing a guess - I think the five combs are the brood comb, and honey comb will begin soon on the other bars. These bees have a lot of work cut out for them - not only feeding themselves, but feeding and raising brood, collecting extra food, and making wax combs. All this entails adequate food stores (even wax - its a by product of digestion), so this warm blooming weather is vastly appreciated.

Some capped brood, nectar and pollen

I found her! (look for the green dot)

The kids and I voted: my son's suggestion wins - the queen's name is Flower. This inspection, I wanted not only to find evidence, but to find Flower herself. On the third bar I saw it! The green that shouldn't be there in all of that yellow and brown and black. My eyes immediately made out the long thin shape surrounding the green dot and realized Flower was there crawling about the comb, fulfilling her lifelong baby making duty. She darted (and that's not an exaggeration - she was quick) around the comb so I had to carefully shift hands and turn the bar to watch her. I observed the workers almost piling upon her, protecting her from my prying eyes. Is this normal queen threat behavior? I decided to quickly return the bar to the hive lest I lose my most prized bee, so Queen Flower was plunged back into the safety of the dark before the hive became too stressed.



Comb I pried off the first follower board. No brood, just food.

Alive and Thriving

Planting an orchard under a rainbow

Spring has sprung. Yep, no doubt about that. We have had a wonderfully busy few days soaking up the warming sunshine, planting cherries, plums, pears, apples, hazelnuts and even peaches (intrepid - good to a zone four!). My broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages are all nicely laid out in the garden. The final summer garden spading was completed and a cold frame is in the works. I have been pleasantly surprised by the blooms occuring on our hillside - serviceberries are slowly awakening, small chokecherries are preparing for their bloom, fairybells, wild strawberries, shooting stars, oregon grapes... and so many more are all flowering at last. The ginger scented arnica leaves share the rocky hillside with patches of nearly bloomed lupine and wild onions... I love seeing all this new life surrounding me. However, there are those that are more thrilled than I with all of these blooming wonders...

Beautiful Comb up Close

We made the first hive inspection on Sunday... Mother's Day... to finally observe if the queen was fulfilling her mothering duties. I was terribly nervous, despite having watched the busy bee business nearly every day, despite having witnessed their voracious sugar syrup appetites. I just didn't know for sure... But... what wonders! What a gift to gently lift the first topbar and see the beautiful, brilliant yellow comb hanging in a perfect curve, carefully attended to by the workers and filling up with pollen, nectar (or sugar syrup) and... EGGS. The evidence of the great mother among them. Though we did not find the queen this go around, we were pleasantly surprised to find five topbars with comb, to see the orange and yellow pollens coming in, to feel the docility of a harmoniously working colony.

A Topbar in the Sky

The comb's color was another unexpected surprise. The softest, newest comb with the most vibrant lemon yellow tint... from all of the dandelion pollen? We marveled at both the color and the engineering of comb. Holding the comb up against the sunlight, my husband - an engineer himself - immediately noticed the perfectly balanced structure of each cell... how the backside cells were aligned exactly halfway between the front cells, perfectly overlapping for optimal structural soundness. What intelligence! What design! And to think it all happens without (or despite) our superior human help...

Sarah holds a piece of comb I cut off

Getting settled...

Sunny Day Flying

It has been one week since our little ladies' installation. I have to contain myself and not harass them everyday - they need the time and space to get established in their new home. However, it is quite fascinating to walk down over the bank of the hill, balance precariously on the rocky glacial til soil (can I even call it soil?!), and simply observe a sunny day hive. The bees bustle about with a purpose beyond my comprehending, as busy as bees so they say. I have yet to notice any pollen on the bees, but I'm hoping they are finding it in all their foraging. The bees will eat, and more importantly, feed their young the protein rich pollen. There are currently no synthetic pollens available that can remotely compare to the real thing, so I have to trust the land will provide. And it will... pollen for the bees, pollination for the plants... such a lovely symbiotic relationship.

The sugar water supplement in hive box, separated from main hive by a follower board


I do check almost daily the level of sugar syrup the bees have consumed. Because there is so little nectar available yet, I am supplementing with a 1:1 ratio of organic sugar dissolved (but not boiled - that can cause bee dysentary) in water. If they survive the winter, I would like to forego this next year, and allow them to feed on their own honey instead. But for now, being newbees, they seem mighty appreciative and have been consuming nearly a jarful a day!



Bees clinging to a topbar


I have checked the main hive several times - only lifting one topbar off each visit. I am amazed by the cohesive clinging ability of these girls! They link legs and hang in this pattern, most likely beginning to build comb so their queen can begin her egg laying. I fret - I don't see any comb! what if they build comb over multiple bars? what if this cold weather permanently weakens them? what if the queen has flown away?! - but I realize these bees are in far more capable hands than mine... their creator's and their own.

Hiving the Bees II

The package is opened

After hanging the queen cage, we jostle, as gently as possible, the bees into the opened hive. They fall out in great clumps and masses but seem calm nonetheless.

The bees in their new home

After most bees are in the hive, we replace the top bars and let them orient themselves to their new world. They will mark this location in their collective conscienceness and always return here, despite foraging up to four miles away.

Two entrances plugged with grass, the main entrance already guarded

Even now, moments after their disorderly arrival, the bees begin their ceaseless working. We hold our breath and are greeted by the softest humming sound - a gentle whirring that could lull even a seasoned insomniac to dreams. The bees are buzzing - vibrating their wings like thousands of hummingbirds - to circulate the queen's pheromones throughout their new home which gives each individual her place in the colony. The work will end only when she -the worker -is worked to death - about 30 days. By the time these workers die, the queen will have (hopefully) mated, laid new workers, and the hive will be well on its way to permanent establishment.

Sarah demonstrating the calm of a beekeeper

Hiving the Bees

The chill is in the air, the snow is on the ground, the bees are mellow, we're all set... then... WOOSH! The wind begins to blow... and blow... and BLOW. The biting wind will not give up and we are forced to hold off on the hiving. My yard looks like a logging operation came through and forgot the mop up. No trees were felled, but enough branches, needles and cones were scattered about, I wondered. The bees cannot keep waiting in their cage for this weather to cooperate. The anxiety of the last two days is reminiscent of the days before birthing a baby - will my babies survive? can they be safely born into this new world with so much chaos raging around them? When will it finally be the right time?

Then this evening, just as furiously as they arrived, the winds receded, and we all knew the time is now.

Sarah and I prepare the hive for the honeybee package

(the small box on top of the hive)

The honeybees are delivered in a three pound caged package. There are thousands of bees in the package - mostly female workers, a few male drones, and one precious queen in her own special queencage. The queen is the focus that binds the colony together, without her, the colony would cease to be a working unit.

The queencage hanging from a topbar

We inspect the queen, take out the cork to her cage opening, then fill it with "candy" the workers will eventually eat through to free her. In the meantime, her cage is hung from a topbar and her sweet pheromones are released, chemically bonding the colony together in one of the most miraculous displays of organization in nature.

The Top Bar Hive

Jarrod's masterpiece

So here we are, the top bar hive is completed (the roof is on the ground to the left), and my husband is proud of his carpentry skills. The journey from the here to now -the day the bees arrive- has been both exciting and nerve-wracking. To step into the world of the apiarist fills me with butterflies, but here we go, bees.

Jarrod holds one top bar with the strip of beeswax in place, ready for the comb building to begin

The decision to begin this journey hiving the bees top bar vice the traditional "white box" langstroth was an easy one for me. Having never raised bees, but learning of the many diseases, parasites and problems they now face - ever heard of colony collapse disorder? - I felt letting the bees create their own comb and essentially their own hive was a style best suited to my ideals. It is all a grand experiment, will take time, and may not always be successful. Over time, however, I hope to learn the subtle expressions of the colony, to enable the best suited bees to strengthen naturally, and one day have several healthy bee colonies that may just share with me some of their hard earned honey. Cut comb honey anyone?

A hive with a view

We positioned the top bar hive with its three entrances facing southeast, allowing the warm, early sun to motivate the bees first thing in the morning. To the north, a steep, rocky slope protects the hive from bitter northeasterlies. To the west, a large twisted serviceberry provides protection from the southwesterlies that pummel us with the occasional thunderstorm. The legs of the hive are partially buried in the rocks to stabilize and level the hive. Bees naturally build comb according to gravity, so if I want straight comb, the hive needs to be level. The hive is elevated off the ground, so mice/skunks/etc. shouldn't be a problem. I'll watch for ants, but my biggest concern is bears. Winnie the Pooh is a real problem here in Montana... I'll share some honey, Pooh, just be gentle on my bees.