Checking our Beehives after a Long Winter
Every couple weeks throughout the winter, we put our ears up the side of our beehives and listening for that humming sounds that bees make keeping warm. There are a few steps you can take to help them survive the winter; you make sure you don’t take too much honey from the hive so they have enough to eat throughout the winter and you try to keep them dry. We didn’t take any honey from our hives last fall, trying to give them the best chance for survival.
If you were reading the blog last summer, you’ll remember that we split our hive. We were worried that the new hive, which was the smaller of the two, might not make it through the winter because of their lower population and less honey stored. Oddly enough all winter long they were the strongest hive, buzzing away quite loudly. When the weather warmed up they were the first bees to leave the hive.
Last week on a warm day (it was almost 70) we decided to check on the old hive, which we were worried hadn’t survived. We found a small cluster of bees and spotted the queen so they seem to have survived the winter, although they appear to be weak (although since this is the first time we’ve overwintered bees, we’re not sure). They still have a ton of honey left, so we’re hoping they make it through any more cold spells we have.
It’s good to see activity at the hives again and see bees flying around the garden on warm days. We noticed that they’re already bringing in pollen, most likely from the crocuses that are blooming and the pussywillows. We’re considering moving our hives to a different location where they’ll get more winter sun. That’s something we’ll be doing soon before they get too big this spring. We also found a great new resource with tips on overwintering bees and beekeeping in general, for those of you interested here’s the link. We’ll be ventilating our hives better this year and wrapping them in tar paper next winter.
Hopefully we’ll have a nice harvest of honey this summer from our hives. We may end up splitting one of our hives again if they’re both strong by early summer. It wasn’t much later than this last year that we got our first package of bees. If you’re interested in getting a hive now is the time to buy. Make sure you ask around to find a good reputable source.
Have you ever thought about getting bees for your gardens?
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Time Machine: What I was Doing 1 Year Ago
One of things I love about blogging that is encourages me to take tons of photos. I average at least 20 photos a day and some days more than 200 (thank goodness for digital). The best part of taking so many photos is that I have a pictorial journal of everything I’ve been doing for the past 10 years. Digital photos have a time stamp that tells you exactly what date and time the photo was taken – I love this feature. I was wondering yesterday what I was doing on March 15 of last year, so I opened up my photo program, here’s what I found:
I finished off a batch of maple syrup in the morning and put some peas in water to soak for planting the next day. These are the peas that the deer ate, so I never even got to eat any of these.
It was a beautiful spring day so we celebrated by going on a picnic with friends at a local trail. We enjoyed a good lunch and a short hike. The perfect way to enjoy a beautiful spring day besides!
After hiking we came home to get some work done in the garden. I carried 5 trays of seedlings up to enjoy the warm day on the front porch: 3 trays of onions, 1 tray of nice lettuce, and one tray of broccoli & cabbage. This year I barely have some onions that germinated this past week.
I also sifted some compost to amend the soil in the cold frame for a planting lettuce seedlings and beet seeds. This past week I did sow some spinach seeds in the cold frame after amending it with some compost.
These lovely lettuces were planted in the cold frame in the afternoon, they’re only a week or two away from harvesting small leaves for a salad. I don’t even have lettuce yet, except for a few mache plants that overwintered. These are the lettuce seeds that I started to choose the winner of the Freedom Seed contest.
I also started beet seeds in the cold frame. This past Friday and I started spinach in the cold frame.
I also took a ton of photos of the beautiful sunset we enjoyed that evening, what a perfect ending to a perfect day!
I have 165 photos from March 15, 2009. I do need to delete some of them, but I definitely have a great photo journal of what I was doing on this day last year, and what the cats were doing.
Do you remember what you were doing on March 15 last year?
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Rainy Days
“Anyone who says that sunshine brings happiness,
has never danced in the rain.”
~ Author Unknown
It’s been raining here since Friday evening, not that I mind. I’ve been baking up some more sourdough bread for the freezer and cooking up a few dishes to eat on this coming week. I managed to score some lovely mushrooms at the Local Roots Market and I paired them with a venison roast courtesy of Mr Chiot’s hunting last fall. What a delicious combination.
I’ll be baking up some squash today to make some butternut squash soup, butternut squash ravioli, squash pudding and some Barley with Butternut Squash & Preserved Lemons (remember those preserved lemons I made?). These will all be for the Real Food Challenge over at Not Dabbling, so I’ll be taking photos of everything for future blogposts. I can’t think of a better way to spend a rainy weekend than in the kitchen baking up some warmth and happiness.
What’s your favorite way to spend a rainy weekend?
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Sunny Spring Days
The first warm sunny days bring out the best in all of us here in NE Ohio. Everyone seems to be in a better mood, they’re is excited that the long cold gray days of winter will soon be only a memory. People are out and about smiling, working in their gardens, walking their dogs and they seem to be having a good time. I waved to many neighbors while out on the front porch getting some seed flats ready.
It won’t last long, winter isn’t even close to being over her in Ohio. We’ll still get a few more snowstorms and some crisp cold weather. I still have at least 2 months to be patient until I can plant anything slightly tender in the garden. Even cold tolerant plants can easily get nipped by the usual winter relapses we have. So one must be careful to remember that spring isn’t yet here when we have a few warm days.
While the warmth is here we take full advantage. We’ve been going on nice long walks in the afternoons, soaking up the sun and getting some exercise (and preparing for our spring hiking vacation). On Thursday I even hung out the first load of laundry this year. Mr Chiots checked on one of our beehives that sounded a little weak, and as of right now both hives survived the winter.
I checked the soil in the raised beds, and it’s still frozen solid about 1/2 inch below the surface. I covered one bed with the cold frame yesterday and seeded some lettuce. I’m hoping to cover the remaining cold frames with plastic to warm the soil more quickly and protect the plants inside from the worst of the remaining winter weather.
What do you do you take advantage of the first beautiful days in the spring?
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Finishing Off our Maple Syrup
Sugaring season is just about over here in Ohio. We had a warm snap that ended it about a week earlier than last year. Although a short season, it was still successful. We ended up with over a gallon of golden goodness straight from our back yard! Next year we’re hoping to tap even more trees so we can, hopefully, get a few gallons of syrup, then we could give some away (perhaps a jar to a lucky reader). But with only one gallon this year, we’ll probably give some to my parents and we’ll keep the rest.
The hardest part of making maple syrup is the finishing. You have to heat it to a certain temperature; not below or it might spoil, not over or it will crystallize. Everywhere you read you get different information about the temperature or method for finishing your syrup properly. I read this article and used their method, which worked beautifully. I figured the experts at the Ohio State University would know what they were talking about!
After heating to the proper temperature, you’re supposed to strain your maple syrup through a felt filter, some use wool, some use synthetic. Since I’m more of an all-natural kind of person, I bought some organic wool felt from Syrendell at Etsy.com to make my own filter. I figured I could make my own much cheaper. Unfortunately I bought the felt a little too late and it didn’t get here in time, but I’ll have the filters sown up and ready to go for next year.
We ended up filtering ours through a few layers of cheesecloth. We filtered once before finishing the syrup, we poured the hot syrup that was almost finished through cheesecloth to get most of the sugar sand out. Then we finished the syrup and strained again, through some fresh layers of cheesecloth. This did a remarkably wonderful job of straining the syrup. It’s beautifully clear, with hardly any maple sand in it (I’ve read maple sand can make the syrup bitter during storage, which is why it’s recommended to strain it out).
I took some of our finished maple syrup outside yesterday morning to get a few shots, it’s so beautiful! I love these little Weck jars I got to store it in, they should be the perfect size for 2 meals. You can see the two different colors of syrup we got from our two batches. It’s so delicious, hard to believe we made it at home. One thing is for certain, not a drop of this will go to waste! When you take such a hands on approach to making your own food you really appreciate it because you know the effort that goes into it.
What do you recommend for our first meal to enjoy our homemade syrup on:
pancakes, french toast, fried mush, ______________?
