honey!

Monday's are sort of becoming my update day for the honeybees. I hope you don't mind. There is just so much to pass along and learn! Yesterday I had Adam, our friend who is getting me up and running come out and tell me what I should be looking for when I check on my bees.

So far when I go to check on the bees I look for bees. And if there are a lot of them, and they seem to be busy I have felt successful. But I knew there must be more. As it turns out, Adam had me look past the bees right at the comb. And with his help he was able to show me larvae, eggs (!!!), honey, capped honey and brood.

That top picture is stunning to me. Can you see the dimension of the comb? They build that up, slightly at an up angle so that the honey doesn't drip out. This honey is their food for the winter. It is what they will survive on when there is no pollen or nectar all those long, long months, and will feed the future larvae.

This picture below is capped honey. They're basically preserving their food for the winter just like I'm preserving ours from the garden.

The picture below is brood. There are baby bees in each cell. Adam was happy when we found little larvae and eggs because it means the queen is doing her job and the hive is healthy. The eggs are microscopic. We stepped into the sun to see them, pale white and teeny tiny, just a dot in a cell. The sun helped but it took me a while to actually see what I was looking for. The larvae were fascinating. A bit gross, if we're really honest. But they'll grow into worker bees, and I do love my bees.

Yesterday was an exciting day because we added another deep super to one hive. We would have added another deep super to the second hive, except I haven't purchased it yet. When it arrives, I'll go back out and add it to the second hive. Adam was really encouraged by how healthy my hives are looking. I'm so happy for my bees!

And do you know that I will never touch the honey in these first three supers? All of this honey they are making right now is for them, to help them survive the winter.  This first year it is most important to build a healthy hive that will survive the winter.

a chocolate party for Ruby

She's an easy girl to celebrate, this Ruby Cate. She is fun to be around, a great and detailed storyteller, brave and aware all wrapped up with a sweet, sweet spirit.  I am so proud to be her aunt! This year she asked her mom for a chocolate party  to celebrate her 7th birthday and I found this theme to be quite brilliant.

Her party included a chocolate fountain, chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate hershey bars and a chocolate birthday cake. The girls attending this party seemed to very much enjoy not having their mothers around to cut them off from the chocolate fountain and really seemed to enjoy a good chocolate covered marshmallow.

I think this door handle seems to sum up nicely the deliciousness of this party. Even the Hershey Bars were customized for Ruby's chocolate party.

(These ladies are some of my favorite in the world.)

The party was at Kyle and Lisa's house and Lisa whipped up special pennants for the day. She also had candy bar costumes on hand that she has lovingly made for Josie to wear each Halloween. So here, at Ruby's Chocolate Birthday Party, we were entertained by a Chocolate Parade. They marched around the kitchen table and the living room and it was hilarious.

The party ended with a chocolate bar, just to be sure each party goer had every kind of m&m to get them back home. The whole party was a joy and Ruby is as sweet as all of the chocolate we ate. Happy Birthday Ruby Cate!

sweet peas

Oh man. We have so many sweet peas! The kids came out tonight and were sincerely helpful. Both of them could pick the peas off and put them in the bag. When we dumped the two gallons of sweet peas into this white bowl we found a few with Elsie bites out of them, but I suppose that was helpful too. Quality control.

Tonight Rory froze some of the peas after shelling them. And I made a batch of sweet pea pickles. The recipe looked awesome and it was worth a try. I'll know how those turned out in a day or two. We still have a gallon of sweet peas left in the fridge. Good thing we love them so much!

healthy hives

Saturday morning I went out and checked on my hives. And both are looking awesome. The second hive had looked a little weak just seven days earlier but they both were thriving. I brought the camera again and wanted to get pictures as close as possible. My gloves were sticky so I ended up taking my gloves off, which I find to be pretty hard core. :)

Ironically, I did not get stung (I haven't been stung once yet! And I've been out at least six or seven times.) but I did get bit on my hands by two mosquitoes. I was so annoyed. But those mosquitoes are so thick in the woods...I was grateful to have all of my bee gear on, just to keep the mosquitoes at bay.

This time I was just checking on the bees, making sure the ants had gone away, checking to see how full the frames were and guessing when I'll need to add another box. So once I decided everything looked healthy I just stood for a long time and watched the bees. I would watch one bee and follow just that one, watching it's pattern, trying to figure out what it was working on. It was so fascinating.

This week both hives are looking healthy. I can't say it loud enough: I love keeping bees. I would wish this experience on everyone.

what a weekend

During our three day weekend we attended five parties. It was pretty awesome. And just for the record, it may be a while before I can eat another brat or hot dog. I just need a bit of time and a few green salads...

This may require a post of it's own, but Ruby had a chocolate birthday party on Sunday. It was epic. And since it was during nap time, Elsie stayed with my parents and had a long, sweet slumber.

We had root beer floats with neighbors on Friday morning, and were invited to a family gathering for our neighbors across the way. I played more bean bag toss, drank more coke and ate more peanut butter rice krispie bars this weekend than I'd care to admit. But it was a great weekend.