... you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?

...Why yes, yes I do Mr. Dirty Harry. Yet even with all my luck sometimes things are out of my control. I've had at least a couple of those things happen to me this past week. Last Thursday I decided to do an inspection on my beehives, it had been awhile and probably a little too long. Let me explain, below I have some video posted (second one) and in the first hive I'm looking at I mention a few queen cells that the bees have made. Well bees will make queen cells for a few reasons. One they are not confident in the Queen they have and will raise a new one to replace her. Two they don't even have a queen anymore, this can happen due to her either dying, or flying away. The third reason, and the reason that is most important to this tale of mine, the hive becomes too crowded and some of the bees need to move out. Bees love their Momma, as a matter of fact they love her so much the ones that are moving out usually want to take her with them. This is why they start to raise a new queen so that the hive won't be left without a Momma when the rest head for the hills (or the Apple tree in this scenario). I'll come back to that... So I finish with the inspection, clean up for the day and get ready for my weekend trip to visit my Dad with my kiddos.

We had a really good visit with grandpa. As a matter of fact my son had such a good time he decided he wanted to stay for another month or so and sprung the idea on us at the last minute. We were all getting ready to head out when he said "Umm hey Dad, how do you feel if I just stay for awhile?" It was kind of sudden, but I talked to my Dad and Kathy his wife to make sure it was okay. He will be turning 18 in a couple months and I realized he just doesn't have that much time left to be a kid and enjoy "Summer". We said our goodbyes and me and the girls loaded up and headed out. This is when the first out of control thing happens this week.

We were about 10 miles out of Price Utah, this would be about 2/3rds of the way back home. I look down and notice that my battery light is on. My first thought is oh great my alternator must be going out. I had just put a new battery in about six months back. I figured at least it is running and I can make it into Price before I shut it down and see if it will even restart. About a minute later I look down and my temperature gauge is redlined, at the same time radiator fluid just shoots out the side of my hood. I concluded right then well two things went wrong it must of been a belt. I had figured the overflow cap had sprung to release pressure on the radiator... thus the fluid shooting out. I pulled over, got out and popped the hood. Well yea... sure enough there was the broken belt, the one for the alternator and fan, that answered that one. Unfortunately however the radiator did not conveniently vent to let out the hot fluid. Instead the entire top of the radiator blew off. Long story semi-shorter. I spent the next three hours pulling the radiator and belts out while Teresa brought me some new parts with her Parents. We got everything put back in and working and made it home safely at some ungodly hour of the morning... And that adventure was over.

Later that next day as we were laying around recovering, working in the sun and subsequent all night drive home left us feeling like we had a hangover, The other out of control thing happened.

Remember I mentioned the bees and queen cells and reasons behind them existing in the hive? Well we were laying there around 4:30 in the afternoon and Teresa thought she heard a sprinkler on in the backyard. She got up and looked out and I hear her say "Oh My God Rodney...The Bees!" I get up and look and there is a literal cloud of bees. They were almost beyond description. I have seen swarms in movies, and in videos I watched before getting bees but watching one form 30 feet away in front of you is very surreal, and amazing. Luckily I had read a lot about swarms and knew what was going to happen. Basically when the part of the hive that decides to leave, leaves, it is all at one time. They will rush out of the hive and form a swarm in the air, thousands and thousands of them. The queen who is not used to flying will soon settle down to rest. And this is where we were lucky. If the queen rests at a spot that is reachable, the beekeeper can recover most of the bees. And luckily for us she landed right on a branch on our Apple tree. When the queen lands all the bees in the air will settle on her and form a clump. When bees swarm they have just gorged on Honey and do not have a home to defend, so surprisingly enough this is the time when they are the most gentle and they are pretty safe to be around. As soon as they landed I knew I needed to act fast.

Even though I knew I could save my bees, I do not have room for another hive at this time. Usually you can not put the bees back in their old hive, they will just try to leave again and find a new home. I called a number that I found a while back for "bee rescue". Basically these are usually bee keepers that will come and collect a swarm because they have the room for them, and they don't want to see the bees harmed or killed by unbeefriendly peeps. Anyway I called and since he was at work and couldn't leave he said he'd send his son to help me capture them. I collected up a ladder, and my beesuit and a box to put the bees in and went out to get my bees. I was able to get up and get half of them in a box before the guy's son and his wife showed up. They helped me get the rest and I was able to send my bees off to a new home with little effort and only one small 8 foot fall from my ladder lol.

Anyway those are my adventures this week. The remaining bees seem to be doing good and I will give them a little extra attention with some more frequent inspections. The garden is doing well especially the new area, that receives lots of sun and heat.

First Inspection Video from Last Week:


And the one showing the queen cells:


Video of the Swarm:


Some swarm Pics:

Dear Mother Nature... Can We Bump Fall and Winter Now Too?

Hi Folks, Just thought I'd do an update to all of Y'all (yes that is proper grammar for a boy that spent 8 years growing up in Texas)that are following the blog here. The title of the blog is a little begging to the gods on behalf of my poor Tomatoes! They say that April showers bring may flowers. But April... May... Going into June now... Showers bring stunted Tomatoes and other Sun/Heat loving plants like peppers, basil, etc. Well I suppose I can pick up the peppers and basil from the store but there just is no substitution for Home Grown Tomatoes. To borrow a few lines from John Denver here "Home grown tomatoes, home grown tomatoes. What'd life be without home grown tomatoes. There's only two things that money can't buy. That's true love and home grown tomatoes." So here is keeping my fingers crossed for a lot of sun and heat through the rest of June, July, August, and God willing September! At the end of this post I have included two new Videos showing my garden boxes that are growing, and getting ready to grow some plants. Several of the bare spots that I mention in the video that I had just seeded, have sprouts already this week (I filmed at the end of last week)especially the radishes. Radishes love to grow, let me tell ya! In addition I did a beehive inspection the weekend before last and I included a couple short clips on to the end of the first Garden video. Even my bees are not liking the rainy weather, they do not have near the comb and honey production that they should have by now. (look at me trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about). Anyway, Hope Y'all (there it is again) are having a good week. And until next time keep it fair to middlin!

Neighbors, and Bees, and City-Inspectors, Oh My!!

I came home from work today and started working in my Garden that sits next to my Hives. About ten minutes later a City pickup pulled up out front. I can't say I've been waiting for this day, but it wasn't overly surprising to me either. The city worker inside walked up and asked if he could look at my Hives, Well they were sitting right there 10 feet in front of him. As a matter of fact they sit in full view of the street. Anyway, he just mentioned that a neighbor had called and was wondering if I needed to move the Hives at all. Apparently the neighbor told the City that the bees were "Attacking" them while they were mowing and working in the Yard. I told him, that that was rather strange since the Guard bees couldn't even see the neighbors yard. I work out in my garden that is 5 feet away from the "View" of the guard bees and they rarely even mess with me, and even then they just come up and say hi, sometimes landing on my arm and take a sniff. I also told him that my son literally runs our lawnmower right against the fence that sits 6 inches from the bees, but since they are blocked by a tarp they don't ever mess with him either. Well apparently the Inspector from the city has seen a few hives in his time. He said "Well they look to be at least 10 feet from your neighbors fence and I don't see any reason why you'd need to move them." I pulled out my Beekeepers License from the state, he glanced at it, and told me to have a good afternoon. I am thankful to see Bee friendly authoritarian figures in the world. Especially in my local world lol.


You can see the neighbors fence to the Right, And the back part of the fence that my son Mows past.

Mulch Ado about Nothing!

Slowly but surely. The weather here has been pretty stormy off and on over the past month. Not only has it kept my bees in doors (Their house not mine.) It has thrown several monkey wrenches on me getting my garden ready for summer. Now I'm mostly a pretty patient guy, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna wait too long for my Tasty Tomatoes to ripen later this Summer LOL. Anyway, I've gotten quite a lot done this week on my Square Foot Garden Area Version 2.0. Here is a Pic I took this evening when I was wrapping up for the day.

First big Inspection

Honey Bee Hives require inspection periodically. At least that is what all the books and online experts say. I kind of wonder how all those wild bees made it without having some funny looking guy in a space man looking suit coming along and prying them open occasionally. Anyway, the thought is to make sure the queen is laying, and the bees are drawing out honeycomb like they are supposed to be doing. In addition, during inspections you can look for any Bee pests that are trying move in and give the Bees a hard time. Apparently with all the modern bee keeping techniques the bees have lost some of their natural resistance and protection to certain things in the environment. Many beekeepers have changed some of the things that have contributed to the problems, and have attempted to go back to Natural methods of Bee raising. That is, getting rid of a lot of the chemicals and pesticides in the hive, Allowing the bees to raise their own queens from local mated bees, and also allowing them to make their own Honey comb. I will attempt to try a lot of these things. Because I think Even Bees should go "Green"... Ironically. (Shouldn't they have just stayed green from the beginning?) Anyway, Below is a Video from my first Inspection last week.

The Bee Pub!

Bee's get thirsty too, well they don't drink Beer (lucky for me), But they do need lots of water especially when it starts getting warmer, So I decided to sit down and build them a "watering hole".

Drove up North and picked me up some ladies!

About 10,000 of them anyway. On April 20th me and my son, drove up to Logan to pick up our Honey Bees. I ordered them in February as "Nuc's". Nuc is short for Nucleus Hive. This is One of three ways that most people start off as a Beekeeper. The other two is buying a package which is basically a box made of screen filled with three pounds of female worker bees, and a queen in her own small cage (Because she is normally not the mother of the bees, so they need a few days to get used to her, if not they might kill her before accepting her.) And, the third is catching a swarm. Swarm's can occur in the spring and usually are a result of the spring buildup of the hive that is pretty rapid. If the bees are not given enough room to expand and feel crowded they will raise a new queen and approx half of the hive will swarm (Go find a new Home.) In all the horror movies featuring bees, the swarm is what you need to watch out for. Actually, in reality when bees swarm that is when they are at their tamest and if you find them before they establish a new home they are rather easy to capture and transfer to your own hive. The first way that I mentioned is the Nucleus hive, and this is what I chose to go with. Basically The Apiary (beefarm) will allow a hive to raise a virgin queen, they will allow her to mate, and then throw her into a 5 frame mini hive with some worker bees (either made out of wood like a big hive or a waxed cardboard box.) They will do this about a month before the buyer is scheduled to pick up the bees. During this time the Queen will lay eggs and establish brood, while the workers build up comb, work out in the fields and bring in honey and pollen. That way by the time I picked up my bees they were already established into their own Nucleus Hive... Nuc. We brought them home, set up our Hive boxes and basically just opened up the cardboard boxes and transferred the frames over to our hives. Then we added a few empty frames for the bees to fill up and left them to their work. I installed the first nuc, and while taking Video I allowed my 17 year old son Rodney to install the second one...