Country Roads Stamping

Saturday with Steve and Michelle!

I have to tell you that I'm loving today's post - you may think it is ho hum and boring - but I had a ball taking these pictures and I am certain if for no one else, it was exciting for Michelle!

Michelle is our niece, Mavis' daughter for those of you that know our family.  She was in this past week for Steve's mom's funeral and she ended up staying the longest of anyone - she had further to fly and it was difficult to find a flight, which was a good thing for her because she got a real adventure.  Also you need to know that Michelle is an Elementary teacher, 4th grade I believe and her class is going to love the pictures that I will be sharing with you today.  Steve needed help in "moving" a hive.  When I say moving - I mean literally taking bees from one hive and encouraging them to move to another hive.  They had chalk brood, which is a disease and no matter what he did to treat them, it was not helping so he needed to do a drastic measure by "shaking" the bees off their frames in the hive and having them "march" into another hive. 

First thing - smoke them - here's Michelle getting the smoker going and Steve had her do this herself:

Why do this?  Because when all this smoke is sprayed on the hive, it signals to a honey bee that yikes - there's a forest fire - I must get the honey out of the hive and save it - so they scramble into the hive and into the honey - getting everyone "busy" so they are not as likely to sting and having everyone in the hive

Now note that Michelle is well protected - she has the whole gear on - and we even 'rubber banded' her jeans down over boots so they would not be sneaking up and into her feet to sting her - she did not get stung at all, which I find pretty amazing and I think you will too when you see some of these pictures.

Steve (note no gloves, no hat) is putting down a sheet - on this they will "shake" frames of bees off onto the sheet so that they will literally march into this new hive box.

Here they were looking for the queen and Steve was pointing out to Michelle where the bees had brought in pollen - sorry no close ups of that - because I was taking these pictures from the safety of the truck! I love this picture though - allllllll those bees and she's calmly standing there listening to her Uncle Steven - I'd be so out of there!

Look at this - all I can say is she's a far braver woman than I am!!!!

and here goes the march - they are literally going right into this new hive box.  Now we want to be sure they are happy here and don't go ballistic because there is no honey stored in here - so four quarts of sugar water were prepared and put into the hive box so they had something to eat while they settle into their new home - sort of a "house warming" gift from Steve ;)

Then the box was all closed up and ready for everyone to enjoy a new home - disease free.  Evidently this worked, although a drastic measure, Steve has been checking on them every day and they seem to be taking to this hive.

What a trooper!  Here she is in all her bee garb - the toughest thing for her was when Steve shook off the bees and they were all around her buzzing, several landing on her, especially near her ears and that is hard to stand still when you can hear them at your ear - even though you know they are not supposed to be able to sting!  Following this I gave her something more mundane and safe to do:

Thanks Michelle for helping your Uncle Steven - saved me from being  coerced into helping! Maybe the next visit you can bring the girls and get one of them near the bees - I'll leave you with a picture of Steve showing off - at least that's what I call it in my world:

and yes - thats a bee on his arm - he's showing Michelle how you can just let them crawl on you - yeah right. 

Your Mission - should you choose to accept it . . .

Welcome back to Saturday with STeve - and late again, as usual.  However, today's post all depended on the weather - and one item was scratched and another replaced it.  This morning we were up early to take "our girls" for a ride.  This time "our girls" were our honeybees.  Hence the title of this post.  Here's their mission:

 
This is a local apple orchard and Steve takes two hives there to help with pollination of the apple trees. Now you might not think that is a big deal - so let me explain.  A surprising amount (I thought) of 80% of all fruits and vegetables we consume needs pollination.  Ninety of our crops raised here in the US depends on pollination by honeybees.  Let me break it down even clearer - An apple tree that has not been pollinated can produce 25 apples.  An apple tree that has been pollinated can produce up to 1,200 apples.  Wow - that's a huge difference.  So I can see why the local orchard owner had no problem with having the bees arrive. 

So early this morning we loaded the two hives into the back of the truck (always something I hate, but they were all tucked in and quiet this morning)

 
Here they are all snugly fastened into the back of the pick up. Then we haul them out of the truck and put them on stands.

 
Then Steve takes the little hive tool and pulls out the wooden bar that keeps them all inside - trust me when I say it is much easier to move these gals in the spring than in the summer - I will conveniently be gone when he decides to move these ladies back home - they will be crawling all over the box then - no thanks. I didn't even wear a veil to help this morning - just long sleeves and gloves - but come summer, I'll want every piece of clothing taped to my body and a veil and gloves and anything else I can find!!

 
Sorry this picture is not better - but you can see the opening and at least one bee - as soon as he frees that opening they start coming out and I start moving BACK.  So it was difficult to keep the hand steady and take a good picture and they do move pretty quick! 

 
Well, there's a few more for you to see!!  So now they are safely sit up at this orchard and Steve will go back and check on them regularly to see how they are doing.  Hopefully the orchard owner will get that 1200 apples per tree this year!!!  That's all for today's Saturday with STeve!

Another Exciting Evening with the Hamricks

I was going to title this page something like "What do you do for excitement"? or some other equally unusual title - but then I figured I'd just jump in with the Exciting evening - I was happily finishing mowing the yard (not happily as the dumb mower stopped again) but generally enjoying the evening outside when the phone rang - caller from Bridgeport telling us there was a swarm of bees hanging over a sidewalk in Bridgeport on Orchard Street.  Hmmmm,  sounded unusual - so called a friend of mine who lives near there and had her drive up and sure enough - there was a very large swarm hanging in a small hemlock tree  and they were just looking for a new place to live!

So, ofcourse my husband was happy to oblige - the fellow who had called us was also there with his wife because they wanted pictures of this "event".  So began our evening.  Steve quickly got all his supplies set up and ready - lucky for him he had just built this little "travel box" as I call it - (I know that's not official beeology - but it makes sense to me )- that he could put all these little gals into, the night before.  He had actually planned on painting the box last night - but that did not get done obviously.  As you can see his little wooden box there on the ground in all its unpainted glory and how in the world is he going to fit alllllll those bees into that tiny little box?  The people that arrived were talking about a "march" , which after 30 years of marriage I have never heard Steve call it a bee march when they all go into the box - They did all go - except maybe for 10 - 12 stragglers that we just didn't see because it was so late and so dark - but everyone else hustled into their new home - much better than hanging out on a pine branch where someone from the city might have "dispensed" with you.  So here my hubby is brushing the little ladies inside their box and encouraging them to move it!  So it was a late night for us last night and surprisingly very few people even seemed to notice that we were doing anything!  One family did come over because they thought we were burglars with the little smoker and flashlights!  My husband is happy as a clam because he has added another hive to his growing collection - this will now make 17.  This place, did I mention is getting crowded out here!!

Now - I know you did not come to read about bees - but I do try to make this a little more interesting than just stamping!  After all it is the Country Road Stampers so there has to be talk of something going on in the country!  However, this morning's post is a scrapbook page - and it is a double page spread, which is really unusual for me - and in addition to that - I love the pages - they are fun!!  And yes, for those of you that know how much I struggle with scrapbooking pages - these were fun to do!  Even though I hate to admit it ;)  You can click on this to make it larger - because I could not scan this, I had to take a picture of it and I suppose it should have been photgraphed as 2 separate pages - but then you lose the "flow" of the pages.  So just click and view it a little larger.  Hope the scrapbooking club gals are viewing this because this is looking like it will be the pages for the May/June groups.  Check out the surfboards - I really need to go find some of our pictures and put them on this page!!!  Thanks for stopping by and reading all the wild things that happen here on this crazy little farm - enjoy the day before it rains again!