Meet Shirley Honey

I named her before I ever started beekeeping.

She showed up on my deck one early hot August. She was maybe 8 weeks old with a torn ear, blistered feet and, we found out later, a broken jaw. At that time she looked like any other little yellow kitten, short-haired with blue eyes.

After weeks of doctoring her foot blisters - she would sit calmly as I drained each paw - she liked to curl up in my lap so I could rub her tummy as she fell asleep.

She grew up to be a beautiful yellow Maine Coon cat with mint green eyes and the sweetest disposition. One of her favorite past times is bird watching, which she pursues daily at my living room window.

Here she is acknowledging she heard me calling but doesn't want to move just yet, there are still birds outside to supervise.

She's a honey of a Shirley.

Charlotte

Getting Ready for Beekeeping Class

It's almost beekeeping class time!

For the third year in a row, I have been kicking off the new year teaching several basic beekeeping classes to help get others started in beekeeping.

We are not alone in mid-Missouri. The interest in hobby beekeeping has increased significantly since 2006, when bees were found to be dying in record numbers. One out of every three bites of food we eat are pollinated by bees.

Two beekeeping friends are joining me in teaching the class. It's one thing to tell students beekeepers will have different answers to most questions. It's better to demonstrate it with how beekeepers all approach the art, and science, of beekeeping differently.

In the meantime, it's time to get the beekeeping diaries together. These contain basic information I wish I had had when I started beekeeping. It also serves as a record-keeping diary so you won't forget when your bees arrived, how old the queen is and other important data to have.

And the agenda for the day?

Now don't forget to take notes, there will be a quiz at the end!

Charlotte

Update

on 2015-02-21 01:48 by Home Sweet Bees

Winter weather has postponed this class to February 28, 2015 so time to read a book, or two!

Morning Bee Chat on Sunny 104.5

One of our local radio stations 104.5 FM has a morning show where they invite guests to stop in. It was a bit early for me but fun to get back into a radio studio; took me back to my first job out of college, producing features for a public radio station.

During half an hour February 11, 2015, we spent a few minutes between breaks talking beekeeping: why bees are important, how fascinating bees are, and how I started beekeeping, then continued the conversation on air. No, I'm not in a padded cell, more like a padded room!

Once we were through, I was invited to "sign the wall" so I did. Although it was a little hard to reach, I managed to add a little honeybee friend.

Thanks for the invitation, Sunny 104.5 FM!

Charlotte

Bee Loved!

“The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other”-- Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Charlotte

Hand Drawn Box Honeybee

I don't always scan incoming boxes for their outside markings. As I was bundling up boxes from Christmas, I found this little hand-drawn honeybee on the side of a box that shipped me a bee-related Christmas gift.

Wonder who drew it?

I imagine maybe someone's youngster was lending a hand and took a magic marker out for a little extra spin or maybe the owner was tired of just taping boxes and decided to add a little embellishment.

Take a closer look, this honeybee even has a little stinger.

So cute!

Charlotte

Showing Off Gift Bee Slippers

Why didn't I think of that, of course I can model my new gift honeybee slippers!

Here they are again, such sweet little faces:

According to my beekeeping friend Cheryl, who gave these to me for Christmas and was reticent to divulge the price, she ordered them from Amazon. They are called "Bumble Bee Slippers." $22 a pair.

To me, priceless!

Charlotte

Slip on These Bees!

My beekeeping friend Cheryl surprised me with these charming bee slippers. I don't know how she knew but when I'm alone, I tend to putter around the house in slippers, especially on gloomy, overcast weekend mornings.

I can easily cheer up when I start my day with a quick visit to see my honeybee girls, their work day starting as soon as the sun hits their bee hives.

Seeing these slippers waiting for me are a close second!

Thanks, Cheryl!

Charlotte

2015 Missouri Honeybee Calendar

My beekeeping friend Eugene Makovec photographed and produced this lovely 10x14 inch 2015 honeybee calendar. It's a beautiful tribute to his father and a delightful way to celebrate bees, and beekeeping.

Here's a sneak peak at some of the pages, an excellent buy for $10 each:

Nice gift idea for beekeepers, and bee lovers on your gift list!

Charlotte

Sugar Patties Ready!

They're in a cold oven drying, homemade sugar patties to feed my baby bee nurseries when warm weather allows.

This is my first winter to try to pull starting bee nucleus colonies, or "nucs," through. So far, so good, although when temperatures dip in the single digits I tend to want to move the little colonies into my basement to keep them warm.

Don't laugh, I know people who have done it. Not the basement exactly but an enclosed porch, which is close enough. Starter colonies have less bees than full colonies. They lack protection in numbers as they rotate in the cluster and try to eat so I try to give them food as close to the cluster as I can.

Last year, when winter lingered into a short spring, i made these sugar patties to pull my full size honeybee colonies through the wetter than normal season. In addition to food, dry sugar patties whick moisture, helping to keep hives dry. Here's the very simple, but tricky recipe:

Bee Winter Sugar Patties

5 lbs granulated sugar

7.5 ounces of water (make sure this is exact)

2 drops food grade essential oils - spearmint and lemongrass.

Directions

Mix well. Spread in pans. Leave overnight in cold stove to dry out. If you end up with still moist patties, re-mix and add a little more sugar, then dry again.

I use bread pans for the larger sugar patty blocks and cupcake pans to make smaller round patties for the nucs.

If I don't need to feed, I store extras in a sealed plastic container.

Charlotte

Sweet Little Bee Socks

One of my 2014 Christmas gifts was a charming pair of very soft bee socks. Not only are they very warm but they include little rubber circles on the bottom so I can safely wear them around the house without slipping.

Great to stay warm either with bee socks or bee quilts. Now the question is, are these honeybees or bumble bees?

Charlotte

A Gift of Honey

I found this bottle of honey and note on my desk when I returned to work from a short holiday vacation. I imagine this was like Pooh Bear finding his first pot of honey.

My friend Mark had been in Florida and picked up a bottle of, so far, my most unusual addition to my honey collection, a bottle of honey made from palmetto trees.

Palmettos are one variety of more than two thousand palm varieties throughout the world, most of which grow in Florida.

Bees make honey from a variety of sources including pollen from flowering trees. My first batch of spring honey from my girls summer of 2010 had a little bitter after taste, a tribute to oak flowers they had visited during warm February days.

The name "palmetto" is so charming, I envision a small tree with outstretched hands growing in a ribbon garden.

So sweet that he thought to bring me this honey, looking forward to adding it to my next honey tasting.

Thanks, Mark!

Charlotte

Happy Sweet New Year!

A friend gave me this charming Christmas ornament to add to my tree next year. So sweet a gift; an even sweeter recollection of the beekeeping adventures I had this past year, and the new ones still to come.

From all our Bluebird Gardens honeybees, may you and yours have a very sweet 2015!

Charlotte

Catnip Honeybees

One of my holiday traditions is making handmade catnip toys for family and friends' cats.

Catnip grows easily in my garden, pollinated by wild bumblebees that apparently love this perennial herb. After picking and drying the catnip, it's time to decide what to make.

This year it was easy. Catnip honeybees!

I used left over black cotton fabric and added yellow fabric stripes. After sewing the fabric into tubes, one end was sewn to make a point, suggesting the stinger, and the other was sewn closed after adding catnip.

Wings were made out of white fleece. Embroidery floss suggested the antenna.

Sweet!

The corduroy grey catnip toys? A computer mouse, what else!

Charlotte

Christmas Candle

"A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;

It makes no noise at all,

But softly gives itself away."

~Eva Logue

I allow myself one real candle. There is something quite lovely about sitting in a warm room, wrapped up in one of my favorite cat throws, hot tea in hand while it's cold and snowing outside. 

I imagine the centuries of candlelight, the millions of people, and animals, who have warmed themselves in the glow.

When European settlers moved to North America, among their most valuable possessions were honeybees. Not only for sweet honey; beeswax candles gave them night light, and wax insulated handmade homes.

It's easy to get lost in all of the hustle and bustle of the season. A candle reminds me of how sweet life is and how truly blessed we are.

Amen.

Charlotte

Winter Bee Bars

When honeybees aren't rummaging for pollen in bird feeder cracked corn, they like a drink of sugar water from one of my bird baths.

If honeybees didn't have access to sugar water, they would be eating stored honey so I keep their "bee bars" stocked. That way they can save eating honey for colder winter days when they can't leave their hives.

Fun to see them out and about, I miss being with my bees in winter.

Charlotte

Bees Corn Diving

When winter days turn warm enough for honeybees to leave their hives, I find my girls in unusual places around my garden.

Bees make honey for winter food but if the temperatures are warm enough, they forage for pollen. My girls look for pollen wherever they can find it, especially in bird feeders.

I make my own bird seed combination including cracked corn for doves and other ground feeding birds. Apparently honeybees can find pollen in cracked corn, or at least they try hard looking for some!

 Charlotte

First Winter Hive Check

It's been a very mercurial fall 2014, one day sunny in the 70s, the next day overcast and 30F.  Record cold temperatures and snow followed, leaving my honeybees with little time to get themselves acclimated to weather changes.

Bees cluster to keep warm through winter. During days with temperatures less than 40F, they stay inside the hive, huddled together to keep the queen, and themselves, warm.

The entrance to the hive is closed down to a one bee width, assuming snow hasn't covered it up.

Although snow can be an insulator, it also can also seal the entrance closed as it melts, keeping bees from taking their cleansing flights. Time to do a little snow removal!

Charlotte