Serenity Now!

[Dobish]

We actually got to burn a little bit this past weekend. it's my daughters second birthday, so we had some family in town. It was nice to chill out by the fire. I have burned through all of the wood that I brought under the awning for the season, and it was raining and snowing, so i figured now would be a good time to burn through some uglies. *(don't worry, they were not left unattended.)

We ended up getting rid of our broken playset last week, and it finally started to dry out a little bit, and my stepfather and I decided to tackle some of the front yard wood pile. We are trying to make an effort to get the wood in one spot and organized, and the front yard and driveway cleared. We made some headway with a cord of locust, 1/2 cord of black walnut, 3/4 cord box elder, 3/4 cord pine, spruce and cedar. It was really nice to be able to load up the truck and drive it down there... it would have taken much longer with a wheelbarrow.

It makes me happy that the stacks are all nice and neat. I have roughly 2.5 cord of elm to split and stack, 1 cord of maple to move under the awning for next season, and 1.5 cord of russian olive that is ready to burn too...

 

[Tar12]

It's always nice to get organized! The hard part is staying that way!

 

[Dobish]

i have been trying to get everything all in one place for a while, so this was a good catalyst! it looks so much nicer than the random piles.... my ocd is much happier.

 

[bfitz3]

I had everything in one place my first season. Then I started keeping bees. 3 hives about 40 yards from my stacks. Not a single problem until fall hit and they got pissy at the same time that I needed to get wood inside. I've started a new "one place!"

(For any beeks out there... 2-3 weeks until we start seeing pollen here and 3 of 4 hives survived with what seems to be large numbers and lots of honey left in stores. Yay!)

 

[Dobish]

its been a little while since I started getting my stacks all together in one area, and its been a while since i've been able to get out back and finish clearing this stuff up! I started separating the stuff that was split and the stuff that wasn't, and I was going to stack it, but got distracted! Then the neighbor came by and dropped off another pile of elm to cut to size, so that distracted me!

Of course, while I had the chainsaw out, I decided to cut down a dead tree that was in the creek, and then I realized it was a black walnut, so I thought about giving it to my dad to make a gun barrel out of, then I realized my dad was coming into town, and I should probably get ready for him to show up!

I have been on a mission to try and clear out the back yard recently, and have been trying to tackle the big suckers and elms sprouting up from the stumps.... Every time I walk back there, I try and clean up a little more. Eventually it will be there! it is sort of nice to have just about everything in 1 area now though! I have a few more trees I need to help the neighbor tackle, and those will end up in my pile too! It might be about time for me to take another mental health day and burn through a few tanks of gas on the splitter (which i know is uncovered, the tarp blew away the other day, and i need to go find it) and the chainsaw!

 

[jetsam]

I had everything in one place my first season. Then I started keeping bees. 3 hives about 40 yards from my stacks. Not a single problem until fall hit and they got pissy at the same time that I needed to get wood inside. I've started a new "one place!"

(For any beeks out there... 2-3 weeks until we start seeing pollen here and 3 of 4 hives survived with what seems to be large numbers and lots of honey left in stores. Yay!)

Do bees really get pissy in the fall?

I've never noticed that, but I've never kept bees.

 

[bfitz3]

Do bees really get pissy in the fall?

I've never noticed that, but I've never kept bees.

Short answer... Yes!

When resources (nectar and pollen) are coming in, they seem happy. I can go into many hives in the early summer with no gloves and shorts. I always wear a veil as a matter of course.

In the fall, when the nectar stops flowing and pollen is scarce, I think they understand somehow that if anything is disturbed in their hive, they may not be able to get it back to winter readiness. This makes their pissiness understandable.

Sadly, I euthanized a truly violent hive tonight. If I went near it, the bees would peek out of the hive and stare me down. As soon as I touched the boxes, the alarm pheromone would waft everywhere and thousands of bees would come out, cover my veil, and crawl into the nooks and crannies between multiple layers of protection. I always got stung by this hive no matter what I did and couldn't sit on my porch they day in which I touched the hive! The hive is Hundreds of feet away. Those genetics are not worth keeping in an apiary. Frankly, the hive posed a danger to people walking up my driveway. They had to go. It should be noted that the hive was a reasonable hive to manage in early summer. As a honey producer, I will miss this hive. It produced roughly 300 lbs of honey this season! As a hobbyist, let's just say I want to keep enjoying my hobby.

My other 7 colonies are now irritable, but in a very manageable way. They send out some alarm pheromone, but not in a cascading nuclear style reaction. They buzz my veil, but more to announce presence than to play kamikaze against the beekeeper. Some stingers end up in the gloves, but the tunneling search for sting able flesh isn't a thing with them.

Anyway... Way off topic and a bit rambling, so I'll leave it there.

 

[Dobish]

Sadly, I euthanized a truly violent hive tonight. If I went near it, the bees would peek out of the hive and stare me down. As soon as I touched the boxes, the alarm pheromone would waft everywhere and thousands of bees would come out, cover my veil, and crawl into the nooks and crannies between multiple layers of protection. I always got stung by this hive no matter what I did and couldn't sit on my porch they day in which I touched the hive! The hive is Hundreds of feet away. Those genetics are not worth keeping in an apiary. Frankly, the hive posed a danger to people walking up my driveway. They had to go. It should be noted that the hive was a reasonable hive to manage in early summer. As a honey producer, I will miss this hive. It produced roughly 300 lbs of honey this season! As a hobbyist, let's just say I want to keep enjoying my hobby.

Have you ever thought about trying to replace the queen? i have a few friends who have had success with this.

 

[bfitz3]

Have you ever thought about trying to replace the queen? i have a few friends who have had success with this.

I did consider this for a second. However, putting a new queen into a hive requires that the old queen be removed. The colony was wall to wall angry and evil bees, 8 boxes deep. There was no chance I could find the old queen without spending at least an hour hunting for her while angry bees tunnel* into my suit to sting me. Worse, assuming I could find her, I would need to get into the hive at least two more times to place and then release a new queen, after which there is no guarantee that the colony would accept her. On top of that, the colony had eaten through 3 medium supers of honey since the end of July, despite supplementing with sugar water. With their numbers, starvation during winter was a likely outcome, regardless of whether the old queen or a new queen was in place.

My decision on the hive was not taken lightly, but at some point, it is foolish to throw good resources after bad.

*tunneling... I wear a full body suit that goes past the top of heavy boots. On top of that, I've been wearing gaiters that go past the bottom of the suit and above the calf, strapped under the boots. The bees would follow folds under the gaiters above my calf, crawl down my leg, get through the pant bottom, and find my ankle above the boot. It takes time for that, but it has happened. Similar story with my gloves (which I often can't see when working that hive as my hands were totally covered with bees stinging the gloves.)