Sugar Fail

Bee partner Jan often laments that she does not cook. As in, "Sorry Bob, I guess it's cereal for dinner again tonight!" But as it turns out, she's the queen of cooking sugar for the bees.

The last time I cooked for the girls, I dissolved 10lb of sugar in 8 cups of water. This turned out to be about half of what we needed, so off to Costco I go, where the smallest quantity of sugar they carry is 25lb. Perfect! We wanted to increase the ratio of sugar too, so 25lb into two quarts of water would be good. Five more cups of sugar to the same ratio of water sounded just right.

The whole bag fit into one of my crab pots. Talk about a lazy man's load! Number one, I should have put the water in first, and B.) I should have divided the lot, or used a bigger pot.

But I was correct that adding the water would reduce the volume in the pot, so I thought I was so smart. It was very difficult to stir, though, and that was my undoing. Too much heat before I could get the water soaked in produced. . .

. . . caramel. (I know, it just looks like a slice of over-cooked bacon.) I dredged up this bit after spending 20 minutes trying to get the spoon to the bottom of the pan. Ugh.

The worst of it is, I can't use it at all now. Who knew that burned sugar is poisonous to bees? I scraped out as much of the caramel as I could. It's not really burned, but kind of a pretty brown toffee. I haven't tried more heat yet, but I'll have to if I want to dissolve the rest of the sugar. But do I want to? What to do with about four gallons of caramel sugar water? Epicurious, here I come. . .

The First Sting

Very interesting article here about evidence of ancient beehives found in Israel (thanks Woo!).

In other hive news, I got my first sting Tuesday afternoon. They have been very active lately, and we've added a 3rd box to the busier hive, and will soon to the other one. We have to smoke them very carefully and work fast. My bee suit has a loop that hooks over my middle finger to hold the sleeve down. I'd forgotten to loop it, so my sleeve rode up and my glove rode down, exposing my wrist and that's where she got me. No big reaction. I never thought I was allergic, but I remember the last time I got stung (years and years ago) I had a big swelling. This just feels bruised, still, two days later. And my eyes have been really irritated and scratchy, but that could just be the outrageous pollen counts around here. Again, not allergic, but the amount of particulate matter in the air is irritating.

I'll get some pictures up here soon. I'm as busy as the bees, between end-of-school stuff at work, end-of-school stuff for the bright-eyed boy, the end of an UNDEFEATED soccer season (!) for him. . . it's always something. Troy is so full of himself, as he should be right now. He's not obnoxious (or not much-- ha!), but he's getting so tall, and his boy body is turning into a young man's, and he is inordinately pleased with himself. He's taller than me now, which he points out at every opportunity. He still wants to give me a hug now and then, for which I'm grateful, but he can't hug me without picking me up off my feet, just because he can. He laments that his cracking voice is hugely irritating, but I think this pleases him too. He's a funny boy.

Your Intrepid Bee Keepers

Not everybody can look as glamorous as my bee best friend (bbf) Nora and I do. We just make it look easy, I know. I'll have to get a lighter weight jacket than this pink one. It was perfect a couple of weeks ago, but it'll be too hot for the summer.


The hive below belongs to our bee mentor, Frank. This is Frank's back yard deck. The hive is built in several sections, topped with a removable roof. An artist friend of his painted the hive boxes such that the design matches no matter which way you assemble them. There's a bathroom scale mounted at the base of the hive. Knowing how much the hive weighs at any given point in the season tells you if the hive has lots of reserves. If it's getting light it might be time to feed the bees, generally before the spring season is in full flower.


After we were all properly hatted, veiled, and gloved, Frank removed the roof and the top section cover. Then he pulled one of the frames, which he is holding below. This was very early in the spring season, but the bees were already very active and productive.

Not a very good picture, but that's the smoker on the left in the photo. Doesn't take much smoke. The bees were humming very quietly. Frank pulled one more frame out and showed us around a bit more. The humming rose very distinctly after a while, and Frank announced that we were done. He thinks the bees understand at some level that he doesn't mean them harm, but there definitely comes a point in time that he knows he's about to overstay his welcome.

This board slides in under the hive boxes. Frank oils it so that whatever falls down onto it will stick and can be easily observed. You want to be able to see if there are certain kinds of mites (bad) or comb moths (less bad). You can see particles of pollen, and we even tasted a bit. You can also see from this board which frames have the most activity.

This is Frank standing at his INDOOR hive. It was very cool. There's a clear tube mounted in the window so the bees can come and go from the hive to the great outdoors. The jar you see bottom right is sugar water to feed the hive. The bees were very active, even this early in the season. We could see the queen, and Frank has since identified a second queen in this hive, probably because the first queen is getting old and tired, producing fewer eggs. Frank demonstrated for us how warm the bees keep themselves. He had a laser thermometer he pointed first at the walls of the room-- 70F. Then he moved it toward the hive. . . 80, 83. . . then 90 where the bees were the closest together.

The bees are very visible in their plexiglass hive, busy as, well, bees. We could see that they already had honey production going, and new eggs were being laid. I can't wait to get our hives going. Nora and I finished putting the frames together last night. The bees are coming Saturday, and we'll let them rest, then we'll install them in their new home Sunday, with Frank there to direct us.
Nora is working on a label design, and has big ideas for soap, candy, t-shirts, etc. I'll let you know when the full catalog is available. Of course, we won't be harvesting any honey for the first year, so plans are definitely still on the drawing board.

The Bees are Coming!

Nora, Jan, and I are having dinner with Frank the Bee Mentor this evening. He's going to take a look at our newly constructed hives and frames, and guide us in the placement of the two hives in my garden. Very exciting! Nora did a beautiful job on the painting. Pictures to be posted soon. The bees are due somewhere around April 10.