Deep Breath....Now Jump!

I want to be a beekeeper. 

Not just on weekends, but every day.  So here I go.  Introducing Nectar Bee Supply.

I am lucky to have the most amazing business partners (co-conspirators?) a girl could ever dream about in Karessa Torgerson and Melanie Sorenson.  I still can't believe the events that have unfolded to bring us to this point.
 
There is a strong beekeeping community in Corvallis that includes lots of seasoned pros and even more beginners eager to get started.  So many people in our area have talents related to beekeeping - whether they raise queens, construct ventilation boards in their garage, grow bee-friendly plants for seed, or bottle artisan honey.  We want to connect all of these people and serve as a clearinghouse for that community.

The hard part is trying to balance unlimited ideas with very limited resources. We don't want to be a discount beekeeping store. We want everything we sell to be useful, durable, and beautiful. 

Beekeeping equipment?  Definitely.  Classes and events?  Absolutely.  Native pollinators?  We like them too.  Hive hosting, a honey CSA, a community honey house, our own store...Just wait.

Keep your eyes on us, we have big ideas.  Now if you'll excuse me I have to get to work.

!!!

This morning there was a happy accident that resulted in my very first extracted bottle of honey from my hives!  I broke a frame of drone brood and capped honey that was stored in my garage freezer, and after a lot of cursing at myself I realized what that meant.  I broke off the honey portion and set it in my kitchen to thaw.

It's embarassing, but I'm going to make a confession now and say that my heart actually starting beating faster when I saw this on the plate.  I will now agree with everyone that says I'm a freak about honey.  I have a problem.  If you're going to have an addiction (fetish? shhh....) this is a good one to have.

I extracted it the old-fashioned way by letting it drip into a bowl for a while, then crushed it up with my hands.  Such exquisite messiness!  Melanie was there, she can verify the ecstatic state that put me in.  Then into a warm oven it went to drain for a few hours. 

A pound and a half from one partial frame.  Look how beautiful. 

I didn't want to ruin the sweet beauty of the previous photos with this one, so at the end it goes.  This was the drone brood portion of the frame, broken up to give to the chickens.  Absolutely disgusting. 

There, all ugliness is forgotten.  I removed this frame from the hive months ago, so it is early season honey.  Light and very bright in your mouth.  Come by and try it!

Cascadia

When I peeked inside my hives this afternoon I made a surprising discovery.  Honey - and lots of it!  Up until this point they have been using all of the nectar they gather to feed babies and build wax comb, so my hives were alarmingly low in stored honey.  Now all of the frames are fully drawn in wax and there is tons of honey everywhere. I would guess 75% of the frames have stored honey, when two weeks ago there were none.  Busy girls! 

I didn't find the queen, but there were plenty of new eggs.  Now that the yellow markings are worn off I am embarrasingly bad at locating them. 

This is a view inside the honey super I added last weekend.  It's filled with brand new frames and a few second-hand frames with already-drawn comb.  The bees are just beginning to work the super, and you can see which frames they prefer.  The "used" ones are already full of honey, front and back. 

Here is one of the "used" honey frames, almost entirely covered with honey and REALLY heavy.  Next year, they won't have to spend their time and energy building wax; they can just get down to business. 

So while my bees were busy all weekend creating food for themselves and (future) treats for me, I was busy too.  My friends and I did a lot of this...

...and even more of this...

...and a WHOLE LOT of this...

The Swarm Catchers

I am such a lucky girl.  The other evening Beeman got a call that his friends Tim and Mary found a swarm on their land that was in an easy location for capturing.  They have an amazing farm on the Marys River not far from my house.  In addition to being great models of self-sufficient living, they are beekeepers with eleven hives (I'm jealous)! 

I love how swarms always seem to find their way to the properties of people who deserve them the most.

Mary and Tim are getting ready to shake and brush the swarm into an empty hive box.  When bees are clustered in a swarm they are extremely gentle.  Their only concern is staying together and protecting the queen.  Everything is calm and lovely...

...and now it is not.  Beeman, Mary, and Tim stirring up the bees and creating a wonderful scene of chaos.

The hive box was left up on the ladder for awhile to encourage more bees to go inside. 

Most of the bees were contained within the hive box, but a large number were bearding on the front near the entrance. 

A group of bees immediately assumed guard duty, lifting their abdomens in the air and fanning their wings to signal that a suitable home had been found.  Usually this is a good sign that the queen is inside with them. 

There were some stragglers left on the arbor.  They will most likely join their sisters in the new hive soon.  I don't know that I would like to be forceably told where to go either.  Some bees are stubborn, just like me.

Not even 30 minutes later, the bees had all moved inside the hive.  The next steps for Tim and Mary are to add additional frames to the hive and inspect the bees in a few days to verify that a queen is indeed inside.  And now they have twelve active hives (super jealous).  Twelve!!!

In addition to beekeeping, Mary also breeds carnivorous plants.  Two very exciting hobbies, don't you think?  Thank you for an incredible evening!

In other news, yesterday I found a swarm of my own.  Melanie and I were walking with the boys near the Oak Creek covered bridge when a cloud of thousands of bees surrounded us, moving very slowly through the forest.  We watched them settle and cluster on an old tree, practically hidden from view. 

I completely understand the allure of catching a swarm in order to expand your hives, but there is something magical about a swarm that is able to establish itself in the wild.  Don't worry bees, your secret is safe with me. 

Bloom Phenology

What is blooming this week that the bees are enjoying?

Poppies.  I don't think I need to write anything more about them.  They speak for themselves.  And this one...just drink it in.  To quote one of my favorite gardeners, "Orange makes a whore out of pink".   

... and red valerian.  Take a look at the golden pollen clinging to this statically charged little bee. 

...and the earliest of my blackberry varieties is in full bloom, being worked by both honeybees and the masons.  Uh-oh.  My honey supers aren't quite ready.

Lucky Girl

In addition to being an amazing friend, mama, musician, and gardener, Melanie makes fantastic jewelry.  And the best part is that she surprises me with these fabulous little gifts at very random moments.  Like today, walking along a forest path.  Surprise!  A little bee gem. Now I don't have to get stung to wear the bees on my skin. 

Another "Perfect Day"

Every once in a while, Melanie and I sneak off for what we call "perfect day", a magical space of time we set aside to do whatever we want with no timetable. It's like "book club", daytime edition. This time we shopped for plants, drank chai, ate french pastries, and stalked other people's beehives.  Perfect, right? 

Our day started at the Spring Garden Festival, a plant sale we look forward to the entire year.  We don't mess around. We get there early with no children, no phones, and no distractions and do what we do best...shop for plants. 

I brought home an obscene amount of plants.  $2 columbine? $1.50 native Dicentra?  Really, what's a girl to do? 

Ohhhhh, the Oak Creek Center for Urban Horticulture.  Loved, loved, loved this place.  I pass it at least three times a week and have never stopped.  Silly girl - it's less than 10 minutes from my house!  Now I keep making excuses to go back.  Lots of lush plants, beehives, and rustic Thai-style sculptures (my favorite!). A perfect place for a perfect day.

Lucky for us, Michael Burgett - Emeritus Professor of Entomology and a really funny guy - was mowing the grass and eagerly took a break to give us a personal tour of the garden and all the hives.  I asked him to pick his favorite and it is this, a hive with 6-frame boxes and a vigorous colony of once-feral bees.  The photo does not do this scene justice.  These bees were going crazy.  All of his hives are made from juniper wood stained a luscious, rich brown. 

We were told these are Russian-style hives.  The boxes on the left have 12-frame hive boxes, and the one on the right is a gigantic 20-frame box.  Good luck lifting these guys.

The highlight of the day, for sure - an actual skep with an active colony!  I've never seen one before.  Skeps are the ultimate in secrecy.  They are fully the domain of the bees.  Lacking moveable frames, the only way to harvest honey is to destroy the hive.  Or you just let them be, living their life of mystery away from prying eyes.  Fantastic!  I will go back to the garden just to see this hive. 

Another skep (left), this one currently unoccupied.  On the right is a funky little Warre hive with observation windows.  This hive uses all foundationless frames, and the combs inside are incredibly organic and beautiful.  This bee garden blew me away.  I'm already planning a return trip. 

We ended our day at the Thyme Garden for even more plant shopping and beehive stalking.  This property is my idea of heaven.  I could live here happily for the rest of my life.  As a consolation, I took some more plants home with me.  When I returned from our trip, I put on my suit and got into my own hives.  A "perfect day" for sure.  Thanks Melanie!