I've found the queen bee!

Now, I may have done a good job of hiding it but for the last few weeks I have been really worried that my colony of bees was without a queen. I'd inspected the hive on three occasions and hadn't spotted her. I was seeing lots of signs of activity - honey and pollen stores, comb building - but no sign of the queen and no babies. All the books and websites try to comfort us newbies (or is that new-bees?) by reminding us that we have untrained eyes, it is overwhelming at first, the queen likes to remain illusive, yada-yada-yada but to think that you've been gifted this fantastic colony of bees and you're going to have them fail soon because you have no queen is a worry.

Today I was going to open the hive in the mid afternoon but a thunderstorm started rolling in so I donned the white suit of cracked open the hive. There was a lot of comb being built on the hive mat again so I had a close look and lo-and-behold, there was queenie strolling around on the hive mat. What a fluke! She crawled onto my hive tool and I put her on top of a frame and she dove down into safety. After that sighting it was impossible to find her again.

I did see a lot of activity. There was only one frame at the far end of the box that didn't have a lot happened. I removed it as we were taught at the course that beginners should leave one frame out to ensure that you don't squish your bees when placing the frames back into the hive.

The honey stores have increased significantly, the frames are really heavy when filled with honey. There are also lots of cells containing brightly coloured pollen, cheerful shades of yellow, orange and brown. And perhaps the most exciting discovery of all was the frame containing pearly white larvae. I found it hard to contain my excitement. Sam was standing at the fence and asked to see them so I took a frame over to him and an angry been went for him getting stuck in his hair and delivered a sting to his scalp, ouch. I quickly checked the last frame, smoked them and put the lid back on and raced down to the house to check on Sam. He'd managed to remove the sting and had a thumping headache. It is a very painful place to be stung. I gave him an antihistamine, a couple of pain killers and a cold flannel for his head. We didn't get anything else done but the thunder storm arrived and with it some odd rain / hail. In the house I could hear the odd tap on the tin roof like a pebble being dropped on it. I took Hoby up to have a game of ball in the paddock. Tallulah came over for a back scratch so I sat on the ground and as I did an ice cube fell out of the sky in front of me with a thump. Just one. It was the size of the ice cubes that come out of our freezer. I went over and picked it up and marvelled at its beauty. Then enormous rain drops fell, few and far between, I could side-step them if I was quick enough, they were huge and heavy and the sky was the colour of concrete. Hoby and I retreated to the house with the ice cube sized hail stone to show Sam. The strange spattering of rain and hail carried on for about 5 minutes before the cloud suddenly burst and rain, normal rain, fell from the heavens. It was so nice and soothing and given the sweltering hot morning we'd had the drop in temperature was a relief. The animals seemed to like the rain, even the goats stayed out in it for a while. There was one flash of lightning to accompany the almost continuous rumble of thunder we'd had all afternoon. And then it was over and the birds started to sing again and I made a batch of corn fritters with beetroot chutney for afternoon tea.

The animals are doing good. Ella and Tarka had their hooves trimmed a couple of days ago. The farrier commented on how good they're looking, they are probably are the slimmest they've ever been at this time of the year. It has taken a lot of restraint on my part as I have a beautiful grass laden paddock up at El Ranchero that I'm dying to let them loose in, all of the animals actually but I seem to have a family of fatties that gain weight at the sheer sight of grass. Sheamus is back to his old self, full of smiles and laughs, Sam captured this fabulous photo of Shamey in full giggle. He really is happiness personified or should that be 'pigified' or 'porcinified'?.

 

Tallulah is growing at a rapid rate in both size and personality, oh, and attitude. She bosses Sheamus around now and Shamey had developed quite a soft spot for her. He loves her snuggling with him at night, if we lock her away in her sty he sleeps outside the gate until we give in and let her out. We only lock her away for her own safety when we're going out because she can get out of Shamey's enclosure as she pleases due to the slats on the gate being spaced at Tallulah sized intervals, I would hate her to wander up the driveway and out onto the shared driveway.

The chooks are doing well, one little baby has been taken, possibly by the hawk, or a ferret or the disgusting cat from next door. I hope it didn't suffer. Mother hen is guarding her remaining three with extra vigilance.

Lucifer and Mabel the goats are making a transformation from timid little creatures into willing members of the herd. They love Tarka to pieces and are never far from his side. They've ventured very close to the action lately, it is lovely that they feel safe and comfortable around us now and actually come to us when called. Only Mabel calls back when I yell out to her, Lucifer is the quiet one. They've both started playing in the evenings, kicking their heels up and playing the 'wild goats' game. I love watching them play, it brings a smile to my face even when everything seems to be getting on top of me. As much work as all these animals are, the rewards are tenfold. To see them happy and content reminds me that my best is enough and the perfection that I'm always aiming for (and seeming never achieving) can be put to one side for now.

Off to see the Christmas lights tonight in town. Franklin Road in Ponsonby and also a house in Karaka which we've heard a lot about.

The bees are settling in and the garden has taken off.

Another 'four seasons in one day' kind of a day today. A dentist appointment saw me up early and out the door, Sam wasn't feeling too well so he took the day off work and accompanied me. After the appointment we went over to get some money out from the machine in the mall and by the time we got back outside it was pouring with rain. It rained all the way home and when we pulled onto Hunua Road I saw a little chaffinch in middle of the road, alive so Sam had to turn the car around so I could pick it up. It clutched my finger with its left foot but the right foot was tucked up and in a fist. Its beak was closed, it breathed normally and seemed phased but nothing else. As we drove it sat in my cupped hand and didn't move or make a peep. Once home we called in to see our neighbours and finch came in too. By this time Sam had taken over cuddle duty and it looked tiny in Sam's big hand. After about an hour it fluttered out of Sam's hand and onto the neighbour's wire fruit bowl where it sat happily. Sensing that it was ready to go, Sam picked it up, it didn't object. He took it outside and released it, it flew with vigor over the gorse bushes and into the sky which had cleared up.

We went home and pottered around with the animals for a while, I waited for the wind to die down and then we cracked open the hive so that I could again look for the queen bee and also check on their progress.

There was a lot of activity in there. The hive mat was adorned with scattered clusters of wax so I scraped that off first and stuck it in a jar. Next I smoked the bees and started at the quietest end of the hive. On the left were the three 3/4 depth frames that seemed to have the most activity on the right were my full depth frames with not much activity. I removed one completely so that I could work easily on the frames without squashing any bees. The first three new full depth frames had small sections of drawn out wax, they had been busy. By the time I got to the seventh frame there were already cells being filled with honey and others with pollen, fantastic. I thought I saw the queen on the third frame but it may have just been a drone amongst workers. I took a photo but then when I got to the first frame I saw another few that similar to what I thought was my queen so I felt a pang of disappointment, I'll look over the photos and compare it to the beekeeping bible.

After that I was feeling a bit peckish so I collected 11 eggs from the coop and raided my vege garden. Lucifer and Mabel helped me and were very happy to be given a broccoli plant that was going to seed. The potatoes have shot up, I need to add another tyre and some more manure to the pile. The spearmint needs picking and drying for tea, my stores are empty of tea now so I'm drinking store bought blends at the moment, missing my home made tea like crazy. I picked broad beans, kale, sage, parsley and coriander. We bought a yummy loaf of foccacia bread from the market this morning and we toasted slices of it on the cast iron skillet, I used the broad beans to make a dip to go with the bread. Broad beans are delicious, they're easy to grow like most beans. They are wrapped in a waxy pod, when you break through that you find a fluffy duvet-like inner that the beans nestle in wearing a leather jacket protecting a sweet, bright green inner.

Broad Bean Dip
1/2 cup of fresh broad beans, removed from the pod, leather jacket left in tact. 
Pinch of salt
1 cup of water
2 cloves of garlic
Cracked pepper to taste
2 fresh mint tips
1 small handful of parsley
2 sage tips
Olive oil
2 tablespoons greek yoghurt

Boil beans and two whole cloves of garlic in salted water until tender and some of the beans start to shed their leather jackets. Drain and rinse with cold water. Transfer beans and garlic to a blender, add cracked pepper and herbs and cracked pepper to taste. Add olive oil as needed to ensure a fine blend. Finally add the yogurt, blitz quickly to combine and serve with crusty bread or toasted foccacia.

Monsoon season?

Perhaps I spoke to soon about it being so dry. I woke up to hear rain pelting down, and then a whopping crack of thunder rattled the house. I got all geared up in my wet weather gear and went up to see the family. Hoby came with my too in his raincoat, side stepping all the puddles. There was no noise coming from the pig pen so I peered around the corner and found the sweetest sight...Sheamus and Tallulah spooning in Sheamus' big bed. Tallulah was snuggled right up to Sheamus with her back against his warm belly. I tiptoed around but their hearing is so good that my gumboot-ed shuffle was not going to go unheard. There were a few grunts but no squeals of being squished from Tallulah which was a relief.

All the chooks came out to see me except Slick's babies. I looked everywhere for them, I listened for them but they were nowhere to be found. Poor Slick she looked very lost and kept peering over at the other babies, perhaps wondering where hers were. I suspect the neighbour's revolting cat was the culprit as I found a mangled bird body up the driveway later in the day but it was wet from all the rain and I couldn't tell if it was one of Slick's. The cat had beheaded one of my young chooks before and left it up the driveway in about the same place. I not a huge fan of cats, for a start I'm quite allergic to them but they also seem rather sadistic.

The goats sounded very unimpressed and called out to me as if to say "mum, its raining, do something!" I let them out and fed everyone undercover. Tarka called out to me too, I saw him standing in the paddock trembling with no sign of Ella. I walked through the paddock calling her and found that she'd jumped out of the taped area and was right at the top of the gorse paddock waiting to be struck by lightening. I called her but she was more interested in being up in the wind and rain. Tarka was freezing cold, his knees were knocking together, literally. I chucked a halter on him, put him in a stall, made him a warm bran mash and rubbed him down with a towel. Then I draped an old dressing gown of mine over him and tied the arms around his neck, it fit him perfectly. I left him in the pen with the goats and chooks and Tallulah who'd gone in there to escape the rain and nibble at the dropped mouthfuls of bran mash. I called Ella down, she finally listened and carefully made her way down. Sheamus was happily grazing out in the open paddock, obviously not worried about the rain, with that thick covering of fat who could blame him.

I took some sugar syrup up to the bees, worried that they'd be hungry as I wasn't sure if they'd have any honey stores to keep them going for the day or week if the weather continued. They were all tucked up in bed with only a couple of guard bees at the entrance. The buzz coming from the hive was encouraging. I just hope there is a queen in there somewhere.

When Hoby and I got back to the house Tallulah was there to meet us at the front door, grizzling. I found that she too was trembling with cold. I stripped off my wet outer clothes and Hoby's and wrapped Tallulah in a towel and took her inside, I lay down on my bed (yes, with a piglet wrapped in a blanket) and hugged her. She sighed and snuggled in. We got comfy, Hoby jumped up on the bed too and rested his head on my leg and we all fell asleep for about half an hour. When I woke up Tallulah was heavy breathing and no longer shaking, Hoby was out like a light and looked very happy, the rain still steadily beat down on the roof. I sent Tallulah back outside gave in to the copious domestic tasks that I'd been putting off for a rainy day....well here was that dreaded day!

Farewell baby bunny.

I arrived home from work tonight to find one of the little bunnies beside the driveway looking very sad. I picked it up and gave it a snuggle and checked it out. It looked fine but breathed with little enthusiasm and had no objections to me holding it which is odd for a wild animal. As it has been pretty dry I thought perhaps it was a bit dehydrated so I tried to eye dropper some water into its mouth but it wasn't interested. Off to the cardboard box lined with a flannelette sheet to recover hopefully.

I checked on it throughout the evening and it seemed ok, just resting. Then at 10.30pm I gave it one last check before bed and I thought it had passed away. It was stretched out, eyes wide open. When I stroked it the little hind legs started thumping. I picked it up and cuddled it, hopefully having it close to my chest hearing my heartbeat would be some comfort and the thought of it not being alone certainly gave me some comfort. I went inside and sat down with it. Sam came in to say goodnight and found me hugging this bunny on its way out. It hadn't moved for a while so I asked him it had gone and as he touched it suddenly its head thrust back and it let out the most heartbreaking squeal. And then the cries continued, its little body in spasms and the terrible squeals. I was reduced to a sobbing mess and I begged Sam to do something to stop its suffering. Sam took bunny outside and very heroically 'assisted' this little being depart. He wrapped bunny in the sheet and performed a burial in the graveyard at 11 pm while I showered and washed away my tears.

There is nothing more horrible than seeing a creature suffer, I just hope it was in pain for a long time. I will miss seeing bunny on the driveway. I know, like possums, they're considered a pest but they are living beings, just like us, that have every right to being on this planet and, if compared to what we do to our planet, leave less destruction in their paths than we do.

Where's that buzzing coming from?

Well, the answer to that question today was the boot of my car!

Yes, I finally got some bees. A lovely lady called Jennifer that I'd met at a club meeting a couple of months ago sent me an email saying that she had collected a swarm and they were in a nuc box at her house on the north shore. Sam and I were already heading over that way to collect some trade-me purchases so we jumped at the chance to add bees to our list of collections. I was a bit apprehensive about Sam coming because I know he's not too keen on bees but he assured me that as long as there weren't any flying around in the car he'd be ok.

So off we went, me armed with all my gear that to date (other than the hood) hadn't been used. Jennifer had written me a great list of instructions and I followed them to a tee. The nuc had a entrance with a turndial (similar to the lid of a salt shaker) that Jennifer had closed the night before. I donned my hood and picked up the box. There were about 30 bees that hadn't made it home, perhaps after a hard night on the town. They got left behind. We brushed the 30 'dirty-stopouts' onto the grass and carried the box to the boot of the car, Sam did his containment and safety check and we popped the buzzing box in. I was so nervous all the way home that they were going to die of heat exhaustion as it was a roasting hot day and we'd been held up in the morning so it was mid morning when we picked them up.

Once home I was excited and relieved to hear the deep, contant buzz coming from the box, phew, they made the journey. I sited the nuc box in the pet cemetery and left them there while I transferred all the hive components to the site and got suited up and fuelled my smoker. The site has good fencing, easy access for me and it is out of the way of people and pets. There is a lot of Japanese Honeysuckle and Gorse growing on the neighbouring land which we call no-man's land so I'm sure the bees will find plenty of nectar.

Whilst transferring the hive components the horses, especially Ella became interested in the activity so came over to watch, as did Sam. I went in all suited up and Ella and Sam stood at the gate and watched while Tarka stood a bit further back on the hill and also spectated. Jennifer had 3/4 depth plastic frames in the nuc, my boxes are full depth so the aim was to transfer as few of the 3/4 frames into my hive as they'll build additional comb onto the base to fill the void. I would have to inspect each frame to see if the queen had layed anything. With my smoker lit for the first time I opened the box expecting for a mass evacuation of bees but to my surprise only a couple flew out, all the rest stayed put. And when I say all the rest I mean ALL the rest. It was a huge colony, I was thrilled. I smoked the bees and they retreated down the frames into the box, carefully I removed the first frame laden with bees and inspected it. They'd begun building comb in the corner but it wasn't significant enough to warrant transferring to the hive, I also couldn't see the queen so I shook the bees into the hive and put the frame to one side. The second frame contained more bees and more depth to the comb, I couldn't see the queen but I decided that they'd worked hard on this frame so they deserved to keep it. On the third frame which had come from the centre of the nuc box, a good section of comb had been built and the frame was heavily laden with bees, I thought I might see the queen here but my untrained eye missed her. I identified a few drones in the mix though. I transferred this frame to the hive and realised that the 3/4 frames were a blessing for nervous little me as I wouldn't squish any bees under the new frame. I checked the remaining three frames for the queen and then brushed the scattering of bees from the frames into the hive, I gently slid the frames into place and brushed the remaining bees from the nuc box into the hive, gave it a light smoke and then put the mat and lid on and secured it with a strap. When I looked up Sam was still there, smiling from ear to ear and taking photos and Ella had decided it was boring and wandered off. There were bees buzzing around but they weren't angry, they were very quiet and compliant.

I think I inhaled more smoke from the smoker than a 60+ a day cigarette smoker so I'll need to be more clever in the placement of my smoker in future. All in all I was thoroughly pleased with the whole exercise and more than just a little impressed that I didn't get stung.

It is funny how the universe works, it was only late last week that I'd replied to an email about some nucs for sale, I missed out on them but I was directed to lady selling nucs for quite a bit more than I could afford to pay. I decided to think about it over the weekend and that's when I received the email from Jennifer. I was very fortunate, Jennifer gifted the bees to me and here is what she wrote: My payment will be that you enjoy learning and having bees (and look after them). And one day you help someone else out in some way. That way we all win.

So, my aim will be to keep you all updated on the progress of "Cleopatra's Colony" and provide you with some useful links.

The course I completed was the Introduction to Beekeeping course run by Auckland Beekeepers Club. I couldn't recommend it highly enough, I came away feeling well informed and couldn't wait to embark on this exciting pastime and get some bees of my own. The club meetings are also fantastic, there are plenty of knowledgable people willing to answer questions and you get to see a range of different hives at the club.

If you have a hive it needs to be registered, more about this once I've completed the process.