BYE BYE HIVES

We said goodbye to our hives yesterday.  It was actually pretty sad.  I didn't care so much about the yellow hive but I was really attached to the pink one (the one you see being carried away).  That was my very first hive after I took the U of M beekeeping course and we've managed to get it through two winters and this was our third spring having them, they were also our mild tempered and happy bees.  My husband said I

looked pitiful, like a lost child watching them from the window being carried away.We discussed just keeping the one hive because they really were a great bunch of bees to have but we just couldn't get past the possibility that, even if we managed them well, they could swarm again and next time it might not turn out so great.  I kept having visions of them swarming during one of the neighbors many dusk til dawn lawn parties. 

Hubby and I are already discussing other options.  We have a couple friends that live in the country and we might approach them about keeping our bees.  One of them has wanted to have bees but wasn't so sure she wanted to do the management part of it, so we're thinking she might be a good option.  Otherwise, we do plan on moving so we might wait until then to get another hive, we'll see.

For now, Jim at Natures Nectar took our babies away.  I feel good that he was the one to take them since he's the guy I orginally purchased my packages from.  Who better to have our hives than the man I bought them from, right? 

So anyway...a couple pictures to share:

Jim getting the hives ready to be hauled away.

and then carrying my favorite one out.

Middy (my middle child) is pretty mad at me.  She loves the bees.  We have spent every day since spring of 2010 checking them out each morning, watching them fly in and out throughout the day (aside from winter).  I didn't realize she had grown as attached as I did.  She kept trying to think of reasons they didn't have to go.  She thinks people around us should "suck it up and get with the program." lol!  She's already asking when we can get some more.  I guess her nagging will get me moving on finding someone to let us keep them on their property.

Did I ever mention how much I hate living in the city?

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TO PIERCE OR NOT TO PIERCE...THAT IS THE QUESTION

I recently took my 16 year old to get her nose pierced.  The response to having actually allowed my teenage daughter to pierce any part of her face other than her ears is quite interesting.  I'm the cool mother to  my daughters friends and those working at the piercing shop but among other mothers whose teen daughters now want their noses pierced after seeing my daughter, I'm not so awesome.
I remember my own mother had rules about such things.  I wasn't allowed to pierce or tattoo anything, I wasn't even allowed to wax my eyebrows or dye my hair, but that's a whole other topic.  I got my first tattoo when I was 18 and managed to hide it from mom until I was 21.  I got my nose pierced when I was 26 and displayed it proudly (it took me that long to stop fearing the wrath of my mother).  I decided when my children came along that I'd be a little bit more open minded.  I would never sign for a tattoo but I think nose piercings are really cute (and luckily not permanent).

I also like ear piercings.  In my husbands culture babies get their ears pierced within 3 days of birth.  Since  midwives and OB/Gyn's aren't really accustomed to that practice I had my oldest child's ears pierced down in Mexico by a family friend when she was 6 weeks old.  Our second child had her ears pierced at 8 weeks old by our pediatrician.  When our last child came along I had decided I'd let her decide if and when she wanted her ears pierced.  Well, shortly after turning five she said she wanted earrings like her big sisters.  I made her wait until she received her vaccines and told her if she could take the pain of the vaccine then I'd let her get her ears pierced.  So, she took the three shots like a trooper and we got her ears pierced.  She did NOT take the ear pain experience like a trooper but she loves her earrings and made me promise she'd never have to take them out :)

As for my 16 year old...

Yesterday she says "if I'd known this piercing was so high maintenance I wouldn't have done it" (referring to the number of times she has to clean it every day).  I guess we'll see how long it lasts :D

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ANOTHER SWARM BRINGS MORE STINGS

Today our second hive swarmed. We really didn't anticipate this one. Our neighbor came by around 1 pm to tell us that our hive was swarming and it was in her backyard AGAIN! I don't know what it is about her yard that they love so much but they do. I ran over to see where it landed and this time it was attached to a tree trunk about 7 feet from the ground smack in the middle of her backyard. I told her that I'd get someone to remove it right away.
Well, I made the usual round of calls and not a single beekeeper could come out to get the swarm. One beekeeper was nice enough to walk me through the process so the hubby and I decided we would retrieve it and keep the bees in a box until someone came to get them. Just before we set out to get the swarm I made a call to the MN Hobby Beekeepers Association to see who might want the bees once I boxed them up and a member told me that he had a list and would make calls. I got a call from a beekeeper that wanted to remove the swarm himself (it was his first time), so he came right over. Unfortunately, being a newbie at swarm removal, he wasn't quite sure what to do so he placed his hive body below the tree, climbed the ladder, and shook the thick branch. Bees didn't exactly fall into the box, they sorta tumbled and then started flying. This fiasco went on for about a dozen more tree shakes and each shake would create lots of angry bees, lots of flying, and an eventual return to the tree. The guy finally left and planned a return in a few hours.

In the meantime my hubby and I were talking to the neighbors about 20 feet from the swarm. The swarm had mostly calmed itself but one lone bee came flying over and hovered above my husbands head (thanks to his black hair the bees are really really attracted to him.) He tried walking further away but it followed and stung him right on the eyelid. Needless to say, my husband was NOT happy. He has had his fill of bee stings lately and right now I'm not really sure what he's thinking about our little insects. (the first picture is at urgent care.  I made my hubby go in to see if the doctor could at least give him something for the swelling.  He swells pretty awful when he is stung and I was afraid it would put pressure on his eye.  The doctor agreed and prescribed prednisone but now my goofy husband won't take it.)

(This second picture was taken 2 hours after the doctor visit.  He still won't take the meds nor will he take anymore benadryl. He's a glutton for punishment I guess).

On top of that, my neighbors were feeling a little put off as well. It turned out that both they and I have been thinking the same thing: what if our bees swarmed one day, none of us notice, and they let the dogs out to play? What if no one notices the swarm sitting on our fence, or on their table, or in the bush next to the house and they bring their 3 yr old granddaughter outside to run around? I live my life according to the Golden Rule so my neighbors weren't really thinking anything that I hadn't thought myself. They didn't tell me to get rid of my bees but I know I have to think about it. We do plan on a move to the country soon so we may just have to hold off on the beekeeping until we have more land.

About three hours later the beekeeper returned to try once again to remove the swarm (some of the bees were already in the hive body from his previous visit). This time he used his bee brush to scoop them up and dump them into the hive body. Once he felt he scooped enough he sat and waited but again, the bees that were flying kept returning to the tree and not the hive. He decided to take home the thousands he scooped up and left the chunk on the tree behind. We have no way of knowing if the queen was in the hive body or in the tree since it seemed the bees were divided on where they wanted to stay. All I know for sure is I hope the bees find their way back to my hive or else leave because if they don't I'm afraid they'll end up being exterminated in the morning :(

We did get some honey out of it all.  The guy who retrieved the swarm was a little confused by me.  He couldn't understand why someone would keep bees without the need or desire for honey.  I tried to explain to him that honey would be awesome but it really wasn't what drove me to keep bees but he just couldn't wrap his mind around that so when he returned the second time he brought me this big jar of honey and said, as he handed me the jar "this is why you become a beekeeper." 

I still don't agree with him but... lol!

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ANOTHER SWARM EXPERIENCE...

But this one was far more interesting. I had just finished emailing Jim from Natures Nectar about the divide I was about to do, it was the perfect day for it; sunny and warm. Our bees were in a great mood. I was standing in front of the hive that we knew needed to be divided the most. The pink hive is our oldest but the yellow newer hive had a prolific egg laying queen. At the end of winter it looked as if the hivehadn't lost a single bee, it was insane. Just as hubby and I were standing in front of the hive discussing our plan of attack (we are new to this dividing business), the hive decided to swarm. Um... there they go not following the manual again. Minnesota bees aren't suppose to swarm until late June, early July but apparently these girls didn't get the memo. We watched as they moved around the yard, up into a tree, and then settled on our fence.

Needless to say I was in full panic mode (readers: you do sort of see me as the high anxiety type already don't ya?! - cuz I am). I hate having to tell my neighbors that they can't let their dogs out to potty because my bees are on the move again. I feel like I'm being rude... I am rude. Sorry, but your annoying neighbor purchased a bunch of bees and because they like to swarm all the time you need to keep your dogs stuck inside until the bees move on and who cares if you pooch piddles on the carpet. It's rude, it really is.

When I told the neighbor how I was feeling about the swarm she told me to calm down and stop worrying. Apparently she and her husband think the bees are interesting and a worthy cause. That's a relief! Sadly though, we are getting rid of one hive. There have been waaaaaaay too many bees in the yard. Aside from the swarms making me nervous when it comes to neighbor relations the bees have gotten a bit territorial. The girls in the family (ours, not the queens) have to tie their hair into a bun and wrap a scarf around their heads to keep the bees from getting caught while outside playing (we have that many bees flying around the yard). We are keeping our pink hive though because I've grown attached to that one :)


Onto the swarm.


I called about 5 beekeepers to come and get the swarm and the lucky winner was the man who said he'd be at my house in less than an hour. He came, gathered up our little bunch that attached themselves to the fence and he left.


Funny how smart bees are. Once he boxed up the bees and put them in the van he came over to talk to me, which was 30 feet from where the bees were and the buzzy girls still managed to find him and bop him in the head. I was standing in front of him, no further than 2 feet away, and they didn't mind me at all. They wanted to get the guy who stole their sisters and mother. Smart little suckers.

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SAVE OUR WOLVES

Shimek (member of Ojibwe tribe) wants the five year moratorium on hunting back. He says in the American Indian creation story, the wolf is a brother so wolves and humans are spiritually bound. He said, It's our feeling that if we do everything we can to take care of the wolves, and the wolf does well, we will do well. He said through history when the wolf has not done well, neither have American Indians.

 

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COUNTING THE YEARS...

It is hard to believe that today is the fifth anniversary of my mothers death. I remember when my mom would count the years after her own parents passed and now here I am doing the same. After losing my sister, watching my mother die was the second hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life and can only hope nothing equally as painful ever comes my way again. 

The death of a loved one is life altering in so many ways. I remember after my mothers third heart attack and struggle with breast cancer I'd try to imagine what life would be like without her. It was a defense mechanism in a way. If I prepared for the loss then maybe, just maybe, it wouldn't be quite so painful. Of course I was wrong. No one is ready to lose someone they are so attached to.

One of the biggest internal struggles I had after my mom died was trying to decide how to honor her life and mourn the loss. We have somewhat of an eccentric family (you may have noticed that already by some of my posts :). My mother was raised 7th Day Adventist but ran screaming from the church when she was 18 (not literally, just figuratively). By my own choice I've had lots of experience with Lutheranism, Catholicism, Judaism and Buddhism. Before my mother died she shared with me what she had settled on as her spiritual beliefs and they didn't involve religion. She wanted to be cremated and didn't want anyone coming to mourn her that wasn't a presence in her life when she died.

While sitting with a Hospice Chaplain it came to me. My mother believed in God but she didn't care for religion. She loved nature in all its forms (she could identify every tree, plant and wild berry by name), she raised her children to value all living things and she cherished all the childhood memories she had of her families experience with the Native Americans.

I decided I wanted someone from the Native American community to help me say goodbye to my mother, someone who understood how our family felt not only about my mother but about the earth, its inhabitants and the feeling of loss; but I had feared finding such a person wouldn't be easy. Of course, in traditional Michelle fashion, I marched over to Franklin Ave. in Minneapolis and started looking for "the" person. It should be of no surprise that I was met with a lot of skepticism. It isn't easy going into the Native American community asking someone to conduct a service for your dead mother and it certainly wasn't easy for the Native people to grasp such an idea. As usual though, everything worked itself out. I was very fortunate to find the person I was looking for in the form of Clyde Bellecourt.

Clyde is one of the original founders of AIM (American Indian Movement), a civil rights organizer and a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe here in Minnesota. It is ironic really that he turned out to be what I call my "savior" in the midst of everything I was going through at that time because I had read about Clyde and AIM many times over the years. Clyde, we had discovered, was a friend of my daughters God father. He graciously offered to do a "Wiping of Tears Ceremony" for our family and moms closest friends, all that he required in return was a can of tobacoo (a specific type) used to carry prayers and wishes of our family to the Creator and to cleanse us of any spiritual negativity. Clyde, his niece and great nephew performed the ceremony together.

Again, another odd coicidence, I chose the Minnesota River Valley as the location for the ceremony and it turned out that the Native Americans lived along the river valley prior to Euro-American settlers arriving. We love that particular area because my mother would take our children there for long walks and to teach them how to identify medicinal plants and wild berries. Did she know it's history? Probably.

During the ceremony it was the first time I really felt at peace with all that had occurred. Clydes niece had prepared a bag full of juniper for me to burn in the days after the ceremony to clear my heart and my home of any sadness. We concluded the ceremony with every individual present releasing a single monarch butterfly into the sky. It was a good ending to what had been my mothers life. When I was little my mother told my sister and I the story of how a Native American woman saved my great grandfathers eye sight when he was just a boy and then there we were with Clyde and his family, them helping us heal and move foreward.

I am eternally grateful for what Clyde and his family did for me and my family five years go. There isn't a day that goes by when I think of my mother that I don't think of Clyde, his niece and nephew too. It is the kindness of others that have helped me live with my mothers death to this day.

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HIVES ALIVE!

My third spring without treating my bees for ANYTHING and they are still going strong. I've read where other beekeepers have gone 7-10 years without mite treatment and their bees did just fine so I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and hope for the best. Since both hives survived the winter I have to decide what I'm going to do about the splits. I cannot have four hives. 

My neighbors were really patient with me when the hives swarmed last year but I fear that patience runs thin. I know that if a swarm of bees attached itself to our home back when I knew nothing about bees I wouldn't have been a very nice neighbor so... I have to "do unto others...." Since splitting hives in two is a swarm management system and I don't want four hives I decided to split both hives and give the bees away. The good thing is, there is no shortage of those who want bees. After posting that I wanted to give the bees away on beesource I received a bunch of private messages from people who wanted them. Problem is, most of the requests came from people who do not have an established presence on the forum, therefore it made me a little nervous. My nervousness comes from my wanting the one retrieving the bees to do the split for me. I figure if I'm giving them away and not selling them, the least they can do is the split. But... I'm nervous about letting someone dig into my hives when I have no idea how much they know about beekeeping. Luckily, one of the very experienced beekeepers on the beesource contacted me. He happens to live one state over and is willing to take the bees if no one else will. He suggested I look locally first so I contacted Natures Nectar (my bee supplier), and Jim (the owner) said he'd take them if they are still going strong at the end of April. I haven't heard back yet on whether he'll do the split though. I've been told I should do the split, create nucs and just sell the bees myself but honestly, I have no idea how much to sell them for or how I even go about marketing that. I've never even seen a nuc before other than in a supply catalog. How do they work exactly? Can they be transported once the bees are inside? Well... I have at least a month to sort it all out. Right now the bees are doing great! These warm days should make them happy.

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