Tag Archives: backyard bees

Inspiration

21 Friday Mar 2014

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Inspiration
Happy Friday and Happy Spring!

I think I saw our tulip shoots push up another inch or two yesterday. I need to get out back and remove my over-zealous straw mulching from the fall.  This is our second year of growing a garden and we get very excited when plants actually grow out back.  I think I even see the start of flowers on one of my hellebore plants, which everyone else in our neighborhood seems to be able to grow except us thus far…Maybe this is our year.  One of our bee hives was bringing in lots of pollen this week.  I am so amazed that those girls know when and where to find the tiniest bit of pollen in the otherwise gray landscape.  I need to take a peek inside and see if we need to feed a bit more before the flowers really start providing nectar.  We are keeping fingers crossed for a warm weekend.  Hooray for Spring!

Instagrams from the week:

*Clinton Hill, Brooklyn

*Headband Crown Production for the lovely Acorn Toy Shop

*Ice Cream Weather, Ample Hills

*Long Shadows

*Dare

*Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

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Inspiration

04 Friday Oct 2013

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Happy Friday!

Here are some of our recent Instagrams:

*Sleepy Dare

*Ice Cream, Deerfield Fair

*Honeycomb at Honeybee Lives Class

*Ada’s Baby Quilt from Gram, On the Line

*Last of the Tomatoes from our CSA

*Hat Weather

*Chris Harp Pulling Honey for Harvest

*Josie’s First Candy Apple

*Piggies

Have a wonderful weekend.

Inspiration

19 Friday Jul 2013

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Inspiration39
I feel like a broken record, but it is HOT here.  We spend a good deal of time sitting in the little pool, watering the garden and eating popsicles.  We are hoping our beach day tomorrow stays rain-free, but the rain should feel free to visit any other time.

Here are some Instagrams from the week:

*Kiddie Pool and Drying Diapers

*Ada’s Letter Practice

*Swaddle Blankets, Washed and Stacked

*Josie’s Potty Chart, by Ada

*Blanket Fort (With Newly Unstacked Swaddle Blankets)

*Hot Bees, Bearding to Cool the Hive

Have a Happy Weekend!

Inspiration

28 Friday Jun 2013

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Happy Almost Weekend!

I can hardly believe that the Forth of July is coming next week.  It was hot hot hot here, so we did a lot of running through sprinklers in the backyard, popsicle-making and watermelon-eating.  Josie is happy to have her big sister home from school and we are getting excited about the upcoming summer birthdays.

Here are some of our Instagrams from the last couple of weeks:

*Party Prep for Cousin Clementine

*Hide and Seek

*Josie Stealing Honey from the Ants

*Dinner (All I want to eat is salad in this weather)

*Tent in the Back Yard

*Josie, Peeling Off Stickers from Ada’s Book

*Busy Bees

*Sister Lunch

The Bees Are Here!

11 Tuesday Jun 2013

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StarHive

After six months of waiting, our backyard bees have finally arrived!  I must say I am a bit in love.  We don’t have any other pets and we already feel attached to them after a week.  Josie wants nothing but to sit near the hives ,which she calls the ‘bee house’, and watch them every morning.  Ada is upset that I have yet to let her suit up and pull frames out with me.  I took classes with amazing teachers through Honeybee Lives and spent the winter reading and stocking up on bee supplies.  We have years and years of learning ahead of us.  These sweet girls have yet to give me a sting, which I have no doubt deserved thus far.  I am clumsy and hesitant still- not to mention hugely pregnant.  But they quietly let me transfer them from the nucleus boxes into our waiting hives without my wearing gloves (which can prevent sensitive feeling and cause you to squish bees).  My smoker went out in the middle of the transfer and I am sure I bounced them around more than I needed to.  I changed my mind about where their water should be placed, after I not so brilliantly bought what I thought was chicken waterer at an antique shop.  It turned out to be a chicken feeder and all of the bee water came cascading out of the holes when I filled it.  (My parents are going to laugh at me for that one.  What kind of a farm girl am I anyway?!) I honestly got the feeling that I had just given birth when I finally had all of the girls in their new homes last week.

It rained and rained at the end of the week here, so I had to wait impatiently until Saturday to check on the hives.  Inside of one they had already drawn out comb on the new frames by several inches.  The frames were filling up with nectar and brood and I saw many busy foragers flying in with their pollen baskets full.  Chris and I debated whether the quieter hive was being robbed, and later came to realize it was new foragers out on their first flights away from the hive.  They were just memorizing the entrance of their still new homes.  All of this bee activity is sort of magical.  Watching them fly and move and cooperated so precisely it an amazing thing to see.  I feel so lucky to be able to have them here.  I have to agree with Josie- all I want to do is sit and watch the bee house too.

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Back Yard Progress: Blooms

10 Wednesday Apr 2013

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We have flowers!  The first of our fall plantings started to bloom this week.  It seems the squirrels left the bulbs alone over the winter and the spring flowers have all started to show themselves.  Our Hyacinths were the first to open, quickly followed by a couple varieties of Fritillaria.  (These seem to be overshadowing our Hellebores in the back, so we will keep an eye on placement this first year).  The Lilac, Lilies, Peony, and Viburnum are sending out green leaves.  The only casualty seems to be one Hydrangea that we transplanted in the late fall.  An abundance of wild violets has returned to the newly-cleaned-out lawn space.  Ada and I have been transplanting them to the designated garden space before our sod arrives in a couple of weeks.  Our three-foot Japanese cherry tree arrived via post office from the Arbor Day Foundation last week.  It was a bargain at under $18 with shipping!  We planted it as our first tree as a family and it has already shot out bright green buds.  This is all quite a learning process, as neither Chris nor I have had a real garden of our own before… This post shows some of the before photos from the previously terrifying back yard – (I found a dead rat back there on our first walk-through of the property).  Our backyard bees are arriving in May and will take up residence in the far corner of the yard.  Chris found these German beer garden table and benches yesterday, which we are considering for use on cement patio.  We can hardly wait for the girls to have a real yard to play in!  We are slowly making progress and looking forward to perhaps even relaxing amongst all the projects outside this summer.

What We’ve Found in the Back Yard So Far

14 Thursday Mar 2013

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Marbles
Our marble count is now up to 59.  We find them almost every time we dig around in the back yard.  Chris is almost done raking and sifting the soil to prepare for sod this spring.  The bulbs we planted in the fall are unfurling little leaves and all of the plants except one peony seem to have made it through the winter.  (For the record I think the Hurricane Sandy delay at the post office killed the peony in the fall).  Spring Hill Nurseries sent a replacement peony at no charge and this one is looking much happier.  We ordered most of our plants for the back yard from Spring Hill Nurseries and they were wonderful to work with.  We just ordered a cherry tree from the Arbor Day Foundation and are anxiously awaiting the delivery of our first family tree.  The cherry’s sweet-smelling light pink flowers will be beautiful next spring.  (And Ada approved of the color).  The Arbor Day Foundation has incredibly inexpensive trees and they are even cheaper if you become a member.  We ordered this Japanese Flowering Cherry and it was under $20 with shipping.  Amazing!  We are also carving out a space for our bees (!) in the back yard.  Our spare room is full of pine boxes and frames and gear for them.  I cannot wait for the ladies to arrive in May!  I took a beekeeping class in January with two wonderful teachers: Grai St. Clair Rice and Chris Harp from HoneybeeLives.  I have been spending every free moment on these winter days reading about beekeeping.  We are so excited about our new back yard.  It finally feels like we are making this house our own and we can’t wait to watch our garden and our children grow here.  I do have to admit though, that I will miss finding the marbles while we clean the soil.