Well, well, well.....

Well house

Well, it's been a little over a year now since we purchased the farm, and it's amazing to look back at photographs and Google Earth and realize just how much has changed.  Like so many other areas in life, we tend to focus on what we have left to do and thereby lose sight of what we have accomplished.   Then we think back to last winter break: the torrential rain, the leaky RV and getting stuck in the mud!   Now we have a driveway, the RV no longer leaks, we have indoor plumbing, and we are able to live on the land. 

Now that we are heading back into winter, we have to protect the progress we've made.   One of our first projects is protecting the well.  Hubby and BIL framed the well-house in October, and we were able to get it dried in a couple of weekends ago.   We made it a little bigger than necessary so that we'd actually have room to work in there as the need arises!   BIL had to have the pump replaced on his well, so we were able to take his experience and plan for the possibility of needing to cut a hole in the roof!   Eventually we'll place a cupola on the roof to allow for ventilation and for access to the pump from above, but that probably won't happen until next summer. 

Well house - enclosed

The cupola will be the finishing touch on what will be my little red schoolhouse.   Hubby was originally going to build a full sized shed in the style of a school house, but now that we've gone with the less costly and more secure shipping container, I get to downsize my decorating.   We already have the siding and the red paint, so maybe that step will be done by the end of Thanksgiving break.   After that, I'll buy some of the curlicue decorative stuff from Lowes and jazz it up a little.

We'd seen Ondura roofing on HGTV some time ago, and had considered it for the house.   We decided to try it on the well-house first.  It was easy to install and we love the vibrant color.   However, we bumped into the end of one sheet with the ladder and damaged it.   It withstands pressure from above well, but we worry about how much would end up damaged during installation of a full roof.   The ridge cap is also a little wavy.    The sheets cut well with a circular saw.   Ondura is supposed to be resistant to hail damage, and I believe it will be because of its flexibility.   It's a good product and attractive, but we think we'll go with a metal roof when we build the house.

R & R at the farm

English Hive

We went down to the farm last weekend and had a time of relaxation and appreciation.  We have been working so hard all summer, but this time we spent very little time working and a whole lot of time sitting in lawn chairs envisioning the future.  It was time to sit back and look at all we have accomplished and to daydream about future changes.  

BIL came by early afternoon on Saturday, and we all just sat around a caught up on news while the dogs played and got rid of maybe 10 percent of their energy!   Maggie enjoys being able to explore without a leash now, although we try to keep her within sight as she has a propensity of heading toward the road.    Sage and Maggie did sneak off into the woods for a while, and I suspect they tried to visit the creek.   When we put the travel harness on Maggie Sunday afternoon, she pouted and refused to come near the car, so she clearly prefers farm life to city life.

Other than BIL, we had no visitors, and, much as I love being surrounded by friends and family, it was really nice to sit alone with hubby and eat supper by a campfire.   (BIL brought us rocks for a fire ring last trip, and evenings are now cool enough for a fire.  We love it!)   

Despite a lack of rain, most of the lavender, rosemary, and magnolia plants are doing well.   We have sprinklers running on timers by the new magnolias, but the lavender and rosemary are somehow hanging in there without any help.   We run sprinklers to soak the soil when we are there, but it's still amazing that the plants can survive the current drought.   One of the gardenia "bushes" was a 3 inch twig with two leaves when I planted it and has grown to a nine inch, healthy plant.   The Buddleja bushes are about 18 inches tall and full of flowers.   

We talked about letting one of the logging trails return to nature and clearing the trail that follows the old road bed as a new access to the fire break at the property boundary.   We fought our way through the briars to find the spot where the road bed crosses a drainage culvert that we want to keep visible.   We have not stood there for a while, and we had forgotten the beautiful views all around.  We decided to clear a path down there next trip so that we can plant my weeping willow there and put a bench under it.  It is the perfect spot to sit quietly and look out over what will eventually be a pond, then look over to where the house will be,  and just reflect on life in general.   When I lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, there were weeping willows all along the river bank, so the willow will be a reminder of loved ones, especially my father.   Next weekend would have been my father's 90th birthday, so that would be a really nice time to set that area up.  

Wipe Out

Last week, Dorchester County, SC decided to combat mosquitoes with an aerial application of pesticide.  One apiary alone lost 46 hives in just a few hours.    To an outsider, that may look like an equable loss, given the severe impacts of the Zika virus, but to a beekeeper it represents the loss of years of hard work and the likely loss of income until next spring when they can start their business from scratch.   The pesticide didn't just kill the bees that were foraging -- it killed the bees and the larvae in the hives.  Total destruction.   Any honey in the hives is also non-marketable now that it is contaminated with pesticides. 

Dead bees under hive

On a smaller scale, we are dealing with the same problem at our house in the city.   Our neighbor has her yard sprayed monthly as her son is very allergic to mosquito bites.  That is her right.   However, the EPA requires that citizens be notified in advance before toxic chemicals that can drift from one yard to another are sprayed in the air.  The EPA also requires that pesticide companies ensure their products do not drift from the intended application site to other people's properties.   After calling the company, we now sometimes get a phone call 30 minutes before the technician arrives, during the day, while we are at work.  But not this past weekend. A phone call or email the day before would allow us to protect our bees and honey.

In addition, the company told us that the spray was not toxic to bees, and left no residue.   Wrong and wrong again.   The chemical they are using, CYZMIC CS, is highly toxic to bees, is a skin and respiratory-tract irritant for humans and remains on any flowers it comes into contact with.   

When we returned from Labor Day weekend at the farm, the ground around one of our Nuc splits was littered with dead bees and, on opening the hive, we found a 75% bee loss.  Over the next few days, more bees died and the surviving bees pulled the contaminated larvae out of the frames.  The state regulatory investigator from Clemson University confirmed that the hive loss was a result of pesticide application.  They took the hive with them so that they can try to determine which pesticide was used, and we are waiting to hear back.  Even if they had not taken the hive, we would have had to destroy it as the chemicals are clearly ingrained in the wood and frames.   The second Nuc from our recent split has less damage, and we are hoping the queen cell and larvae in there are viable. 

UPDATE: January 2017 -- Clemson University confirmed that the bee loss was due to pesticide application, and we lost the second Nuc.   The mosquito-spray company was not responsible, but a neighbor told us that she saw someone go into our backyard Labor Day weekend, so it seems like someone intentionally killed our bees.  We have heard of that happening to other bee keepers, and that is the main reason we have moved most of our hives to the country.   

Dead bees at the bottom of the hive

What to do?   It is possible to kill mosquitoes while minimizing bee loss by administering chemicals very early morning before the bees are out and about.  There will still be some bee loss, but not total destruction of colonies.    Informing beekeepers in advance gives them time to trap the bees in the hive at night and keep them "indoors" until it's relatively safe.   Even giving beekeepers enough advance warning to let them throw sheets over hives is better than nothing.

Beekeepers also have to be proactive.   Register your apiary's!   In South Carolina this is done through Clemson University.   Companies that administer pesticides are required to review the database of apiary locations before applying chemicals that can harm bees.   Beekeepers also need to report losses to the EPA.  The Honey Bee Health Coalition has a wonderful incident reporting guide.  It won't get the bees back, but it may reduce future losses.

We got into this business when we figured out that no bees = no tomatoes + no zucchini in our garden.  And that's just the tip of the pollination iceberg.   There's more at stake here than some annoying insects that sting.

The good news (let's end this on a positive note) is that the master beekeeper who investigated our hives as  part of the regulatory team said that our other hives are very healthy and clearly well maintained.  He told hubby that we should keep doing what we are doing because it is clearly working.  It was good to have our apiary practices classified as professional and to hear that the bee loss was in no way-shape-or-from a result of anything that we could have done or prevented.   

Division feeder

Last week, we installed a division feeder in my English hive.    When I checked the hive yesterday, the feeder was empty.   Some must have evaporated as the ladders don't quite reach the bottom, but the bees drank a gallon of nectar.   It was easy to remove the cap and ladder to check and refill the feeder.  (The cap and ladder we have is a wooden block with ladders similar to the ones in the link, but I'm not sure where hubby bought them.)  We like the idea of feeding just our bees and this seems to work better than the bucket feeders on top of frames.   There were no drownings, and that's always a good thing.   It would be interesting to know how long it takes a hive to drink a gallon, but I don't want to disturb the hive too often to check.  Regardless, we were putting out 5 gallons of syrup every two days and feeding every bee in the neighborhood with the exterior feeders.  

 It's hard to tell how much nectar the bees pulled from the feeder and how much they are finding on their own as there are clear signs that we are exiting the summer dearth, but the bees sure did fill a lot of frames in just one week.   It doesn't seem to be enough yet to inspire growth -- there are still new larvae present, but not in great numbers.   There was a lot of capped brood in our one large hive -- they are ramping up and producing some drones again, but nothing like we saw in spring.

Hubby is out inspecting our other big hive right now, but I am staying indoors and nursing my mixture of ant bites, mosquito bites, and bee stings from this week!    An oatmeal bath followed by application of lavender essential oil finally stopped the itching.  The fire ant bites are the worst, but the fire ants are also the easiest to deal with!    After an application of Amdro, there are no more fire ants in front of the English hive, so neither the dog nor I need to worry about watching the bees go about their day.   It may be a good thing that the dog no longer wants to sit in front of the hive -- if it prevents her from getting stung again, I'll suck up the bites on my feet.

The two big hives are jam-packed, so we made some splits this morning.   We already had some bees in the queen castle, but they never managed to produce a queen that we could find.  There was some uncapped brood in there, but no young brood.  We moved the frames with resources over to a nuc and added some brood from the other hive and then created one more nuc.   We'll move those nucs out to the out-yards one evening this week and hopefully get new queens soon.

It's hard to be so far from the farm for so long and not know what the bees, trees, grass, and flowers are up to in our absence.   Those bees were pulling in nectar from the woods three weeks ago, and we left them with room to grow.  It will be exciting to see what they are up to!

Meet Maggie

Maggie - August 4, 2016

Meet Maggie, the four-legged (as opposed to the two-legged and four-winged) queen of Magnolia Hill Farm, from whence her name is derived.  We're still working on the hierarchy of the different queens, but most of the time I still consider myself to be at the top of the list.

We adopted Maggie from the Coweta County Animal Shelter.  We went there to look at a different dog, but Maggie was just so sweet, she won us over very quickly.   We couldn't bring her home for a week as the shelter does not release animals until after they have been spayed or neutered, but she has made herself at home in just five days.

Maggie is a Catahoula mix and has already shown hunting instincts and/or training.   One characteristic of Catahoula's is that they stalk silently and only bay once they have treed their prey.  It was two days before we heard Maggie bark, but she has since alerted us to things that she thinks are noteworthy!   Oddly, she barks a lot when hubby comes home from work.   We think the diffference to her reaction to my returns to the house and hubby's have to do with her being in her crate when I leave to run errands instead of being asleep on the couch when hubby has arrived home the past two evenings.  We'll get confirmation of that when hubby comes home at lunch to let her out tomorrow.

Maggie got a clean bill of health at our vet yesterday and behaved very well during our two hour visit there.   In fact, she was less irritable than I was!  Between my doctor's visit and hers, I spent far two much time in uncomfortable chairs yesterday.   (At least I didn't pee on the floor like somedog I know!)    

On Friday, my plan was that Maggie would not be a couch potato, but by the time I got up at 6:50 a.m. on Saturday, she owned half the couch at the RV and now claims anywhere from 1/3 - 2/3 of the couch at the house, depending on how many humans are sharing the couch with her.    She enjoys pouncing at the lawn mower and vacuum cleaner, but grows bored very quickly with toys.  She does not like us to be out of her sight.   Right now, we're hoping that being car-sick was a one-time deal, but I guess we'll find out this weekend!

Maggie helps fold laundry.

Maggie has to be right in the middle of everything we do, including folding laundry.  She curled up in the middle of the unfolded and then the folded clothes this afternoon and did her best to prolong a chore that I don't much like anyway.    After six weeks in the shelter, we understand her being a little clingy and that is getting better as time passes.   Owing a dog certainly isn't always convenient, but we are really enjoying her company, her curiosity, and her affection.

Secure storage

Shipping container delivery

One of the biggest inconveniences we've encountered over the last few months has been a result of not having anywhere to safely store tools and supplies when we are not at the farm -- or even overnight while we're sleeping!   Since moving the RV to the farm, we've used it as storage -- piling stuff in there before we leave and then having to drag it all back out again when we return.   And there's only so much we can pile in our mini living room.   Even after living on our land for three weeks now, many of our tools and fencing supplies are still at BIL's farm, in the city, or riding around in the back of my car.   It is so very unproductive.  

We looked at metal and wood storage buildings.   One big enough to double as a work-space and storage area would cost at least $6,000 and they all have windows, which makes them fairly easy to break in to.    We went round and round for months, and finally settled on getting a shipping container.   It is cost-effective and secure.  

The next step was finding a company from which to purchase one.   BIL bought one in spring and had to deal with missed delivery dates and an eventual delivery that was four hours late.   We were prepared for a big hassle.   If we had known how easy it could be, we may have bought one sooner!  

We went to Jenco Sales, Inc. in Newnan, Georgia and received great service, a great price, and a delivery man who apologized for being five minutes late.  I was a little hesitant when we arrived at the sales office because it looked different to what I expected, but that all changed the minute we were greeted and shown the different sizes and conditions of containers for sale.  (Hubby thinks I'm crazy for expecting a car dealership type setup!)   The staff could not have been more helpful and friendly.   We had to cancel our first delivery date due to weather, and the company took that in stride.   Hubby talked with office staff and the owner as we worked around predicted thunderstorms, and everyone was wonderful.     

We don't have much in there right now, but we like knowing that it would take a whole lot of effort and heavy equipment for someone to take our garden rakes and shovels!    We especially like knowing that the rakes and shovels will be in the same city as we are next time I want to plant a daylily!

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" William Shakespeare

Hummingbird

As soon as we arrived at the farm on Friday, the hummingbirds started chattering and darting around the almost empty feeder.   We originally thought there was one pair nesting close to our RV, but there are far more than that.   We so enjoyed watching their antics just a few steps away from our porch that I bought two more feeders on Saturday.    We put them out as soon as we returned home, but the hummingbirds were clearly distrustful of the new feeders Saturday evening.   I hoped to see hummingbirds on every feeder Sunday morning, but our bees renamed them bee feeders!   I guess hummingbird syrup is just as sweet as sugar water!   It didn't matter to the bees that they have their very own 5 gallon bucket of sugar water just around the corner from the hives or that they were uninvited guests at the RV.   I initially thought there was a mosquito in the RV when I was making coffee, but it turned out to be the bees we could hear buzzing around outside talking about these new red, plastic flowers that appeared overnight!   They then moved right in and chased the hummingbirds away.   However, they were unable to reach the nectar in one feeder once all the spilled sugar water was gone, so they eventually moved away and left that one for the birds.

However, they very quickly took ownership of the new feeder with a flat top.   Not only did they clean up leaking syrup from a gap between the lid and the top, they were able to stick their probosces through the holes and drink to their hearts' content.   They were still their guzzling away when we left at lunchtime.    Luckily for the hummingbirds, no bees or wasps were interested in the 99 cent feeder, so the birds ended up with two feeders to fight over.   And fight they did.    I've always wondered how hummingbirds survive when they seem to spend more time being territorial than drinking.  There are four perches on the original feeder -- why can't they just get along and hang out together?  

The bees in the city and at the farm continue their feeding frenzy on the buckets and manage to drink 5 gallons of sugar water a day.   It's amazing to see;  I equate it to scenes of mall doors opening on Black Friday.   A year ago I would have found it terrifying to watch, but now I know they are more interested in food than in me and the biggest danger comes from standing in the flight path of a highly focused bee!     The bees are also bringing back more pollen than a couple of weeks ago and the queens are laying eggs again in both locations.   The first Goldenrod flowers opened at the farm over the weekend, so the bees will soon have plenty of natural food.   I haven't seen any Goldenrod around here yet, but it can't be far behind.

Why do we feed bees?   Well, they would normally just stop reproducing at times like this when resources are scarce, and we are trying to increase our bee numbers before the final strong pollen and nectar flow occurs in fall.   We were able to move two hives from 5 frame Nucs to 10 frame hives on Saturday, and did the same to two growing hives at one of our outyards one (very hot) day last week.   If we can move into this time that resources are available with newly founded hives, they will have time to store supplies to get them through most of the winter.   They more they can store, the less we have to feed them over winter, and the more food they have in December, the faster our bee numbers will grow in spring.   Our focus so far has been in growing the number of bees.   In spring, we'll focus on bee growth in some locations and honey in others.  

Bees drinking on flat hummingbird feeder.