Backyard Chickens & Bees

Damn. Where to begin? Bees. I like them a lot and have been working them this spring to ensure that we get a good honey harvest this year. The existing hives made it through the last winter, which wasn’t really that impressive, considering how mild it was here in the Pacific NW. Nonetheless, I was a bit concerned at some point in February since their numbers were getting lower and lower, and no signs of new brood. So I did what any obsessive beekeeper would do and ordered another two packages of bees to add to the apiary. Shortly after I put in the order, my neighbors beehive decided to swarm (he wasn’t quick enough to catch them), so I checked on mine again and saw that they were starting to build up faster and faster. So I changed the bee order to a single new package and waited on it to show up. A month of waiting is a long time…

This past week has been a flurry of activity with the arrival of the new bees, and the subsequent swarming of the back hive. I now have four bee colonies in my yard, which seems a nice situation. I definitely learned a lot after the swarming, so let’s review…

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I went with my neighbors to get new chicks today to replenish the ones that have been lost over the past year to raccoons, the inability to get along with the new flock, or the butcher knife (for the two roosters). Last year we got 11 chicks to go along with the two that were already established in the coop (Emily and George). Over the course of the year, we have dealt with roosters, raccoons, and having to give away Emily and George because they were attacking the younger ladies and had a taste for blood. At the end of it all, we had six hens remaining: one Light Brahma, one Rhode Island Red, and four Barred Plymouth Rocks. They’re all good producers, laying almost an egg a day each, even in the winter (granted, this was a very mild winter here in the Pacific Northwest). But, we wanted to increase the flock count and our overall egg quota, so we ended up going back to the Urban Farm Store and bought 12 new chicks! Pictures first, then I’ll write about what breeds we got (a wide variety, again!)…
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OK. All my blogging software is up to date, I have nice weather ahead to work, and there is no excuse to not write about my fun in the yard…

The bees have done well this winter. There are, of course, only two hives that survived the winter (the smaller one died off last fall), plus Matt and Kristin’s hive next door. Today I was in there checking on them, and decided to make up some invert sugar solution for the back hive, to ensure that they have enough food to get a good strong start to the year. The 1:1 invert sugar was made according to a recipe I found on-line, although I only made about 2.5 quarts, which is enough for the one hive. The other hive looks to be going strong and doesn’t seem to need any help right now. With luck, I’ll be able to split both into new hives (I’m taking a second-year beekeeping class with Glen Andresen in April) and end up with four nice, strong hives. We shall see…

Oh, also… I found this neat little on-line applet that shows about how far bees will travel to forage. Most impressive.

The grapes that I transplanted are coming along nicely, and the remaining ones that haven’t already been pulled will likely end up in a new home, alive, with a friend-of-a-friend. Not sure when the trees are going to come, but I intend to start prepping the ground and laying out the nano-orchard today or tomorrow. The ground tends to be dense with clay, so I will be mixing in lots of organic material and breaking it up so that the roots can go down deep enough to not be shocked by a few hot days (which, as it turns out, is what happened with the grapes).

Lots to do, and it’s only February! My neighbor pointed out that we made it through January without a single night going below freezing. What that means for the growing season is anyone’s guess, but it’s here and ready for action! I suppose I should go start my tomatoes…

Aren't they cute? At least these three raccoons can't get to my fish! This was taken at 2 am in early October.

I think that sometimes it’s OK to be that grumpy old man who yells “get off my lawn!” Particularly when it’s directed at three raccoons that are standing on top of your fish pond, trying desperately to get in for a goldfish feast. I built the grate on top of the pond this past summer in an effort to keep the raccoons out of the water. This was after there was a full-scale attack that took one fish, two lilies, and thrashed everything else in the water. I think that the raccoons, in that instance, were standing in the water just fishing around for whatever they could get. So, by putting a grate over the top, I stopped them from being able to reach more than their arm’s length into the water. Of course, that didn’t stop them from standing on top of the grate and reaching in to pull out the water plants floating on top of the pond water. So, the next step was to put a layer of chicken wire beneath the grate, attached with 3/4 round rings of 1/2″ PVC pipe (they fit over the 1/2″ copper pipe quite nicely and are hard to pull off). This has kept the raccoons out of the water, and all three fish have been safe for the last few months, despite nightly visits by at least 1 raccoon. I know that they come nightly, since the water fountain is always pushed aside in the morning, even though I reset it every day. While it’s not as attractive as a free-standing pond, it is still very functional: the fish, snails, enzymes, pump, and plants keep the water clean and stink-free, and that, in turn, provides the bees with a nice water source in the summer. All-in-all a good deal, so long as I keep the raccoons away…

The fish pond, and how it SHOULD look without the need for raccoon-proofing.

The fish pond, complete with grate and chicken wire to keep out the raccoons.

The new apple trees are ordered! I went with Cummins Nursery in New York State, since they have such a wide selection of fruit varieties and are experts with rootstocks (Dr Cummins was a professor emeritus at Cornell University, working on developing new rootstocks for fruit trees). The apples I will get are all dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks (more on that later), so should be reasonably sized (and won’t block the sun from my neighbor to the north), but will still yield a nice amount of fruit. Below is a list of the types I bought, what rootstock they will be on, where and when they were first cultivated, why I chose those particular ones, and what flavors they should impart to any resulting cider, in a perfect world. Also, I had to take into consideration that apples like to have another pollinator nearby, so I chose varietal pairs that had similar bloom dates (e.g., the Kingston Black and Muscadet de Dieppe both bloom late, while the Roxbury Russet and Ashmead’s Kernel both bloom mid-season). Bloom date data for the PNW was taken from WSU’s apple program in Mt. Vernon.
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Matt's van, loaded with 715 lbs of apples

I went up to Battle Ground, Washington yesterday morning with my neighbor Matt to pick up about 715 lbs of apples from a grower. These were ‘B-grade’ apples, with some worms, some scab, fully organic, and only costing us $0.40 per pound. Nonetheless, they looked fabulous with only a few worms and a few bits of scab here and there; almost all of the fruit was nice with no bad spots (I only had to cut parts out of three or four). Plus, I was going to make cider, so what did I care how they looked? The three apples types included in the group were Jonagold, Honeycrisp, and one called Golden Carnifex, or something like that. I had never heard of the last one, so have no ideas about it, other than it tasted GREAT!

One interesting point about growing organic apples is the use of kaolin clay to control insects. It’s non-toxic to mammals, but keeps the pests from laying eggs on the apples. The farmer we bought from said that it allowed him to have 10,000 lbs (out of 12,000 lbs) of ‘A-grade’ apples, and was expecting to get up to 95% in the next few years. Definitely something to keep in mind for growing apples at home.

Of the 715 lbs of apples, I took about 215 lbs for pressing into cider, for the final goal of hard cider. We went in on a cider press with several neighbors and their friends recently, and this was our first chance to put it to use. The cider I made had mostly Jonagold (about 185 lbs),  which was blended with 20 lbs of the Golden Carnifex and 10 lbs of the Honeycrisp. All told, we got about 13 gallons (roughly 16.7 lbs/gallon) with a sugar content of 14.2% (based on a refractometer reading). This was pasteurized by heating to 145 °F and letting it sit and cool down overnight. My co-worker swears that 140 °F is all you need for pasteurizing cider, so this should suffice for killing off the e.coli bacteria, as well as removing any wild yeasts and acetobacter that can lead to spoilage and vinegar. As of this morning, it’s down to 88 °F, so I added 3 Tbls of pectic enzyme to clear out the pectins. Once it cools down more (to about 66 °F), I’ll add yeast. I read several threads on various homebrewing forums about which yeast to use, and settled on Lalvin EC-1118, which is a Champagne/Prise de Mousse yeast. Ale yeast is also OK, and some people claim that simple bread yeast will work, but most say to avoid it. Anyway, we’ll see how it turns out in a few months…

The apples had a clay coating to keep the bugs down, which I opted to wash off before pressing.

The apples were ground to a fine mush before pressing.

Calville Blanc heirloom apple. Very tasty!

OK, so I guess it is time for something new. This past weekend during the CHIC get-together at our house, V and I were talking with Harriet and others about growing apples, and the difficulties of training grapevines. The subject was broached about pulling the grapes and planting apple trees instead, and since then, I have been obsessively researching antique apple varietals that are good for making classic styles of cider. Hard cider, that is. Also, the removal of the camellias opened up a lot of space, and I have a strong urge to fill it with new plants. My first thought was a bike lock-up area, more bee hives, and another raised bed, but now I am leaning towards the apples. And finally, V and I went to the apple tasting at Portland Nursery after CHIC and sampled some 60 types of apples and pears. That further opened my eyes to lots of different apple flavors that were, frankly, yummy.
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Ah, last Saturday was the final CHIC gatherings for the year. This month was held at our house, and we had a near-perfect day for working outside (sunny skies, mid 60s temperature). The original CHIC date was set for last weekend, but several schedule conflicts had come up due to the long time in between the previous and current CHIC meet-ups. So we moved it along by a week to allow more of the group to get together. All told, we had ten workers and lots of chores…
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Quick update on the bee hives… The front hive (the original, or Hive #1) is doing great and seems to have lots of stores for the winter. There are still three deeps on the hive, and they have the bottom two full of honey and brood. I have seen no swarm cells (although there is the occasional supersedure cell on the upper half of a frame), so feel pretty good about them making it until next year. No real signs of mites, either, as I have been checking the bottom slide-out board that is part of the screened bottom board. So that’s all pretty sweet! The larger hive in back (Hive #2) is also doing well, although they do not have all of the top (second) deep box filled with comb or honey, so I put some heavy (2:1) syrup out for them today. There appears to be some condensation inside the hive, so I might want to get out and check on their ventilation and make sure they don’t get too wet this winter. That could be as easy as drilling a couple of 1/2″ holes in the honey-super box that is enclosing the food jar and then covering those holes with some hardware cloth, although I will have to research it a bit before actually committing to a plan. Otherwise, they (that is, the bees in Hive #2) are doing really well and there are some food stores and capped brood. I have high hopes for this colony, as well, so should come out of the winter with two good, strong colonies (barring any catastrophic failures over the course of the winter, that is).

Hive #2 on a hot summer evening with all the bees back from foraging and hanging out on the front porch...

On the other hand, Hive #3 seems on the verge of collapse. They were never very strong to begin with, being that that was the last swarm that came out this past summer, and, at that, was only a small ball of bees. I haven’t seen the queen recently, so fear that she has expired. Chances are that I should combine these few remaining bees with Hive #2 and clear out the frames for the winter (so as to avoid anything else from taking shelter in there, like mice). It’s been sad seeing their numbers dwindle over the past month or two, but I always hoped that they would be able to pull through. Alas.

So, with that hive out of commission, and with the other unbuilt hive that is still in the basement, next year I will have all the equipment to set up some new colonies (either through swarm capture or splits). With luck, that means that we’ll be needing a centrifuge for collecting lots of honey…

I promise that I haven’t forgotten about this, or am giving it up after only a few months. This summer has been very busy (as noted in my last few posts) and V and I have been taking some well-deserved vacations, including an absolutely fabulous trip to Vermont! Still, some things that are stewing in my brain and that I intend to write up in the (hopefully) not-so-distant future include:

1. Canning! I bought a massive 30 qt. pressure canner and have (so far) canned pickles, jalapeños, and the first group of tomatoes (at 6 ½ quarts of Siletz so far, I think we will be stocked through the winter). I hope to do some veggies, including the early pumpkins and some parsnips, maybe even some brussel sprouts if they do well.
2. We had a ¼ cow delivered a couple of days ago (actually, we split a ½ cow with our neighbors), and a chest freezer was hurriedly purchased to contain it!
3. The rat problems that took out my carrots. Grrr…
4. The pullet eggs that have been coming along. Included with that is the attacks made on the pullets by the older hens…
5. The fish are well and the pond has cleared up nicely. The raccoon deterrent has worked at least as well as I anticipated.
6. A hot-air balloon ride that was a wedding present from one of my sisters-in-law, et al. That was a beautiful way to spend an early Saturday morning (we were up at 4 am to head to the airport and balloon-launch site).
7. Finally, the bee hives are all doing well. Well, the two bigger ones are good, but the #3 hive is still struggling. Alas. We harvested a few half-pints of honey to take to Vermont, and our neighbors harvested one honey super that amounted to about six pints and change. Yum! The honey from our region has a bit of a minty, lavendery flavor that is amazing on popovers…

So, there it is. Intrigue! Adventure! Excitement! But you’ll have to wait until after V and my one-year wedding anniversary on the 21st…we’re off to the Oregon Cave National Monument for a few days.