Backyard Chickens & Bees

Time for an update on the bees, since we’re now at week 4.5, they have drawn out over 85% of the first box (that is, 8½ frames out of 10 are almost fully drawn out), and I put on a new deep/brood box. The general rule of thumb that we learned from both bee classes [...]

Last Friday, Veronica, Kristin, and I donned our bee suits and veils and cracked open the hives to check on their sugar supply and to see how much progress they had made in drawing out the comb. To our dismay, both hives were very low on sugar syrup, so we mixed up two gallons for [...]

Northeast Portland is a large anthill. No doubt about that, as ants get into everything all summer long, no matter what you do. On the other hand, we don’t have fire ants here, which is a very good thing, especially when they swarm and cover a wall in the basement (this happened two years in [...]

So I wanted to add to my previous post about the bee-keeping class we took last weekend with Glen Andresen. My wife, Veronica, felt that it was overly technical and didn’t really express how fun and informative the class actually was, so I feel I should clarify that point. I really enjoyed the class with [...]

Q: How do you get chickens from the coop to the pen without fear of them being attacked by dogs, raccoons, or other varmints? Also, how to do that when you’re not there to watch them? A: A Chicken Habitrail™!

Well, today was the day that we’ve been waiting for! The bees arrived at Ruhl Bee Supply on Monday, and I took some time off from work this afternoon to go down and pick them up (I picked up packages both for us and for Matt and Kristin). The pick-up was very well organized, as [...]

Exciting! We are getting the bees tomorrow. Ruhl Bee Supply is getting all the bee packages in today, but we’re unable to get there until tomorrow. I’ll have to take a half day of vacation to get down there early and avoid the rush-hour traffic along I-205. Still, we’re are all getting ready for the [...]

Well, the bee packages should be showing up in about two weeks, so I’ve been brushing up on the installation procedure and getting the final hive preparations completed. These last few tasks include any final paint coats that need to be applied and building up the base that the hive will reside upon. According to [...]

Bees are not indoor pets, which is good, but their hives have to be kept outdoors where they are constantly exposed to the elements. In a rainy environment like what we have in Portland, Oregon, this means that they are exposed to a lot of moisture, especially through the fall, winter, and spring months (although [...]

I went down to Ruhl’s Bee Supply place yesterday with the neighbors to pick up the assembled hives. So, there is no turning back at this point. Each of the hives we bought has two deep frames for the brood and three supers for honey production. All told, the hive stands about 47″ tall (right [...]