OK, so need may be a strong word, but I liked what I bought – especially the rooster.  The rooster had a spot of prominence in the kitchen.  See it over on the white cabinet?  [Wow, the kitchen sure was neat and clean!]

The rooster watched over the kitchen all fall, but come Christmas it was packed away for the winter to make way for more wintery accoutrements.

Come spring I couldn’t find the rooster! I looked everywhere that spring, summer, fall, and winter.  I looked in the cellar, I looked in the storage area over the garage.  I looked and looked, but alas, no metal rooster.  Perhaps it went into the trash by mistake; I mourned its loss.

Fast forward 5.5 years.  I’m getting out holiday decorations and pull out a bedraggled box of packing materials.  Behind the box is a shopping bag, and in the bag – YES! – THE ROOSTER!.  Of course it was the holidays and the rooster’s spot was being used to display the Christmas Spode. 

The rooster is now back in the kitchen where he belongs. Typically, I wouldn’t bring him out until March (you can’t tell, but that windowsill behind the rooster is covered with little snowmen).  But I’ve missed Mr. Rooster and didn’t want to risk losing him in the cellar for another 5.5 years.

Now, perhaps you are also wondering about those small Tiffany-style lamps I also bought in order to save on shipping (Yes, I do realize that I spent $50 in order to save 8.50, what’s your point?).  Here is one of the lamps:

Notice the lovely stained glass pattern.  Can you see the flowers?  Look carefully and try to see the flowers. 

Perhaps it is easier in this shot.  Noticed the green leaves?  Try very hard to see the flowers because once I tell you what we, my entire family, all four of us, see in these lamps you will not be able to see anything else.

We have never been able to see flowers in this stained glass pattern.  We rather assume there is supposed to be flowers, we think the green glass pieces are supposed to be leaves.  For the life of us, we cannot see flowers, but what we do see, very very clearly are penguins with backpacks.

The penguins march around each lampshade; trudging really, those packs are full. 

I love my penguins with backpacks almost as much as I love my rooster.  I did a rather thorough purging of items from the house over the holidays and I can honestly say it did not even cross my mind to giveaway either the lamps or the rooster.  What does that say about me?  That I recognize quality?  That I’m still rather embarrassed by the purchases I made to save on shipping?  Probably it just says I’m a tad quirky.

So quirky I am.  But it is giving me an inordinate amount of pleasure to have found my missing rooster.

What I wanted to share, however, was this very neat, very informative, info-graphic from reusethisbag.com.

First I started seeing these videos on my desktop Weather Channel gadget, videos about the employees at BP.  Then it was the Gulf coast tourism ads, proudly and prominently sponsored by BP.  And my reaction to all of them has been distaste. 

I’ve been to the Gulf (pre-oil spill), it is a beautiful and fascinating place.  I like people and am always happy for people to be satisfyingly employed.  But it’s the second meaning of these advertisements that makes me gag.  They are so clearly and obviously an attempt to make BP look good.  See – we’re a good company to work for; we’re nice people.  See – we’re doing a good job in the Gulf coast, see it’s “open for business” – and by the way, aren’t we wonderful for sponsoring these ads too.

What would be better?  How about some clear and obvious progress on doling out the $20 billion dollars meant to reimburse those affected negatively by the oil spill.  Last I heard they’d given out $7 billion.  How about a sincere apology and attitude of contrition that lasts as long as the suffering their oil spill caused?  Frankly, BPs recent advertisements have only reminded me to continue to bypass those stations.

I want only the best for the Gulf coast. I hope that tourism picks up, the coast heals, the oyster beds rebound, the dolphins stop dying, and life is better than before.  And I hope that BP does right by them.  When they do, I’ll willingly visit their stations again.

Blissmo offers organic and eco-friendly products at substantial discount (there is a special every couple of weeks).  I’ve ordered a couple of items.  One I can’t talk about because it’ll be someone’s Christmas present, the other was a %50 discount for purchases of $40 or more from Abe’s Market.  Yummy goods.

The blissmobox is a different deal altogether.  It is a monthly box filled with organic and/or environmentally friendly items.  You buy a subscription and for roughly $20 a box of goodies gets shipped to you.  There are a couple of themes to choose from (and they change each month), so your box is likely to have items you want or need.

Last month I chose the tea and snacks box. It came just as I was running out of my favorite teas at home – and now I’m a happy little camper.  I received three boxes of teas by Zena’s gypsy tea – Vanilla Orchid Darjeeling black tea, Peach Blossom oolong, and Tropical Garden green tea.  The tea’s are  organic, fair trade, and delicious.

Along with the teas were some granola bars, chocolate covered espresso beans,  a cookie, and dark chocolate.  Dark chocolate with cocoa nibs – if the teas weren’t blissful enough the chocolate pushed me right into nirvana.  The chocolate is from sweetriot and I enjoyed every nibble.  As for the other items, my assorted food allergies kept me from eating them, but not my husband – they seem to be gone now.

My next box will be shipped soon and this time it is the Bath and Body Bliss box.  I can only imagine what will be in it, but I can imagine a blissful bath with a cup of tea.

They are the USPS Go Green (forever) stamps.  I like to think they mean that we should go green forever, but really it just means that these stamps cost 44 cents each and you can always use them for your first class mail, even after the price of stamps goes up.

The Go Green stamps feature 16 images, each with a suggestion for an environmentally friendly activity that many of us can do: buy local and reuse bags, fix water leaks, share rides, turn off lights, walk, reduce our environmental footprints, compost, hang laundry outside, recycle more, ride a bike, plant trees, insulate, use public transportation, use efficient light bulbs, adjust the thermostat, and maintain tire pressure.

The USPS has other stamps supporting my values too.  Another greenish one is the Save Vanishing Species semipostal stamp.  A semipostal stamp costs a bit more with the money over the stamp’s value going toward a specific purpose.  In this case the 55 cent stamps benefit conservation funds, specifically, African Elephant Conservation Fund, Asian Elephant Conservation Fund, Great Ape Conservation Fund, Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Fund, and Marine Turtle Conservation Fund.

It is great to see the USPS in the green – in fact, they are actively green with Cradle-to-Cradle certified packaging for their Express Mail and Priority Mail envelopes and boxes.  They are investing in hybrid and electric delivery vehicles, and increasing the energy efficiency of their post offices.  They have plenty more to say about their green efforts too on their website. For a governmental service that is always on the chopping block to some extent, it is great to see their green efforts and advances.  [By the way, go to their sustainability website (linked above) and look at the bottom right corner of the page (any page on that site) – even the postal service has a sense of humor.]

It was a pleasant surprise to see the Go Green stamps and to then find out that the Postal Service is rather actively making strides towards sustainability.  Perhaps that’s a sign of how mainstream green is becoming.

With no better place to put them, I have the filled jars stacked in the corner of my kitchen. 

I haven’t put labels on the jars yet (the label you can see says jalapeno jelly) – I’ll probably use the labels I made last year:

In the process of bottling the honey I certainly had ample opportunity to taste it, and it’s goooood.  I hate wasting a drop because it takes the bees a lot of work.  According to one bee trivia list a single bee makes only 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.  If there’s a tablespoon of honey left in the bottom of the bucket that’s the life’s work of 36 bees.  I hate for any of it to get washed down the drain – so I scraped it pretty clean.  I’ll put the bucket out for the bees to clean too (and then I’ll wash it really really well, honest.)

The bee escape needed some expected modifications – the bees easily climbed through the openings of the mesh.  But since I was in the hive I decided to take some individual frames (rather than an entire box).  I sorted through two boxes and took a couple of frames of nicely capped honey and put them in a 5 gallon bucket I’d brought for just this eventuality.  Of course there were lots of bees on those frames, but this group was easily brushed off, a towel was tossed over the frames and buckets, I left my bee clothes down in my storage box and I traipsed on home.

By the way, this was the first time I really felt I’d put the nitrile gloves to the test.  No stings.  Between my hat, veil, scrubs, and nitrile gloves I feel invincible!

The next day I went down and retrieved a couple more frames.  I also put the bee escape, version 2, on the 2nd hive.  Today I opened that hive again and the bee escape had done a fine job.  Where yesterday there had been thousands of bees in that box, today there were about 50.  The box and the 50 bees went into a wheelbarrow and took a ride up to the house.  In the yard I chose the frames I wanted to harvest – not all were fully capped (the bees cover over the comb cell – cap them – when the honey is ready) – brushed off the bees and brought them (the frames, not the bees) inside.  Meanwhile the bees that had come along on the box gave up on those frames and were lapping up spilled honey.   Later, I took the wheelbarrow and box back to the hive with about 1/2 of the bees that had been on the box before – the others were flying around near the house.  They were still around at dinner time too, mostly in a little cluster.  They may have been chilly.  If they are still there in the morning I’ll try to put them in a cup and take them back to the hive.

Meanwhile – back to harvesting.

Many beekeepers use extractors that spin the frames around and cause the honey to sling out of the honey comb.  These combs, however, are typically built on foundation and that makes them a bit sturdier.  I don’t use foundation so I use the crush and strain method.  Its pretty much how it sounds – you crush up the comb and strain the honey through a mesh strainer.

Here are some pics:

Frames in the bucket,

frames in the pan before crushing,

and all smushed up!  Notice the dark and light honey; they taste a bit different from each other, but they are all going into the same mix.

…pouring the mess into the strainer where it will sit overnight.

All told I have about 2 to 2.5 gallons of honey. 

I hope to harvest a few more frames in the Fall.  I want to be sure the bees have enough honey for the winter though.  I tend to be very conservative – I’d feel horrible if they starved to death – and it isn’t as if I am making my living doing this.

I also have a bit of trepidation about this honey.  Not all the honey was capped yet – that’s bound to happen, and I tried to limit how much uncapped honey I took.  The problem with uncapped honey is it has too much water content and it isn’t “shelf-stable” yet.  A little uncapped honey isn’t an issue, but too much will raise the water content in the honey and that can lead to honey that ferments.  Fermented honey is generally not good (although not everyone thinks it has to be tossed).  Another issue is the humidity – honey will actually extract water from the air.  It was very humid this week and I put the honey bucket in the garage overnight a couple of nights so the warmth (hot nights) would keep the honey dripping through the wax and mesh.  Now I’m wondering if that was such a good idea.  Oh well, only time will tell.  Until the honey ferments – if it will at all – it will be perfectly fine.

Tomorrow I bottle.

Yes, we’re warm, but we have AC and frankly we’re fine. And for some reason, in the midst of this heat (heat index was 102 last night at 9:30) I am actually accomplishing little things.

For instance, I made the bee escape.  It isn’t super pretty.  Scrap plywood and not an equilateral triangle – but I’m hoping the bees won’t have their protractors out.  I am also hoping the holes in the hardware cloth are small enough to keep the bees from going back in the box – we’ll see.  If not, I have a plan B – another layer of hardware cloth offset a bit – but I didn’t want to limit air flow any more than necessary so I’ll see if this works.

I also stopped at a new store in the area – Big R – K-Mart for the farm family – and they sell scrubs. Hmmm, light weight, washable.  One of the aspects of beekeeping that hampers my willingness open the hives is the need for certain clothes.  No, you really don’t need a beekeeping outfit like this:

Not that there is anything wrong with it – and if someone gave me one I’d very happily use it – but it is just not in my price range.  Anyway, what often happens is I’m down at the bees and thinking of opening the hive, even thinking of walking back to the house to get equipment (before I brought down my handy dandy storage box) when I realize I’m wearing something dark or worse, something with a strong contrast.  So not only would I have to go get the equipment, I’d have to change my clothes…. and then the will to open the hive dissipates rapidly.

So back to the scrubs.  How about if I had something light colored down in my storage box that I could just slip over whatever I’m wearing – be it shorts or blue jeans, a dark sweatshirt or even (ha) my bathing suit (because I always traipse half naked through my fields and woods to the bee yard with its wild raspberries and nasty poison ivy).  So I bought a pair of white pants with a draw string (in a couple of sizes too big so they would fit over everything) and a long sleeved white scrub-jacket – with knit cuffs (a plus for keeping curious bees from climbing up your sleeve on the inside), also on the large side to fit over whatever I happen to be wearing.  Ta Da – a beekeeping outfit.

Today I tried out everything.

There are the scrubs and my hat with veil, my bee brush and hive tool, and the lavender things on the pants are nitrile gloves.  So far no bee has stung my hand while I’ve worn them, and I’m a lot more dexterous than with the heavy leather beekeeping gloves I originally used.

Today I put the bee escape board under a box I want to harvest on the yellow hive.  I needed to switch the empty top box (they haven’t gotten to it yet, although there were plenty of bees hanging around in there, so perhaps they are on the verge) and the full box. The full box is dang heavy!  (and that’s a good thing) I almost gave up out of fear for my back, but I soldiered on, tightened those abs, took it off, put the empty one on, put the escape board on (boy, I hope I didn’t put it on upside down…) and then hefted the full box back on top.  I’ll check tonight or tomorrow morning and see if it worked.

Oh, and the scrubs worked great.  I put elastic bands around my ankles to keep wayward bees from entering that way (and to keep from tripping on the too long pants).  Yes, it was warm out (heat index about 96) but not unbearable in the scrubs. The hat and veil were hotter.  I am pleased – and pleased with myself for my ingenuity (pat pat pat on the back).

Back to the heat.

Not only are people feeling the heat – so are the bees.  The last couple of evenings they have been bearding on the outside of the hives.  See all the bees on the outside of the hive?  It’s too hot for them inside.

The other hive has less bearding – they seem to be hiding under the hive where they have a bit more room than this one.  I rather wonder if they have some comb under there…, I saw a bee going under the hive with pollen (we’re talking about a 2 or 3 inch area); maybe this fall I’ll look.

Both hives have upper entrances too, which should help with ventilation.  Except I needed to remove it for the yellow hive this morning – another reason to get back to them asap. 

Now that I did that bit of beekeeping I think I’m done with outdoor activities today. 

Much of the focus is on encouraging participation in Your Garden Show and their Citizen Science program The Great Sunflower Project during which participants count bees as they (the bees, not the participants) visit specific flowers.  They even have a bee-o-meter that shows where bees (all types, honey, green, bumble, and unknown) have been seen.  I have a bee-o-meter widget here on the blog.  I’ve also registered and plan to record bees who visit several bee balm plants we have in our garden (there is a choice of several bee-attractive plants to choose from).

My own bees are doing just fine.  The swarm I caught last year was lagging behind the hive I won last year, but a week or so ago it took off.  I don’t mean it flew away, I mean it made lots and lots of bees.  I even put another box on top so they’ll have plenty of room to expand.

I am hoping to harvest some frames of honey soon.  But first I need to make a bee escape.  It’s a board with a hole in it that you put below the box of frames you want to take off (this box should be on the top of the pile).  On the bottom of the board is a triangle of thin (1/2” x 3/4” or so) pieces of wood with openings at each corner and covered with hardware cloth.  The bees go out of the box through the hole and out the corners, but they generally can’t figure out how to go back in through the corners.  I borrowed an escape board last year and it worked great.  Time to make my own.  Fingers crossed they’ll work and the bees have made enough honey that I can take some without feeling guilty.

I’ve also made some changes to improve my beekeeping capabilities and make myself happier too.  I found I’d stop by and make sure the bee hives were standing and bees were still flying in and out.  They would be but I might want to open the hives to check something yet I wouldn’t have lugged the gear down to the bee yard, so I wouldn’t be able to open the hive.  It’s not all that far, 500 yards or so, from the shed where I have my bee stuff to the bee yard, but it is long enough to often keep me from going back up, gathering what I need, and then going back down to the yard.  So I bought a patio storage chest to hold my stuff and put it down in the bee yard.  Among the “stuff” I put in the box is a chair.  Watch this little video (2.5 minutes) and you’ll see where the chair goes.