How to make a bee-comb or bee-pick

Well, you all know how I feel about street spam. Whenever I see it on my walks, I pull out the metal posts to use for garden stakes, and throw the signs in a dumpster. They're illegal, so yanking them is just like picking up trash.

	I've now found another use for the sign itself: Making a bee pick!

You may recall the one I saw at bee club, with a nice carved handle. It was suggested we could make our own using cardboard and duct tape. But the spam sign is even better. It's durable and waterproof and it comes with perfect corrugated channels for holding those bamboo skewers in alignment.

I cut out a rectangle, taped the bottom edge with foil tape (which may not be necessary), and carefully put a couple drops of Gorilla Glue into every other channel.
Then I inserted the skewers and adjusted them so the middle ones stick up a little more, and laid the pick flat to dry. I put a brick on top to keep the skewers aligned and in the same plane.
Voilà! My very own bee pick.

I'm thinking, looking at the original, that maybe I should have a skewer in every channel, and I should make it wider. The glue probably oozed up around the skewers because of the tape across the bottom. So we'll call this one a prototype. It took all of five minutes to make, so that's OK. I'll make another.

I'm calling it a "bee pick" because "bee comb" is too easily confused with "honeycomb" and the original reportedly started out as two afro-picks taped together. Soon I'll be ready to tease those bees into place, too.

First sting

I've never been stung by a bee before that I know of, so I had no idea if I was allergic. Supposedly even tests by an allergist aren't all that accurate, so you're best off just waiting until you get stung to see.

If you get stung on the forehead and your eyelid swells up, for example, that's considered a local reaction. If you get stung on the foot and your eyelid swells up, that's a systemic reaction, and you'd better carry an epi-pen after that.

Looks like I fall into the first category, minus the eyelid-swelling, happily. Also the category of should-have-known-better. I went to take more pictures in front of the hive, but I didn't follow my own rule of always wearing a hat. The bees saw my dark hair looming in front of their door and bzzzt! one nailed me, right next to the scar I got from falling off my bike when I was 7.

Frankly, it didn't hurt all that much. I scraped the stinger off with the blade of a knife (to avoid squeezing more poison in) and put a dab of bleach on the spot. An hour later, there's a bump about the size of a mosquito bite, if that, and it doesn't feel like anything.

So that's good news! Hooray!

Busy bees

It would appear that the bees in the bee gum have survived the winter OK. Today they were busily zooming in and out. I tried to get a picture of a bee with full pollen baskets, but boy, are they fast! You can see one on the upper right, all blurry, coming in for a landing.

I was sitting right in front of the entrance with my camera, and I could hear all the bee traffic stacking up behind me like a busy day at O'Hare with only one runway open. When the buzzing started to take on a slightly irritated quality ("C'mon, lady, you're in the way!"), I just leaned back and business continued as usual.

Part of that business happened to be hive cleanup, as I discovered when an undertaker lurched out and landed on my leg.
She was carrying a partially developed adult bee that I'm guessing froze in its cell or failed to develop for some other reason.
Kind of freaky-looking, isn't it? Like a ghost bee.

My swarm cards arrived and I passed some out to my neighbors today. Everyone's enthusiastic about looking for bees now!

How to build a swarm-catching box

If you want to catch a bee swarm, you need something to put them in. Any kind of box will do in a pinch, but a little extra preparation will make the process more comfortable for the bees and easier for you. I learned about swarm boxes at bee club.
A copier paper box is about the right size, has a removable lid and is readily available. You also need some screening and tape. It's good to use foil tape, since you may be misting the screen. Duct tape tends to fail if it gets wet. Foil tape costs about $7 a roll.

I have some screen from doing repairs. You could cannibalize an old screened window, or use whatever netting you happen to have around. Maybe a crinoline, mosquito netting, or ... hey, you don't need that wedding veil anymore, do you?

Cut a squarish hole in the box (I traced a 4-inch card box as a guide). Tape the edges to seal them, then tape in the screen.
You also want to have a bee door. Once you've gotten the bulk of the bees into the box, you'll put the lid on, but leave this 1x2-inch trapdoor open on the end. If the queen is in the box, you should have some workers around this entrance, fanning away and telling everyone, "Hey, get your bee butts in here!"
I put a tab on the door so it's easy to open and close. It can be taped shut with masking tape for transport. I also taped up the handle holes. Once most of the bees are in the box, you want to leave it in place with the bee door open for a while so most of the scouts have a chance to join the group. Then close the bee door and go.
That splotch in the lower left corner is a drop of lemongrass essential oil, which reportedly is attractive to bees. I am also contemplating putting some beeswax on the inside of the lid for extra homeyness. Painting the box to look like a quaint English cottage is also an option.
If you need to take the bees in the car, you may want to mist the screen with water or sugar water so they don't get too hot. Hive them just before dark, or do it first thing in the morning. They'll be clumped up in the top of the box, so look through the window to see where, then carefully lift the lid, position it over the hive and jerk them in or use a bee pick to lower them in.

Voilà. Free bees!

P.S. Now you can see this swarm box in action! Click here.

Stitch 'n' Stuff

The first recipe of Jen's that I ever tried to make was scallion pancakes. Mine didn't turn out very well. So it was great to sample the real thing yesterday with some other crafty gals at Jen's place in the mountains for what I'll call Stitch 'n' Stuff. Not much bitching going on, but plenty of face-stuffing.

There were potstickers, and pickles (gotta try that recipe).

And yummy yummy soup with mushrooms and lily buds.
I would've been perfectly happy with that as the entire meal, but no.
Stir-fried rice cakes! And asparagus chicken!

Uffda. That was a lot of food, and all of it delicious. I regretted not wearing my fat pants.

Outside the weather couldn't make up its mind. Snow squalls, followed by brilliant sun.

Snow obscured the mountain view:
Then the sun made dessert photography tricky. (Yes, that's Manisha.)
Berry bars and macadamia nut blondies. Had to try them both. Then we got down to business.
Talented bunch of women! I kicked myself for not bringing a bee project instead of knitting. It's not like I really need another scarf. Ah well. It was relaxing, and also gratifying to know I hadn't completely forgotten how to knit and purl.

Even if I had, I would have taken consolation in some puppy lovin'. Kaweah doesn't look like a senior citizen, does she?
She was keeping her girlish attitude with the help of little Miss Sonora.
All together now: Awwwwwwwww!

Thanks for an awesome meal and relaxing afternoon, Jen!

Jury duty

So this is where I spent the day yesterday, at the City and County Building on jury duty.

I've done jury duty here before, and it was a pretty short trial, so I had my fingers crossed. The odds were in my favor; most of the trials are 1-3 days.

I had a book with me but wished I'd brought an iPod, too. Still, I didn't have to wait very long before 18 us were taken down to County Court. Six people were needed for a criminal case lasting not more than a day and a half, and possibly only a day.
In the questioning phase, the prosecutor tried to compare "reasonable doubt" to a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces: If you see most of the picture, you can be reasonably sure the rest of the picture matches. Most of the potential jurors agreed with him. I said, "Well, that just tells me you have a lot of missing pieces."

Then the defense attorney asked, "Would you say my client is more guilty or innocent at this point?" The potential jurors hemmed and hawed. He looked at me (I'd already established myself as a loudmouth). "He's innocent! He has not been proven guilty of anything." The defense attorney beamed.

Well, I was really kind of hoping I would get a nice afternoon off, courtesy of the prosecutor, but it wasn't to be.
So, the case. Total Jerry Springer. A whole bunch of he-said-she-said, screaming, cussing, rock-throwing, hoe-jabbing (or was it a shovel?) and dueling 911 calls. One count of third-degree assault and three counts of menacing.

The judge was quite gracious through it all, whereas I would not have near the patience. Imagine hearing cases like that all day, every day.
When all was said and done, the prosecutor didn't have a case at all. Talk about your missing pieces. The witnesses (who were also the plaintiffs) all contradicted each other on some very basic points, but were suspiciously consistent on the one "threat" that supposedly justified the menacing charge.

I ended up feeling pretty sorry for the defendant. He actually had a pretty good case to have the plaintiffs charged with assault. His attorney was embarrassingly inarticulate, too, but the facts of the case spoke for themselves.

We had a couple of breaks where we could wander the halls or sit and read. When it came time to actually deliberate, that took all of 10 minutes. We were all agreed except on a couple of minor points arising from misunderstandings. Once that was cleared up, we headed back to the courtroom and I got to read out the pronouncements of "Not guilty" on all the charges (yeah, guess who was forewoman).

It was a very interesting day and I'm glad I had a chance to serve once again. We always joke about ways to get out of it, but it's not really that hard, and it's what makes our justice system one to be proud of. If that were you in the defendant's seat (or the plaintiff's), you'd want some critically thinking jurors sitting there, too. Wouldn't you?

Beekeeping class

Sunday was a beautiful day for a drive up to Frog Belly Farm outside Longmont to take a class on beekeeping offered by Corwin, Karen and Amy of backyardhive.com.

They brought along a couple of their hives, which Corwin has refined over the years from the top-bar hives created by Peace Corps volunteers for use in Africa.
They are smaller, cheaper and easier to manage than the box-type hive you are used to (known as a Langstroth hive, or Lang).

A typical Lang consists of rectangular frames into which beekeepers insert pre-embossed wax foundation. The bees use the foundation as a template from which to build up the wax cells for holding honey.
This is a fairly efficient way for beekeepers to get more honey faster. When they harvest, they take out the frames, spin them in a centrifuge to get the honey out, then put the frames back in the hive for more honey.

But if your goal is to provide a good home for pollinators with a honey harvest as just a fringe benefit, the top-bar hive is touted as more bee-friendly. The bees draw out their own comb, using the top bars as a guide. Their natural honeycomb-cell size is smaller than most commercially produced foundation, and this also seems to promote the bees' health and resistance to pests. Which makes it easier to keep them organically.
Did you know that commercial bees are regularly dosed with antibiotics and other drugs? Yuck. It never even occurred to me that they might be.
I just happened to encounter the organic, no-treatments side of beekeeping right off the bat, happily; it meshes with how I garden. And the top-bar hive looks like it will be much easier for me to manage (love that observation window, especially). But it's all still considered somewhat subversive. (!)

This class went over a lot of stuff that I'd already learned through my research, but it was good to see and handle some of the products of beekeeping. For example, pollen:
Bees collect it from plants and carry it back to the hive packed into little baskets on their hind legs. (Why are bees furry? Their fur exerts a nice little static pull on that fluffy pollen, just like a stubborn piece of lint you can't seem to shake off.) They store the pollen in their comb and later mix it with a little honey to make bee bread. Nom nom.

Have you ever had Nerds candy? Pollen tastes a little like that. Kinda fruity and tangy.

There's also propolis, which is the sticky sap that trees exude around their new growth or to cover up broken spots. It has antimicrobial properties, and bees gather it to glue things together in the hive and to seal up holes.
This ball of propolis was formed by scraping off different parts of many beehives over the years. It's the propolis equivalent of the world's largest twine ball.

Bees also produce something called royal jelly, from a gland in their heads. It's fed to the worker larvae for three days, and to the queen larva for six. It's what makes her become a queen. See, it's the workers who decide whether they need a new queen or not. They will put an egg in a larger queen cell and fill the cell with royal jelly for the larva to eat. Here are a couple of queen cells:
As an experiment, Corwin carved his own queen cell and stuffed it in a hive. Sure enough, the bees filled it up with royal jelly! Pretty clever.
When I was in China, people would bring me vials of royal jelly when I got sick. I don't know it if it worked as a health booster, but it tasted good. The snake bile cough syrup was OK, too.

Finally, we got to sample some comb from that hive you see above. Sadly, the bees were doing really well, making it through the winter with plenty of stores left, but a recent huge windstorm blew off the top of the hive and they froze.
It was good honey, too.

We went over a few of the practical points of setting up and maintaining a hive and then suddenly the class was over. I emerged blinking into the balmy afternoon to find a bunch of baby goats gamboling about.
A cute end to an informative day. Bring on the bees!

What is it? No. 31

Hey! It's been a while since I did one of these. Can you guess what it is? Click on the photo to see if you're right. As always, no spoilers in the comments, please!