Harvesting the hive was such an awesome experience. We decided to go ahead and see what we could get out of 3 bars that had become entangled with comb instead of 3 straight ones. We wanted to do this mostly so that we could place them back in and keep a regular check on them to keep them building the comb on single bars instead of spanning across 2 or more bars. The yield was 2 quarts this time. I’m excited to do it again, and hopefully this time we’ll get to see what a single full bar will yield by itself.
It’s amazing the amount of work and the quickness in which the honeybees can build new comb when they need to. The large comb in the video was about the size of a half-dollar on Monday. You can actually see the reflection of the honey inside the cells that aren’t completely full and capped. We have to find out yet when we can harvest a bar or so, but it should be very soon. From our reading and understanding, we can harvest the bars as they are filled, instead of a full hive harvest of the traditional style hives.
We’re going out for some much needed fun here shortly—quad riding at Peeple’s Lake! Can’t believe it’s been over a year since we’ve been riding.
Today about lunchtime, my brother and I decided on a whim that we would ride up to Pigeon Forge for the Rod Run for a few hours. We had a nice drive up until we ran into Townsend. We had to stop at the gas station right where you take a left onto Wears Valley Road. Upon leaving the gas station, within less than a 1/4 mile, we were pulled over for speeding. Naturally, the bright yellow car is going to get picked out of the pack regardless of everyone speeding.
The big problem came from the police officer, Officer X (got to find the ticket to get his name). This officer was the most arrogant, disrespectful officer I have ever came in contact with. Sure his attitude is enough to tick you off, but it actually was his complete prejudice towards us that was the tipping point.
The officer naturally would be a little jealous of someone less than a half his age driving the type of car that we were in, but I had no idea that political affiliation would persuade an officer’s attitude like it did. Naturally, we sport a very large Ron Paul decal on the Corvette. But this officer had the stones to assume that because you believe in and support someone that believes in Liberty across the board, that you have something inside the car that you shouldn’t have.
I’ve always thought it would be a neat little hobby to collect the old NES games that we all used to play so much when we were kids. Mostly because they now carry such a decent amount of age, and are a thing of the past—being cartridges. The boxes and manuals are nothing less than pieces of art.
eBay is the logical place to begin looking for them, but as I’ve found out a time or two already, shipping is a pain. Most sellers unfortunately don’t recognize the value that the original box carries to a game, and don’t wrap it properly to ensure that it doesn’t gain any wear through shipping. In a couple of cases for me so far, boxes that have left the seller in near mint condition, have arrived in the condition of being almost garbage due to crushing.
Now I definitely check with the seller before the shipping process begins, and if there aren’t padding mentioned and space between the game/box and the shipping box, I’m staying away.
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I got a much needed nice night of sleep last night. But the reason behind it was not needed…a migraine. It killed my evening yesterday, but not much you can do about that.
I’ve really got to do some reading to make sure that this isn’t a no-no right now, but my curiosity has gotten to me over the past week, and I just had to see how things are going inside the hive. Mostly because I was wanting to make sure that the beveled part on the bars were working as they are intended to, and to see if they are spaced properly to keep each comb separate.
We only pulled this one out to see, but as perfect as it looks, we’re going to assume that the others look just as nice. It’s nice to see the product of all of the fill-ups of the feeder so far, until they get to where they no longer require it.
It is soo nice to go outside now and see the plants and trees all filled with the colors of Spring—it makes me happy!
Last Spring, Chase and I ran across some plans for a top-bar beehive. Coincidentally, along that same time, we learned that our Dad’s first cousin has been a beekeeper for a long while. We built a hive a little late last year to order some bees in time for them to produce any honey without having to keep them all winter with no returns. So Dad ordered a hive of bees that came in Thursday or Friday, and were put into their new home on Saturday with the help of my Dad’s cousin.
Just as we have read, the bees really won’t bother you if you don’t show signs of aggression towards them. Sort of how our Foreign Policy was meant to be, ha! The number of bees is amazing. As well as how quickly they start tending to business.
I’m sure I’ll post updates along the way, along with photos of the honey when it comes time and the top-bar hive.
Few things in the world are more powerful than a positive push. A smile. A world of optimism and hope. A “you can do it” when things are tough.
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© Copyright 2007-2012 Shane Holden
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