beekeeping
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The busy beekeeper tries to tuck the bees in for winter
A twenty-five pound bag of sugar is empty in the kitchen. Dinner was delayed because the stock pot of bubbling sugar water was taking up most of the stove space. All of my pyrex casseroles are filled with sweets that we won’t be eating. A five gallon bucket and a paint stirrer are coated with sugar Continue reading
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A perfect Maywood day
On a clear crisp October day, where better to be than at Maywood, with a kaleidoscope of leaves floating earthward? And what better things to do than sawmill and introduce a new family to the wonders of beekeeping? Top it off with a dinner of grilled bluefish caught last weekend in Cape May, N.J. and Continue reading
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Not a bee, not a yellow jacket, and why is it out at night?
Enormous “bees” bounce off the glass of our front door. Dozens of them. Unlike moths, which flit annoying around light, or June bugs, which bump clumsily against the glass, these look threatening, like mutant yellow-jackets. They are so big they make a wasp look like a mosquito. They scare me. Yes. They scare me. Me, beekeeper wife, who takes a cocktail down to the bee-yard Continue reading
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On Labor Day and Hobbies
Work should not rule one’s life. I say that one week into the school year with a three day weekend to run errands, take a nap, exercise, and play around with beeswax. But I mean it. And I’ll mean it in October when my body is screaming at me and I’m stressed for time–although I Continue reading
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Honey Harvest 2012
If there’s anything more satisfying to a beekeeper than seeing buckets of harvested honey, it is seeing that golden sweetness in jars. It’s a little bit arrogant on our part to take pride in a good harvest since the bees make the honey, but there’s enough work on the part of the beekeeper to justify it. Continue reading
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Preparing for the honey harvest
Today was an exciting day as we got the hives ready for harvest. Today’s tasks: to put bee escapes on the honey boxes and put entrance reducers on the front entrance to the hives. The goals: (1) to get the bees to exit the honey box without getting back in, and (2) to try to prevent robbing Continue reading
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Adding more honey boxes…how sweet it is!
Eying a near-empty honey jar in our kitchen the other day, someone asked, “Do you still do honey?” Good question, since we did not harvest any last year. A rough winter in 2011 did in all of our bees, and a harsh summer did off two of the four replacement hives we bought. (Digression: The ESL Continue reading
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The Scent of Maywood: This Week It’s Wild Roses
A fragrance cannot be posted in a blog. Picture and video can provide sight and sound, but to really experience Maywood in spring, you have to smell it. On a walk down to the field to inspect the blueberries, the sweet smell of grass perfumes the air. Not the smell of a fresh mowed lawn, Continue reading
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The back forty
Here at Maywood, there’s the back yard and then there’s what’s beyond the back yard. That is John’s territory–down the hill and into the woods. It is not visible from the house. This is very important. If I can’t see it, then I can’t yell about what it looks like. Periodically I get invited back to see projects in Continue reading
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Convalescence, The Invalid Wife, and Emerging Bees
I’m convalescing these days. Convalescence is a great word, although we hardly use it anymore. It conjures up images of sickly people bundled up in thick blankets and wheeled outside for a bit of sun. Or rich sickly people doing the same thing on deck chairs of a cruise ship circa 1923. To my stressed-out co-workers it means I’m taking the winter off. Continue reading
Slightly Off the Grid 