Honey Harvest

At last we harvested some honey! We are only harvesting from our Olga hive as the Kitty hive is not producing any surplus. Olga has plenty for winter and a little extra for us to enjoy.

I want to thank all the readers who recommended Bee-Quick to me for getting the bees out of the honey supers--it worked GREAT! I have no basis for comparison for what some of the other alternatives smell like, but the aroma of this wasn't so bad. Although, I did learn that the oils will wipe off the little marks on your camera that let you know what setting you are shooting in--oops. What you're supposed to do is spray the Bee-Quick on a fume board.

When I opened the hive and looked on top of one of our supers, I saw many bees milling about amidst sticky propolis. Smoke isn't the most ideal option at this point. Yes, it will cause the bees to move from the top and be mellow, but it also causes them to open up capped honey and eat it--not the desired effect when you want to extract capped honey.

You put the fume board on top of the super that is full of honey that you want to take out. The super is the smaller unpainted box. The fume board looks like the hive roof on top of it. You let it sit there for about two to five minutes.

Here's what that same super looked like after three minutes with the fume board--a ghost town of honey and propolis. Pretty slick. The supers full of honey were very heavy and this time I drove out to the hives instead of walk to make bringing them back to the house easier.

"Why iz I stuck in back wit da beez?"

I don't know why, but I can only hear Cabal talk in an I Can Has Cheezburger voice. There were about three or four bees still milling about in the frames but they left by the time I took the supers back to the four runner, so Cabal was safe. I harvested two supers, a regular cut comb honey kit and our Ross Rounds super.

When I got the Ross Round super into the kitchen, I began to wonder how I was going to get the frames out. There was propolis in every visible nook and cranny. The frames are kind of wedged together as it is so as not to violate bee space, but they literally sealed the deal with the propolis. Perhaps they knew this super was for Mr. Neil and myself and they thought, "Okay, if they're gonna steal the honey, we're gonna make it as difficult as possible."

Never under estimate the power of a hive tool--an essential piece of bee keeping equipment that looks remarkably like your garden variety paint scraper. Anyway, it lives up to the reputation by prying open anything, including propolis packed frames.

I got the frames apart and inside you could see the rounds and excess foundation comb.

I took out the rounds and trimmed away the extra foundation. I place a cap on each end of the round and voila:

comb honey ready to go. It was at this point that I realized that the fantabulous logo that Olga has designed for our honey (we've even named it--Mr. Neil and Beechick's Dangerous Honey) is rectangular and most of our honey is in round form...we're gonna have to rethink the labeling a little bit.

Not all of the honey was capped. This means that it's "not quite ripe." You can still eat it, but it has a little too much moisture in it and it will ferment in storage. Some of this I will put out in a feeder to the Kitty hive to help her build up her winter stores since she is a tad behind Olga but some I will keep for myself. I really like it, it's like some strange chewy candy. The entire cell isn't quite full, so when you bite into the comb, it's a soft textures that pops little bursts of sweetness into your mouth. I think eating fresh comb straight from the frame is now in my top ten foods. And to think, about three years ago, I didn't like the taste of honey. I made fun of friends for eating their "bee vomit" (well it kind of is) but now, with my own bees I've raised with great friends, I can't get enough of it.

Here's the pile of our harvest. Keep in mind that this is just from one hive during our first summer when we weren't expect to get any honey. What will next summer be like when we have two hives in full honey production? Yikes!

And now, I leave you with some bee art that the Olga girls made. This is actually propolis that was surrounding one of the Ross Round frames wedged against the wall of the honey super. That Olga, she is so artistic. And true to form, she was our early on problem child, but the best honey producer in the end.

Holy Crap! Everybody Look Busy!

I can't stop watching and laughing at this video I took of the bees today. I just set my little camera on top of the hive and puffed them with the smoker. The smoker is supposed to mellow them out and make them go down into the hive body and eat honey. But in the video they look like bees on a coffee break and then when the smokers puffs, it's pandemonium as if they suddenly realize, "Holy crap! The human is watching, everybody look busy!"

I apologize to those who can't watch video, I don't have a photo to go with this one. A full bee update will bee up soon.

Har har.

First Bee Keepers

This is from Science Daily:

Amihai Mazar, Eleazar L. Sukenik Professor of Archaeology at the Hebrew University, revealed that the first apiary (beehive colony) dating from the Biblical period has been found in excavations he directed this summer at Tel Rehov in Israel's Beth Shean Valley. This is the earliest apiary to be revealed to date in an archaeological excavation anywhere in the ancient Near East, said Prof. Mazar. It dates from the 10th to early 9th centuries B.C.E.

It is estimated, however, based on excavations to date, that in all the total area would have contained some 100 beehives. Experienced beekeepers and scholars who visited the site estimated that as much as half a ton of honey could be culled each year from these hives.

Prof. Mazar emphasizes the uniqueness of this latest find by pointing out that actual beehives have never been discovered at any site in the ancient Near East. While fired ceramic vessels that served as beehives are known in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, none were found in situ, and beekeeping on an industrial level such as the apiary at Tel Rehov is hitherto unknown in the archaeological record. Pictorial depictions of apiaries are known from Pharaonic Egypt, showing extraction of honey from stacked cylinders which are very similar to those found at Tel Rehov.

A particularly fascinating find at the site is an inscription on a ceramic storage jar found near the beehives that reads "To nmsh". This name was also found inscribed on another storage jar from a slightly later occupation level at Tel Rehov, dated to the time of the Omride Dynasty in the 9th century BCE. Moreover, this same name was found on a contemporary jar from nearby Tel Amal, situated in the Gan HaShelosha National Park (Sachne).

The name "Nimshi" is known in the Bible as the name of the father and in several verses the grandfather of Israelite King Jehu, the founder of the dynasty that usurped power from the Omrides (II Kings: 9-12). It is possible that the discovery of three inscriptions bearing this name in the same region and dating to the same period indicates that Jehu's family originated from the Beth Shean Valley and possibly even from the large city located at Tel Rehov. The large apiary discovered at the site might have belonged to this illustrious local clan.

Read the full article here.

Bone Crunching Good & Birds and Beers

Warning, this might be a tad gross for some.

CORRECTION TO BIRDS AND BEERS:

Hey, we've scheduled another Birds and Beers at Merlin's Rest on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 at 6pm. Last time we had bird banders, new birders, experienced birders and even a few non birders. If you like a nice Irish pub and some talk about birds, meet up with us at Merlin's Rest.

Today, it was time to feed Juneau the peregrine falcon. She's the one I had on with me on KARE 11 last week:

"Food? Who has the food?! Where's the food?!"

Here's a video of Juneau in all her flesh rending glory (she's eating raw chicken, so press play with caution, you may not want to be eating yourself).

My favorite part of feeding a falcon is that its crop starts to fill up, they make a weird grunting/squirting type sound. Here's a five second video where you can really hear it:

What the heck is that all about?

And for those who can't see video:

Here's a photo of her tearing into that big hunk of meat.

As she finishes up, she doesn't care for the larger bones, so she rips what meat she can and then lets the bone fall to the floor.

And Julie was worried that her owl post was a little too gross...

Hawk Trapping Has Begun

My friend Frank Taylor opened his hawk banding station this weekend. I couldn't go because of the state fair and I'm so bummed that I missed it. I just got his report and found this in the notes--for this bit to make sense, you need to know that there's a bait pigeon on a harness and there is a net in front of the pigeon and a net in back of the pigeon. There's about 10 feet of space between the nets.

Monday was the most exciting of all! We got started at 6:30 am. There was no wind at all. It was supposed to start up and shift around to the southeast by noon with a chance of showers. I figured we would not see much and be out of there by noon. Around 7:20 while we were watching some shins, kestrels and merlins chase each other around the field, a thing that looked like a small airplane came floating in from the farm. It was an immature male bald eagle! It kept coming and coming and we figured it would just pitch up and sit in the tree above us like all the rest have done. This one pitched up but then came right down in the middle of the nets! Rick was in shock but ran out and scared it into the back of the front net. That is only the third eagle we have ever caught up at the blind in 38 years!

Here's a photo Frank took of Rick holding the eagle after they banded it. Frank's blind isn't aimed at attracting eagles but they are opportunists and will for anything. For those worried, the eagle didn't get the pigeon (I think Frank has only lost two pigeons to hawks in all his years banding--that's pretty good).

I'm not sure how much I can go banding, I need to save money for Cape May. Guess I'll be sleeping in the car when I go up.

Cockatiel Wolf Whistling

Below is our cockatiel (Kabuki) doing a warm up song. For some reason talk radio really sets him off. Yesterday he heard Paul Black reading some traffic and weather and he started wolf whistling. My favorite part of when Kabuki wolf whistles is that he holds his tiny foot up.

Wood Lake Digiscoping

So I headed out to do some digiscoping this morning. I didn't care what I would see, I just wanted to be out in some quiet.

I started at Wood Lake Nature Center and found some ducks still in their eclipse plumage. There wasn't too much action at first, I kept scanning the reeds hoping for even a great blue heron in good light. I stood and waited and thought to myself, just wait something interesting will pop up. As soon as I thought it, an adult red-shouldered hawk flew past--very cool, but not digiscopable. Then, a pied-billed grebe popped up out of the water--the closest I've ever been to one. I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or the grebe. The grebe paused and eyed me warily, I'm sure hoping that I hadn't noticed it mistake in resurfacing so close to a human. I wondered if I could get my camera off the scope and get a photo--it was entirely too close to digiscope. As soon as I moved, it dove back under water.

But, a female goldfinch was preening nearby and I was able to photograph her. I thought it was so cute that she was grasping a leaf for leverage to lean and get access to her wings--cute. I just love those little tiny toes grasping that leaf.

Speaking of goldfinches, Wood Lake has redone some of their gardens and the goldfinches were all over this plan. I'm not sure what it is, I'm going to guess prairie dock, but the finches were all over it. There at least three feeding on the plant in the above photo.

A male cardinal was perched near the finches. Take heart all you people with bald cardinals, here's proof that he feathers do grow back. If you notice, he's missing his crest but it looks like his feather shafts are growing back in. I got a question earlier this summer about a bald cardinal that looked like it had white skin instead of black. I wonder if that person was seeing the pin feathers growing in and not the skin? At a distance, several pin feathers look white. Here's a closer look at this male's head:

Plugs or Rogaine? No, it natural for the feathers to be growing back. Man, that's has to be a little uncomfortable to have a bunch of hard feather shafts emerging from your skin and fluffing out into feathers.

On my way out of the park, I spotted this Droll Yankee Big Top feeder. The bottom dish was supposed to be filled with black oil sunflower, but looked like it was full of grass. I took off the bottom dish and found:

A house finch nest! This is not the first time I've found a house finch nest in this feeder at Wood Lake. A few years ago, there were two nests side by side. One nest was empty and the other had smashed eggs inside. I'm not sure what that was about, was it two males competing for territory? Did the same pair build both nests? Who can say, but let this be a lesson to people who don't fill their feeders--the birds just may nest in them.

Cardinals Outside The Window

Can you tell which one is the female cardinal and which one is the juvenile cardinal in the photo below?

The cardinals in my neighborhood had two broods this summer. As soon as the first young were out of the nest and feeding, they started courting right away and laid a second set of eggs. The young from the second nesting are just now leaving the nest and the adults are bringing them around to our feeder. I was just telling Non Birding Bill this morning over breakfast that after all the work this week, I could really use some time to go out digiscoping and as soon as I looked out the window, these two perched on one of the wires in the alley.

This is the juvenile cardinal alone on the wire--it looks so dejected now that the female flew away and isn't feeding it. An easy way to tell them apart is that the female as the bright orange bill and the juveniles have the black bill. Soon the juveniles will molt into their adult plumage--they they'll really go through that awkward phase.

Cinnamon’s Big Night

Well, it was a very exciting night last night for Cinnamon. We went to watch Non Birding Bill do his children's theater show at a park near where we live. She was doing well and I was keeping an eye on all the people who were letting their dogs off leash when I noticed a distant Cooper's hawk. The hawk was bombing some smaller birds on the other side of the park. Cinnamon didn't seem to notice (she usually doesn't--when I've taken her to The Raptor Center, she seems oblivious to all the predatory leering). As the crowds of families assembled Cinnamon tested the limits of the leash to check them out and to see if they had any treats for her.

I love this photo. that little boy wants to pet her, but even he senses the disapproval. She did eventually relent and many kids got to pet her. However, once the show got underway, I heard a few warbler alarm calls and right over the crowd, right over my head, barely to the tops of the trees flew a Cooper's hawk!

Cinnamon did what I call her Dirty Dozen walk, where she slinks as low to the ground as she can and made her way to me and then hunkered. I'd like to think it was because she sees me as safe, but perhaps she was trying to camouflage herself with my pink and brown skirt? It's interesting that she sensed the danger this time. Was it because the hawk was so low, is she finally noticing outdoor bird warning calls? Does she notice the difference between the tethered birds at The Raptor Center from a free flying one?

The Cooper's landed in the tree in the above photo at about 11 o'clock towards the back. As soon as it landed we heard a red squirrel give it's angry trill. I never saw it leave and Cinnamon sat glued to that spot next to my leg for most of the performance. Towards the end she relaxed and meandered about again. I don't think the hawk was making a series pass for Cinnamon. There were far too many people about for it to make a serious dive at her. I do think it was taking a look, because all raptors are opportunists. Another reason I'm glad I keep her on her leash.