Milking Again & Baby Goat Naming News

I'm only milking Daphne at present.
It's not a lot but it's welcome.

Why has it taken so long? Well, for a number of reasons.

Once a day milking means being able to share the milk with the kids. Once they are two weeks of age, they are able to spend the night in a pen near to, but separated from, their mother.

"But we don't want to be separated from Mom at night."

At that age they are beginning to eat solids so hay is available to them all night. The morning milking is for the humans and the kids get it for the rest of the day. Their mom learns to not let down all of it, so they still get some for breakfast.

Breakfast at last. Daphne's twins are now 2 and a half weeks old.

Helen's quads presented a concern, however, because I need to make sure they are all getting enough. So far she's managed to feed them all herself without supplementation on my part, but as they get bigger my concern has been that the smallest kids will get pushed out.

Helen's quads, now 6 weeks old

The solution for that is to alternate separating two per night, to make sure all are getting enough. If one looks a little behind, it gets to stay with Helen for as many extra nights as are needed.

Our set-up caused somewhat of a delay on this front, because we only have two stalls in our little goat shed. I had to wait on Daphne to kid before I could start separating any kids at night. Daphne's twins turned 2 weeks over the weekend, so Sunday night they, and Helen's two biggest, had to spend the night next to, but not with, their moms.

"We missed our milk!"

Other goat news is that the kids all have names now. Of the quads,

The only doeling is Jessie

Woody

Buzz

Are you catching on? They're official names are Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story Jessie, and 

Dancin' Cowboy

Daphne's twins are

Constellation (Stella for short)

and

Velma

Velma and Woody will be going to new homes toward the end of June. I will keep Jessie and Stella, and maybe one of the other two bucklings. For now, however, everyone is happy and healthy. I couldn't ask for anything more.

Milking Again & Baby Goat Naming News © April
 2015 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Hiving Success! (But I Wish I'd Gotten Those Bee Gloves)

Honeybee pickup was Saturday, although there was some question as to whether the rain would cause a postponement. It poured all Friday night but Saturday brought clearing skies and sunshine - perfect!

3-pound package of Italian honeybees. They are clustered
around the syrup can & queen cage at the top of the box.

I originally planned to bring the package inside on the back porch temporarily, but changed that to the bench outside the porch door. That was because the bee pick-up area had bees flying everywhere and the packages had dozens of loose bees on them, including the package the gentleman handed me. All the way home I could hear busy buzzing in the back of my jeep. After I got them unloaded, I lightly sprayed the package screens with sugar syrup mixed with a touch of Honey-B-Healthy. By the time I came back out with my camera, all was quiet as the bees feasted.

The exciting moment came during the installation process after I removed the sugar syrup can. I pulled on the attached shipping strap to which the queen cage was supposed to be attached. No queen cage! Now what. I was pretty sure it was on the bottom of the package under a pile of bees. I quickly called the bee folks who told me to dump them into the hive and try to catch the cage as it fell out. Just what I wanted to hear, especially since bee gloves are still on my to-get list.

I procrastinated getting bee gloves because I hadn't planned to use them for this procedure, although I know they're handy for certain situations. It appeared I had one of those certain situations. I grabbed Dan's welding gloves which are way too big and therefore awkward, but I managed to catch the queen cage and proceed as I was supposed to.

With a Warré hive the bees are dumped into the top
box. The queen cage has already been placed on the
top bars of the bottom box. The package is leaned by
the hive entrance for whatever doesn't get shaken out

The next morning (yesterday, Sunday) it was raining again. Less bees were flying but some were on the outside of the hive. I checked my feeder and added more sugar/HBH syrup. Lots of bees were busy feeding which made me happy. The package box was empty so I took that away. The weather is supposed to clear in a day or so and I'll check the queen cage then. I'm fairly certain she's free because I followed the advice to poke a small starter hole in the candy.

Some of you have asked about the placement of our hive. I tried to choose a spot which would have a decent amount of summer shade, plus be protected from bitter winter wind. Below is a detail from our 2015 Master Plan.

Detail of our current Master Plan including bee garden and more.
Things we've added are in blue. The blue lines indicate fencing.

The red dot is where Honeysuckle Hive is located. On the full version of the plan that side yard is named "Bird Garden." As you can see, we have renamed it "Bee Garden" because I believe it will accommodate several more hives. What's nice is that I can see the hive from my kitchen window (near the blue dot which is one of our rainwater collection tanks).

So far so good! I still have a lot to learn, but I'm looking forward to learning it. While I'm at it, I think I'll get a couple pairs of bee gloves. :)

Next - First Hive Check

Hiving Success! (But I Wish I'd Gotten Those Bee Gloves)
© April 2015 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Essential Oils and Feeding Bees

Not too long ago I was reading Kaat's post at Robin Hill Gardens about making candy boards for her honeybees. I saw she mentioned adding Honey-B-Healthy to the mix. I had no clue as to what that was and had to do some research.

Honey-B-Healthy (HBH) is a feeding stimulant which is added to bee feed as a supplement. It was developed at West Virginia University from research done by J. W. Amrine and R. Noel, Jr., on the use of essential oils (EOs) for controlling honeybee mites. It has been developed into a product for sale, but also(!) I happened across a recipe for it at The Wasatch Beekeepers Association website. The recipe would enable me to customize it a bit, so I decided to buy the essential oils and make my own.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of water, 1 cup of honey or 1:1 sugar
syrup, I capful of liquid lecithin, 1/2 ounce each of spearmint,
lemongrass, & lavender essential oils, plus 1 drop hand dish liquid.

The key ingredients to HBH are spearmint or wintergreen essential oil and lemon grass essential oil. Researchers found the spearmint and wintergreen EOs to be especially helpful in treatment of mites, however, the bees themselves didn't care for it. The lemon grass was especially appealing to them, so it became the other standard ingredient for HBH. The lavender essential oil is also offensive to Varroa mites, so it was an easy addition. Because water (in the sugar syrup) and oil don't naturally mix, lecithin and drop of liquid dish detergent are added as emulsifiers.

Dosage is 1 - 2 teaspoons HBH to 1 quart of syrup. In one of his videos, Chris Harvey at The Warré Store recommends 2 parts sugar to 1 part water, with 1 tablespoon HBH per quart for the initial feedings after installation. That brings us to my new feeder (made by Chris) which is said hold up to a gallon of sugar syrup.

Warré hive top feeder. It is placed on top of the top hive box (more here).
The bees come up beeways on the sides. Mesh keeps them in the bee area.

If you read the claims for Honey-B-Healthy, you'd think it's really the bee's knees: helps control Varroa mites, helps prevent absconding (which is where the bees, for whatever reason, decide they don't like their new hive and simply leave), faster drawing out of comb, helps prevent rejection of a new queen, helps calm the bees, and helps prevent stinging because the lemongrass essential oil contains some of the same natural pheromones that bees use to attract workers. The only negative is that it promotes robbing because the bees love it so much. The only precaution I could find is that EOs evaporate fairly quickly and so keep them and the HBH tightly covered until time to use.

Bee pickup is today if it isn't rained out, so I will know shortly whether or not HBH lives up to its claims. I'm hoping I won't need to feed for long because things are blooming around here. My honeybees will have missed all the early spring blooming, such as the fruit trees, but things like clover, honeysuckle, and the roses have yet to bloom. Then there will be the gardens. I'm also working on lists of new things to plant because I definitely want happy honeybees.

Resources:
Results of Research: Using Essential Oils for Honey Bee Mite Control
Essential oils used to control mites in honeybees (list of) WVU
Honey-B-Healthy at West Virginia University
Honey Bee Healthy Recipe at The Wasatch Beekeepers Association
Organic Treatments at Wolf Creek Apiaries
Benefits of HBH and where to buy

And one more, a video using honey as an emulsifier for the EOs.

Next - Hiving Success! (But I Wish I'd Gotten Those Bee Gloves)

Essential Oils and Feeding Bees © April 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/