Bees, Bees, and more Bees

So it has been a dream of mine to have my own bee hives.  I took classes the winter we moved out to the acreage in 2017.  Met a bee mentor, Arvin, whose bees I helped move about and tend, and then we moved back to town before realizing that dream.

I have room on my city homestead for some bees so last May I finally got two hives set up with the help of my bee mentor Arvin.  They hang out by the chickens, gardens and prairie.  

Going into winter I had one strong hive and one under performing hive so I was pretty sure I'd come out of winter with only one hive.  I made sure they had plenty of sugar through the winter and checked on them in March and still active.

From when I worked the hives
last fall looking for honey they might 
share with me

Working the hives solo last fall

Arvin came to check on them in April while I was traveling for work, and sadly both hives were vacant.  The week I got back I noticed that there were bees again and the volumes kept getting bigger the last couple of weeks until I saw bees oozing out of the strong hive boxes over the weekend.  I sent Arvin a picture yesterday and he agreed we'd better take a look at things.  

Something curious is happening
under the lid here.

This has nicely capped comb, 
drone cells (male bees), and 
a very large queen cell

Turns out the hive had a swarm move in (or maybe my bees came back who knows) but there were more bees then I have ever seen in one hive.  All three boxes were bursting at the seems and they were laying in the honey super (oops).

As we started working the hive we found drone cells, capped bee baby brood cells and TWO queen cells.  So we decided to move one queen cell, some bees and brood over to the second hive to see if both hives would take off with the new queens soon to emerge.  (Adding to the second hive in the left photo.) Arvin will be back in a couple of weeks to see how we are doing.

So right now we have two queen cells (the bees decided to make a couple of new queens to replace the current one they have laying).  As far as we know there is a queen in this mess of bees somewhere as there was fresh brood on much of the comb we checked.  The bees appear to be loving spring as they are bringing in pollen as well.

As we worked with both hives the larger hive was bursting out the bottom with bees (see photo right).  About that time we had agitated them enough that I got an literal bee in my bonnet and stung on my neck.  Trying a new sting treatment route this time to see if I can reduce the swelling. I got stung in Feb/March when I brought more sugar out and my left hand got very swollen.

In other news I did get to go to an all day bee seminar late winter and learned a lot.  One thing I need to do is turn my second hive or moved it a bit farther from the first one so there less likelihood of robbing to give both hives a better chance of success.

I also learned how to do a coming out of winter inspection to try to diagnose what went wrong with a hive that doesn't overwinter.  With bees moved into my empty hive I didn't get a chance to but learning more every day.  Excited to have bees.  

Hopefully they will flourish as my prairie gets going and all the neighborhood plants continue to bloom.  I live in a great part of the city for things that flower 8 months out of the year. We would love to have them share a little honey by seasons end so hoping for a good run, and that I can keep up with them.  I love learning new things.  :)

Building the Chicken Palace - Last round

 Here is the coop finish work coming together.  The darker blue is the chicken door hatch.  Still not in completion but making progress.  Below is the front of the coop all trimmed out but still needing paint.  Below is the human door side with the big door in and the window open for ventilation.  Still need to build a couple of steps up and add handles to the windows in these photos.

Left are the girls and handsome Amelio in the upper left of the grassy photo.  This was the chickens first introduction to their feeding container.  Below are the girls checking out their new roosts, feeder and waterer.  I had the waterer suspended but decided to put in up on cinder blocks still attached to the ceiling to keep them from shaking all the water out or tipping it over.  I still need to work up a process for keeping the water warm in the winter but I have a couple of ideas to try.

 
Here is the storage area loaded up with supplies for the coop.  I still haven't trimmed out this side but might get it done one of these days.

The last two pictures are the 

chicken yard.  I have buried the fencing 12" under ground to try to keep the raccoons and coyotes out of the coop.  I still have a little more painting to do on the chicken yard but it's getting there.  Need a little warm dry weekend and we may be out of those for the season.  The yard has a bunch of roosts for them to check out and a dirt floor for digging.


I also installed a floor mat split in half over the coop door so they can get in and out to cut down the wind from blowing in.  I'd like to eventually get a solar door opener and closer to shut the hatch instead but this will have to work for now.  

Now if I can only get the darn tiny brained birds to push through the flap to get in and out.  Well still a work in progress.  The tire on the ground will soon be a chicken bath with sand and dirt mixed together in their yard.  Always more to be done but never enough time or help to get it finished.  In the meantime we are enjoying the eggs and often have some extra so just let me know if you are in need of any.  Thanks for reading our adventures.

Building the Chicken Coop - Part one

The story of our coop creation in photos.  Abby was my build sidekick for the first week so she did several of the Lowe's runs with me to procure materials for what ended up being quite a process of getting an idea out of my head, onto paper, and built into a solid 3D structure.

Below is the base the coop lives on.  It is 5 feet by 8 feet and trenched into the ground and set on concrete blocks.  The pad is insulated between the top and bottom panels to help keep the chickens warm in the colder months.

Below are the walls for the coop all framed up and ready for someone to help me get them set on the base.  Abby is shown below just after three of us set and screwed together the walls.

The next photo below is of the roof joists
set on the walls and the plywood roof 
sheeting in place.  The end closet to the camera is a built in storage space for feed and bedding.  The bump out with the plywood to the left was our attempt at nesting boxes.

The photo below has the wall plywood installed as well as one of the two windows that open.  It also shows the metal roofing installed.

Below shows the coop from the human and chicken door sides.  There is a full sized old wooden door next to the window, and the coop door for the chickens is to the right of that (this is before it was fully installed).

The photo below shows paint starting to go on before the trim was installed.  The nesting box top is hinged so it can be opened from the outside.  I still need to switch the hinges to the top of the box so it opens better and get some insulation installed in the lid as well.

The storage space also has the doors installed in the photo below.

On the inside, below, this was after several coats of paint were installed to brighten the space as well as to seal it.

Below are the girls and Amelio exploring their yard space for one of the first times.  Getting too big to live in the laundry room by now.

One more post of the mostly finished product and chicken yard coming next.  As always thanks for reading.

Chicken Palace Adventure - Round One

Blue is chicken door

Human door side

So when we still lived in Ames we talked about getting chickens and could probably have easily raised a small group of birds on our lot after Neah our husky (who chased anything that ran) passed over the rainbow, however Joe didn't want to be that family that had chickens.  So we waited until we moved out to the homestead.  

The nesting boxes in theory

Our first summer was making gardens and getting the goats setup. But this summer my plan was to build a chicken structure and get some baby birds so the kids could show chickens for 4H.  All the photos in this blog are the culmination of six weekends (not necessarily consecutive) of mostly me building this lovely structure.  These don't show the final product but you get the idea.  I'll post a couple more blogs from the building adventure and of the girls when they were just little hatchlings over the next couple of weeks.

Storage for feed and bedding in back

This design was pulled together good features from other chicken blogs, Pinterest, and with function in mind.

It needed a human sized door (I had a couple spare lying around), a chicken sized door, nesting boxes, storage, insulation, water and feeders.

Water and food

Testing out the new roosting bars

I did a bunch of sketches which I will include in a future post and then off Lowe's with Abby and our first truck load of lumber.  
The first weekend Abby and I framed out the walls including the nesting box,  built out the platform and got that set into the ground.  Then over the following weekends I had help setting the walls on the platform, and then started working through the rest on my own as everyone else lost interest in the project.  

More details in the build photo diary coming soon.  Eventually I got the windows installed (after two tries), the roof installed, the walls insulated and closed in, and the girls roosting and nesting spaces wrapped up.  Last was loading in the food and water (we now have the water on concrete blocks and sealed all the floor seams after the chickens spun the water out the first week).  I learned the nesting boxes aren't really the right size and they keep kicking the bedding out of them so I have Brady Bunch grass and a lip to install soon to see if we can get them using the nesting box which we can access from the outside.  It also needs a good cleaning before winter hits.

Bob, Lacey and Amelio the rooster

Bob the friendly girl

For now they are all just laying in a convenient pile by the human door and we are getting 3-5 colorful eggs a day.  There are light brown, dark brown with speckles, blue and white eggs.  Just as diverse as our seven breeds of chickens.  There seems to be more than enough space for all eight of them in there and they all hustle in at night.  we getting them trained to come when we bring people food treats for them.  Instead of putting everything in the compost bin we are putting some things in the chicken yard and they love rotten tomatoes and watermelon the most.

First egg

My next job is building a proper chicken yard because the girls can escape from the one they have now and come winter the coyotes will be a problem.  I have to bury the fencing and come up with an automated way to open and close the chicken hatch although that will be easier once we have a door for the chicken yard.

So far we are having fun, except for when the little buggers escape as it's usually a two person job to corner them and get them back inside.  Although after Journey and Ginger got loose this weekend, one found their way back in and the other was more than ready to go back to the flock the next morning.  Stay tuned for more chicken adventures and chicken living upgrades.  As always thanks for reading.