Did a good deed today!

Today around 8:00AM I went to the farm. I hadn't been there for months. Wanted to see how it looked like now. Also a few weeks ago, my neighbor by the land called me up and asked me if he could let his cows into my land. I was estatic, I always wanted cows in the land, that is why I got the fencing done. I readily agreed. Not only they would clear up the land, it will also fertilize it with their dung. Cow dung is considered reverent and not considered 'poop', in India, it is well respected and have many uses including flooring, fuel and fertilizer.

I had my friend Vikrant Ruttala along with me, since my kids doesn't seem to be too excited to come along with me. We drove there in my truck, and we could get in through the first gate, but we couldn't open the next fence, since the earth has shifted and the gate has pulled away from the post, the metal tie was too tight to remove. I then got out and used another street to get to the third gate through which we pass to get closer to the pond and to the cement pad, where there was a house before.

Driving by, I met some of the cows, they lifted their heads up from what they were doing (eating) and had a puzzled look in their face to see who I was. One of them started come closer to us. Smell of cows and dung was suspended in the air, which wasn't there in the land before. But it wasn't too bothersome.

The water in the main tank is gradually dropping and I could see more stones poking out of there. There was one pink lotus plant which was out of the water, and I was concerned about it, thinking that it would have died, but found that it was still alive, even though not in the water, the ground around it was still wet. I used a spade to dig it up and threw them towards the middle of the pond, I am sure they were happy.

I showed Vikrant the land, he liked it much. I went to see the smaller pond(tank) which had cement walls, and wanted to see if there was water. Last time when I came here, there were a few black snakes and good amount of water in it and was wondering if the heat persists and it dries up what they would do. When I went to see the tank, unfortunately, it had dried up and no sign of the snakes. I felt bad, I am sure they couldn't make it. But I couldn't find their remains, it must have been eaten by birds of prey. But surprisingly, I found a few turtles at one shaded corner of the tank, I knew, they couldn't get out. They have piled them over each other, I thought they might have been dead. The clay there was all cracked up from the heat, so they didn't have anything to eat or drink possibly for many weeks. But I saw their heads poking out and it pulled in when I got closer to them.

I asked Vikrant about helping them, and he said he never handled a turtle. Fortunately for me, when raising my young son, Nikhil, we had a small turtle at home in a water tank and have touched turtle before, but it was a much smaller one. The unfortunate turtles were much bigger than I have handled. I didn't know if they would bite me(remembered snapping turtles)so I put on the gloves from my beekeeping line of work and jumped into the pond. I assessed the height to see if I could get out of it after I jump in, and it was only 3 feet deep. I took a plastic tray based on the advise of Vikrant and put all the turtles in it. and got out of the tank and put them in the back of the truck. We drove to the location where I normally access the pond and released the turtles.

They couldn't be happier. They all rushed out and swam around a bit and was so happy to be in water after many days in a tank where they couldn't get out and possibly dying a slow death. I was so happy that I could help those unfortunate critters.

On the way back, saw a lot of greenery, in spite of Texas going through a drought which hasn't seen in the last 50 years. The green plant, which I don't know how they get the water from, is broomweed. If there was water, I am sure they would have thrived everywhere in the farm. Noticed that the cows didn't seem to care about them, but fortunately, they are a bee plant, they were starting to put out yellow nectar filled flowers, and there were bees on them already!

Also I looked into the lonely beehive I have, and they seem to be thriving as well!

This is how the land used to look

 
 
 
 

Some pictures of the land I bought

 
 
 
 

Farm Visit and hatched chicks

At a client's closing on his new house, I mentioned to him(Anil) about my interest in farm and beekeeping. Anil told me about someone he knew who bought some land and is starting a farm. I couldn't be more excited, I wanted to talk to the guy and visit his farm. I came to know,this is the person I have met with before, a Cyric from Chicago. He works at the American Airlines, and he travels most of the week. He also just purchased a gas station with his partner Sunny. Next Monday, May 17th, I went with Anil to the gas station he ownes and from there we embarked on the journey to Cyriac's farm. I had no clue what to expect, but was very excited. The location is in Lockhart, past the Austin Airport on 183 S. He bought a 20 acre land which had a pond and nothing else. He fenced the whole land, got a bull and a few cows, some goats, and some chicken. He had an RV which he drove from Chicago in a single stretch, and parked it at the location while he got the house brought in and finished. He has electricity, Dish and water available at the location. He named his house Shanti Bhavan meaning Peaceful home in Sanskrit.

While we were there, one of the goats got stuck her head in the fence and couldn't come out, I notnoticed it and told Cyriac about it. We went out there and I helped hold strongly the hind legs of the goat while the other two freed the goat's head. It was quite an experience I didn't have in years. I remember the days when I was young and my aunt milk the goat we had in my grandmother's house and she would ask me to hold the hind legs of the goat so that they don't kick the milking container.

He showed me around his place, full of flowering wild flowers and great potential to do a lot of things. On my way back, Cyric offered me 4 eggs freshly picked under a hen in his coop. Since he had a rooster, I imagined, the eggs are fertilized, and didn't want to eat it. On the way, I got this idea about whey not try to hatch it? It would also be a great experience for my kids who are 12 and 3 to watch if it comes out okay. They also seemed to be very excited. Neelima, my 3 year old daughter told me that she will take care of all the animals I get, including the chicken. She has an innate ability to take care of others, I am sure, what God has given to all women, preparing them for running a family in the future and be the protetor of living being in the world, everywhere. I was excited again, since haven't seen a chick close in a long time, I rummaged through my garage and took my box where I keep my beekeeping items when a swarm call comes, and shredded some paper and put it in there. Thank you, Internet, after a few searches I was ready for the set up. Articles in the Internet was very helpful in collecting information about how to hatch chicken eggs. I borrowed Nikhil's (my 12 year old son)table lamp, replaced the bulb with a 40 W bulb and put everything by the front formal living area of the house. My wife Sreedevi didn't like the idea, and I moved the box and eggs upstairs to my room (it is good to have your own private room, so that you can experiment with a lot of things). I also added a flat plastic box filled with water. I went to Radio Shack and got a thermometer (electronic) I need to keep the eggs warm at 99-103 degree F. This gadget was very helpful in doing that, some times, the temp had gone up and I started to worry if all the eggs might have gone bad. Days passed by, my patience was wearing thin, I have to confess, but yesterday night, when I was sitting by my desk, I heard birds chirping! I thought it was from outside, but it was already very late at night, so it cannot be coming from outside, then I realized it might be my hatching box where the sound is coming from. I just couldn't believe it, I didn't realize it was 21 days already (the farm visit was on May 17th morning).

I never thought I could have pulled this off! Of course, it is (God)nature which has done it, but I hope I have created the right environment for it to come out well. I also found a crack on one of the eggs in the morning. Waiting for it to come out. I have put some grits and a small bowl of water, and noticed that the chick started to eat it and drink the water. So I guess, it is okay. I was worried if I might do something which might harm them. But I guess, God is taking care of everyone and everything....
The wire which you see is the temperature measuring device which has a digital readout outside the box. Yellow is the dish for water, you can see the other eggs in the last picture as well.

Queens alive and well

Last time, when I checked the hive, a week ago, the queens were out of their little plastic EzBz cages. I left them alone, I tried hard to see if they would show up on the frames, but I guess, I didn't look enough. But I am happy to announce that after many days of undisturbed hive, I couldn't stand it any more to see what those folks are doing inside there. I bit the bullet and suited up and opened the hive to see.
It was a good sight to see, bees are alive and well, and I finally met the queen running around there. I looked for eggs, but they are not there yet, the combs are not built big enough for the queen to lay the eggs, but I am sure when enventually the combs are built, she will lay the eggs and I am sure I will find capped brood. I guess I just need to be patient. I do have good patience, when I read over the blogs I read people are worried about if the queen is there, is she laying eggs and such, but I feel that nature has a way to take care of things of its own, and we don't need to interfere in it, just leave them alone. And that is what I am going to do for the next few weeks, so I might not have any updates. But I am still learning from bee blogs and movies uploaded on youtube about bees. Let me tell you, it is a great learning experience!

Queens out of the cage

Today opened up the hive to see what is happening. Was anxious all day long - is the queens still there? I didn't even get a good look at the queen after I got it, I was nervous and excited to install the package. And I am happy to say that, when I examined the queen cages today, both of them have gotten out. But the only problem is, I just couldn't spot them in any of the foundations. I guess, I didn't look enough, but I have a good feeling that they are probably there. I am a little concerned that the combs are not built as many as I thought the queen would need to lay eggs, but I hope the coming out of the queen might trigger the bees to build more hives. But I did see the classic pattern of comb building - there were some honey in almost all of the more built out ones, and surprisingly spots of dark orange pollen in a few. I have kept many sugar feeders at the entrance, so I am hoping that they would build out the comb pretty nicely. I guess, I don't need to touch the hive for the next 3 weeks or so other than watching to see if the sugar intake stands at good rate.

I noticed the bees have build wax combs around the queen cage, I wonder what they were thinking.
I also found a good independent comb built between the foundations, I guess it was because, there were only 8 foundations, instead of 9 when the queen cage was in between. I guess, I forgot to count and put in the right number. I am not sure what to do with the 'burr' comb, I didn't disturb it.

Also, i have installed foundations on the honey supers, I read that the will start to store honey there, I hope it doesn't distract them from building brood comb. I have put mostly Pierco white foundations, with a few wood frames with just starter strips. I hope I didn't do anything wrong by doing that.

I also realized that initially I put the honey super upside down, when the cover didn't close, I was wondering why, and then I realized that it was put in upside down (Hem, why do you want the world the know your stupidity? )
Anway, I thought it would be a lesson to folks who come after me to take a look at how to place the super before you start installing the foundations.

Bee Swarm Trap

 
In addition to having two hives at home, I have purchased a couple of Bee Swarm Traps to attract bees when they swarm. The bees swarm when they find their colony is too crowded. Then they decide to make queen cells, bigger than the regular hexagonal cells, and mostly hanging from the bottom of the hive. When the queen hatches, they leave with a part of the existing bees to start another colony. This is called swarming. The idea is to attract the swarm with the trap. Trap is made of paper pulp, dark in color, dark and quiet inside with just an entrance. Attractants like bee pheromone is installed inside the hive to attract scouting bees to pick the site. So far no luck, I had a call on bee swarm few days ago, but once I got there, all the bees left. Hopefully some of the feral hives I have been feeding might swarm and come my way. Since I cannot keep the bees, I am open to give it to someone who might be interested in beekeeping. They have to invest in some bee equipments, possibly around $400 or so. First thing to do is to get a Starters bee kit. I bought mine from Mann Lake Ltd. They seem to be the lowest priced, but the shipping can be expensive.

Day 3 of the bee installation

 
This is a picture of what my beehive and feeding looks like today. I have added entrance feeder (thank you, Mr. Oakley!) and gave the bees the sugar water (one part sugar & one part water). I have also left the cans which came with the bee package for them to savor just outside the entrance. Also added few more bottles which I used to feed the feral bees before. All my feral bees seem to have disappeared after my new bees came in! I guess they understood that there is some one else in the house - I feel sorry for them, but they have eaten over 75 pouds of sugar in the last month (I buy 50 lb bags of sugar, the biggest package you can find from Costco or Sam's Club - costs $25, $0.50 a lb!). I would love to see how their hive looks like it must be pretty big. Even late into evening, the bees have come out to feed from these extra kept sugar feeds.

In spite of my training duing bee pick up, I have decided not to close out the entrance of the hive after installation. Even though advised to just use the entrance feeder, I am using feeder outside of the box to see how they respond. I have a good feeling that they would thrive and build the comb faster when there is more food to eat.

I am not sure if the wings are clipped on the queen I have. While at work, when I was pining to see my bees, and to make sense of everything, I feared that if the bees didn't like my hives, they might leave en masse with the queen, and my $180 for the bees have just lost by their elopement! I sincerely hope it won't happen, and I am visualizing that the lady bees are building combs like crazy on my Pierco black plastic comb starter frame before the queen gets free from her cage!

Bees Arrived

 
I have been waiting since Nov of 2009 to have queen bees in my yard. And that wish was fulfilled on April 17th, Saturday. I picked up the bees from Bost Honey Farm in Georgetown and brought it home to install. I recorded and attended the instruction about how to install from Mr. jimmy Oakley who is a veteran in beekeeping over 25 years.
I was alone at home in installing the bees, so I couldn't get pictures of the installation process, but here it is - after I covered the hives, it is now ready for the rest of the bees to join the queen.
Each package you see costs $90. They contain one queen and 3 lbs of worker bees. Around 7000 of them. They multiply after they build the hive to around 40,000 of them on one hive! The stacked hive box, the upper one is used to store honey by the bees and for us to tap into to take the honey! I can't wait for that day...
But the journey, I am sure will be exciting, next wonderful scene would be the view of the honey comb all built up.
I will record my experience in the upcoming journal pages.

Catch a swarm - AUSTIN BEE RESCUE HOTLINE

To save bees from exterminators and common folks who think that they are a pest, we have set up a Austin Bee Rescue Hotline.
Please call 512-850-4313 when you spot bee clusters. We will come right over and rescue the bees!

My early journey in beekeeping - continued.....

Finally after much wait, the hive came in one day.
Here is the picture of all the parts.

Hive Parts

After looking at all the parts and assembling them, here is how it looked.

Hive assembled.

Now I have the assembled hive, I don't have anything to put in. I tried to train my bees to come to my hive by putting in the sugar water syrup I made and put that inside and closed the top.

It was wonderful to see the bees coming in through the entrance and going out, it gave me a feeling that I have a live hive, even though they were foraging bees. Who knows, maybe one day they will bring their queen to live in my hive. I am really looking to see if I can avoid buying queens or nucs, so that I can save $75.

But now, I was tired of waiting for Daniel to 'drop ship' me the feeder and the frames, I went ahead and ordered the black frames from Pierco. The initial shipment was lost by the UPS, I was told it would arrive just after Thanksgiving, but it was lost, they send me another package, and it came in just today. All 52 frames, which I don't need. I am intending to sell more than what I need to others who could use them. I am going to set a price of $3 per frame which would cover me the cost and shipping of the frames. These frames are durable, plastic, black brood frames which are pre coated with beeswax so that, hopefully the bees would just come and start building their hexagonal hives.

Here are the pictures of the frames in the box and outside.

The UPS guy came in too late in the day, I can't wait to put that in. I wish I have also ordered the 2 gallon feeder tray from Mann Lake - (I find those folks the best place to get all the parts -it is the most inexpensive place to buy beekeeping related tools, and other materials, I fully endorse them for their prices and their perfection in mailing everything.).

Interestingly, the same day the Pierco foundations came in, I got a letter from Daniel Korn of Korn's holy hives, in US Mail. This is how it read:
"Hem,
Don't give up the ship! I 'm still running a couple of months behind and did not realize the shipping is going to be $46 per box. However, I have the second box packaged and ready to ship. Hopefully soon! As I may have told you, the frames and feeder trays, I 'll drop ship directly from the supplier as I don't make those components. Please! Hang in there with me. Any questions about beekeeping please write and I 'll try to anser them.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
Daniel Korn
Korn's Holy Hives
800 Wisconsin St. Unit #18
Eau Claire, Wisconsin 54703.

From Mann Lake, I have ordered the preliminary tools and other material to get myself ready.
I bought a hive tool for $3, the smoker for $34 or so, (the most expensive item ) the head gear, two honey super frames (I know, too early, but was itiching to get my hands on them), and also 20 wood frames for the super without the plastic foundation (I wish I have ordered that as well). I also bought two swarm traps and swarm lures, pretty expensive, bee brush, comb scratcher(I know, too early on that as well). Only thing I think is lacking now would probably be the uncapper I was planning to buy an electric one, but that would be for later.  All the items are waiting to be used. I think I am now ready to start working with the bees, I am fairly comfortable with handling bees, one day I got stung, so I know how painful it can be as well.
I fed the bee which stung me some honey before it goes on to it's next life, I felt sorry about the bee, even though I was paining from the sting.

Newbie wanna-bee-beekeeper

I got interested in bees recently. Recently we put out some hummingbird feeders during 2009 summer season to watch hummingbirds. It had been great, it is so heart warming to see them hover in the air and drink the sweetness from the bottle. Along with that came a few honey bees and started to partake the nectar from the hanging food source. That got me thinking. A few years ago, a swarm had appeared in the front of my house, on an low branch of an oak tree and I was very excited. Never seen such a thing before and went closer to see what it is, didn't know what it was. Then searched the web to see what it is and figured that it was a bee swarm. I tried to call a few phone numbers I found but nothing materialized, I suddenly got an urge to keep the bees from the tree, but I had no clue about what to do. In the process of finding out, in the next couple of days, they all flew away and disappeared. That ends my quest for beekeeping, and never pursued beyond that.

Few years passed by, maybe 3 years, and I see bees again. So decided to ignite my desire on keeping bees. First I need to find out if I am allowed to keep bees in Austin.  Researched the Austin city information , somewhere I read that Austin City allows bees to be kept within the city limits! Yey! Read more, and found that if the land size is less than quarter acre, two hives are onl allowed. And the hive need to be 10 feet away from the boundaries. So Found a website, www.agriseek.com and found someone who sells beehives assembled, so posted there to buy a hive.

"Looking for two assembled hives, could you please email me the cost?
A gentle man named Daniel Korn of Korn's Holy hives replied:

Send $90 and I send you two assembled, Pierco frame and feeder trays installed, complete hives. Include your shipping address.

Send Money order, no checks, to:
Korn's Holy HIves
C/o Daniel Korn
800 Wisconsin Street,Unit # 18
Eau Claire, WI.54703

I didn't know what a Pierco frame was nor feeding trays where, again, Google to the rescue, found out more about them. I went to the bank and took a $90 money order and send it to him immediately and emailed him back about the mailing.

I started to be more interested in beekeeping, reading up and watching videos in youtube and combing through the catalog sites of Mann Lake Ltd, and others (I like Mann Lake, and ordered their color catalog).
I was waiting like a little boy for Christmas to arrive, but nothing came, I got very impatient and decided to get closer to bees.

I decided to attract bees closer. Read about sugar syrup, and made some sugar syrup - my wife wasn't very happy me 'robbing' her sugar, but I enticed her with the promise of free honey when I get set up and produced them. She didnt' have much problem after that. So I made the syrup and put ot a bottle of  upside down in the yard with a metal cap with holes made on them with a knife,  to see if I can attract bees, and lo and behold, here they come - a lot of them. I took my cheap Canon Powershot A400 and video taped them:
Here is the video.

 

Beekeeping in Austin, Texas for Fun & Profit

This blog is started due to the need of (and lack of) information available on the web about beekeeping in the Greater Austin Area. There do exist an exciting and vibrant group, named Williamson County Beekeepers Association and it is very active with over 75 members attending the monthly meeting. Here is the link to the group. http://www.wcaba.org/. This is a good thing. This public blog hopes to enhance the ability of interested citizens of greater Austin (Round Rock, Plugerville, Cedar Park, Leander, Georgetown, Bastrop, Hutto, Taylor, Buda, Kyle, West lake Hills, Rollingwood, Spicewood) to connect and share their experiences, pictures and insights on line to benefit and motivate others to start their own hives. Please feel free to post your experiences and wishes in this forum, you have equal right to have the postings as much as I do. Consider me as a facilitator to bring the online forum together and bring publicity to our noble hobby.