Category Archives: Critters

Stories and photos of encounters with various animals, wild and domestic

Critters, Homesteading, ShepherdstownWV-1993-2017

Building Fences and Gates

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Building Fences and Gates

School’s out for the summer and I have managed to borrow my grandson to help me with some farm chores. We are repairing and building fences and gates. Yea!

Project One- Back Pasture Gate

First job we tackled was replacing the rotted gate post to the pasture out back. I had been propping it up with an angled t-post for awhile and it was getting ridiculous. Every time I opened the gate to drive the truck through, I had to pick it up and carefully maneuver it around . We had a nice fat Cedar post waiting around just for this gate and the two of us got her done.

Some of the Fence Tools
Some of the Fence Tools

Of course, it was not a simple one step job. They never are. It was also a lesson in tools. First we had to clean up the fence line, digging out honeysuckle vines, pruning back the lilac bushes, limbing up the Leyland Cypress, and then we had to bundle all the brush up and drag it  to the burn pile.  Then we had to pry out old staples, and set the electric fence off to the side. Next, we dug the hole with the scissor type post hole diggers, set the new post in and tamped it down with the six foot tamping iron/ digging bar. Then we drilled two big holes- to screw the hinge pins into- with the half inch drill and a long extension cord. Finally we nailed up a board for bracing, re-stretched and stapled the woven wire to the post and hung the gate.

Long Handled Fence Stretcher
Long Handled Fence Stretcher

Oh, and then we added some insulators and replaced the electric fence attached to it. Whew. It’s gorgeous and the gate now swings freely on it’s hinges.

Rehung the 12 Foot Gate
Rehung the 12 Foot Gate

Project Two- Front Paddock Fence and Gate

Next for the little paddock fence out front, a corner of which is also the bee yard. This area was originally a cut flower garden and the fence consisted of two foot rabbit wire with a couple strands of smooth electric wire later added on top to keep the horse in.  The marauding herds of deer have since beaten it down. We had to first prune back a forsythia hedge to expose and then remove all the rusted wire. Jeff worked on that awhile and then my grandson finished it. It is kind of fitting that he is wearing his FFA (Future Farmers Of America) shirt while doing this work.

New Woven Wire
New Woven Wire

We set in eleven more fence posts ( Blayne did most of the work) and strung four foot high woven wire  for this paddock. There was already a working truck gate but I wanted a people gate by the bees, so we built a four foot wide wooden gate in the garage and brought it out when the wire was done.

Building the Bee Yard Gate
Building the Bee Yard Gate
Hanging the Bee Yard Gate
Hanging the Bee Yard Gate

The finished fence makes me happy. I love getting these projects crossed off the list. Some jobs require help, and this is one of them. I am appreciating my grandson and his willingness to work. Plus, he is getting experience with saws and drills and all sorts of fence building tools.

Project Three-Chicken House Again

In the interior of the barn there is a very sheltered area that expands the chicken space, especially useful in bad weather. It is handy to have when I need to separate different groups of chickens, and right now, with so many chickens, we need the extra room. The wall I used to have was thrown together from scraps and not very user friendly so I tore it down recently while I was cleaning the barn. Yesterday we  built a hinged people door and a chicken wire wall  and we will add some nest boxes and roosting poles tomorrow. Oh. And a swing for the chickens to play on. There is already a little chicken door that can join it to the main covered run.

New Inside Chicken Gated
New Inside Chicken Gated

I am having so much fun with all these projects. Eventually, I suppose I will be caught up and will have to find some paying work but I am trying not to think about that too much. For now, I am enjoying my grandson and my critters.

Pastured Chickens
Pastured Chickens

-Wendy lee, writing at edgewisewoods.com

Bees, Critters, Homesteading, ShepherdstownWV-1993-2017

Catching a Swarm

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Swarming Bees

I was out in my garden this morning  when I first heard the swarm of bees. I searched for the source of the sound and saw thousands of bees madly flying around  in the top of a walnut tree nearby.

Swarm Zeroing in on the Walnut Tree
Swarm Zeroing in on the Walnut Tree

They were about fifty feet up. I went and got my digital camera to zoom in on the upper branches for a better look and finally focused  on a  large mass of bees hanging from the branch tips in the upper reaches. I watched as they calmed down and huddled together after about an hour of buzzing about. They would have to land in such an un-reachable tree. I did not want to lose all these bees. There were thousands of them. I have purchased five new sets of bees this year, in smaller quantities than this,  and they cost from $100 to $165 each.  I wanted to capture them and keep them home.

So High Up There

I have caught a swarm once before, a few years ago, when a friend left his bees untended at my place, but they had landed in a young apple tree and were only about ten feet off the ground. How in the world was I going to get to these? I wish I had a bucket truck. I decided to call Storm, a fellow beekeeper who is also a tree pruner, to see what he thought. He was nice enough to come right over to assess the situation. They were too high, even for him. He suggested that I rent a man lift from Jefferson Rentals over in Bardane, which is only about seven miles away, so I googled their number and called them. They had a forty five foot high, tow behind unit for $190 that I could have until Monday morning. I only needed it for about an hour and decided to ask my son in law if he was ready to paint the high end of his house yet. Might as well get our money’s worth. I drove over with my pickup right away. The guy at the yard talked me through the operating instructions and I pulled it home, every once in awhile taking  a nice, deep, calming, yoga breath.  This was turning out to be an intense day.

When I got home I backed the unit up to the tree, shut the truck off and climbed out. I was going to inch it forward a bit but then the truck battery died, so I gave up on that and started leveling the four hydraulic anchor feet. That took longer than expected and used a lot of battery power. I could plug it in to 110 house current if I was closer to the house but I would have to rely on the string of batteries out here. I had a fleeting vision of being stranded at the very top of this man lift with a bunch of mad bees and no battery power to get me down. I tried not to think about that again.

Going Up
Going Up

Once the unit was level it was easy to climb into the basket and maneuver it upwards from the second control box .  First I put on my bee jacket and gloves. I had to trim a few branches with loppers on the way but nothing major. I got right under the swarm and was able to reach up to clip the three branches it was draped on.

Bee Swarm
Bee Swarm

I clipped the first bunch and they landed kind of hard in the 20 gallon plastic bucket I had brought up.  I lowered the rest more gently and put a lid on them. Time to go back down. It was a little rickety feeling up there when the boom was fully extended but the base stayed stable so it was all good. Jeff looked small way down there.

Way Down Below
Way Down Below

Once I was back on the ground, I dumped the bucket of bees upside down over a double-deep hive body with a syrup feeder and nine frames of foundation in the lower box, and put a cover on it. Hopefully they will like their new home and stick around.

I am not sure yet if these bees are from my hives or if they were passing through and were enticed down by my bee yard. I will have time tomorrow to go through my five hives and determine that. I will be looking for queen cells, which I did not see the other day when I inspected them. I have been  feeding them pollen patties and sugar syrup every few days, and have added an extra deep box to two of them when they seemed to be running out of room. Two days ago, there were still empty frames left for them to fill. Bees will leave if  they run out of room.  I am hoping that these are from somebody else’s hive nearby.

When we were finished, we had to go buy a new battery to replace the five year old one in my truck. Then we drove it over to our daughters house so they could finish painting the high gables on their house tomorrow. It was kind of fun to be able to do this job and I will take it back on Monday morning first thing.

Never a dull moment at Edgewise Woods, Garden and Critters

-Wendy lee

 

Bees, Homesteading, ShepherdstownWV-1993-2017

Five Hives Now

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May 31, 2016- Five Hives Now

Last night at dark thirty I went to Geezer Ridge over on Back Creek and picked up my two Carnie Nucs, aka: Carniolian queen, 5 frame nucleus hives. I drove my pickup out through Martinsburg on Dry Run Road, over North Mountain and right into a rainstorm covering the valley on the west side.

I backed up to Ed’s garage and he quickly located my boxes, sealed their entrance with duct tape and put them in the back of the pickup. I wedged the boxes between two boards and a couple of sandbags and then strapped them in so they wouldn’t slide forward if I had to brake hard. Now for the hour drive back home.

The rain stopped just as I crested the ridge heading back east. Looking in my rear view mirror, I saw the sun as a giant, blood orange orb, setting under the layer of dark storm clouds. Ahead of me was mostly clear.

When I got home to the bee yard I aimed the headlights at my hive stand as it was starting to get dark. I wanted to install them in their more spacious homes right away. The bees were buzzing fairly loudly in their temporary boxes so I figured I had better get the smoker stoked up. I had been hoping to not use it, but they sounded like they needed to be calmed.

Cardboard Nucs
Cardboard Nucs

I remembered Ed used a torch to get his smokers going and since I have been having trouble getting mine lit properly, it seemed the way to go. I located the propane torch in the garage and fired up the smoker with broken up pieces of locust tree bark. The torch got things cooking much better than the paper and matches I had been using.

I puffed the smoker occasionally, to keep it going as I made my way back to the bee yard, then twisted up some dried grass and added it over the embers. I puffed a little smoke into each screen vent on the nuc boxes, then opened up the two waiting hives removing a couple of frames from each to allow for more room to maneuver. Opening the hinged cardboard lid, I puffed some more smoke in to keep the bees on the frames, lifting and moving each frame over to their new box in their original sequence. Then I added the two empty frames back in, snugged them all together and placed the hive top feeders on. I poured a gallon and a half of sugar syrup in and put the top lid back on.

“There you go babies. Enjoy your new home.”

It was full dark as I loaded the empty nuc boxes and syrup jugs, along with the smoker, into the back of the truck. I shut off the lights and walked back to the garage to take off my bee jacket and veil, shooing off strays as I went.

Inside Empty Cardboard Nuc Box
Inside Empty Cardboard Nuc Box

Earlier in the day, I checked my other three hives and found various stages of brood in all of them, which was good.

Brood Frame with Drones
Brood Frame with Drones

The #1 and #2 package bees had not filled out all their frames yet but the nuc in # 3 was almost there so I added another deep hive box on top and moved two center brood frames up into it to get them started. I topped off all the syrup feeders and they still had some pollen patties left.

Open Hive with Pollen Pattie
Open Hive with Pollen Pattie

So now I have all five of my bee hives filled and can hopefully keep them happy and healthy and eventually get paid back in honey.

Five Hives Filled
Five Hives Filled

-Wendy lee, writing at Edgewise woods, gardens and critters

 

Bees, Homesteading, ShepherdstownWV-1993-2017

Farming and Bees

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Farming and Bees

While contemplating my honeybees this morning, I could not help but worry about them and what would happen to them with all the corn and soybean planting happening around me. Farming and bees do not fit as well together these days as they used to. My two package bee queens have finally started laying eggs (they had me worried) and the nurse bees are now actively feeding larvae. The nuc I just picked up and installed the other day is looking fine,  but all around me are fields of soybeans and corn that make me nervous. I know they spray Round Up right before, or even as they plant, to kill the wintered over weeds. Some of the weeds are in bloom and the bees could be on them and be sprayed as well. They will spray Round Up (glyphosate) again later when weeds start getting taller than the crop.  I got to thinking about neo-nicotinoids and whether or not the seed the local farmer uses is treated with it. He said he doesn’t usually spray insecticides, but if it is on the seeds, it does not count as spraying. It doesn’t even count as an insecticide application when studies are done, which is a technicality that needs to be fixed. I figured I would go to the feed store and ask them what kind of seed I could get to plant fields of corn and soybeans, and see what they recommended.

The Feed Store

So, I made a run into town for feed, gas and groceries. I made a list of what I needed at Southern States-

1.) Information and prices on Corn and Soybean seeds

2.) 10 more 6 foot metal T-posts to repair the fence in the back paddock

3.) Two bags of chicken feed, one bag of horse feed, and some birdseed as a treat for the bitties

I usually buy my feed from Southern States because their feed is a better quality than Tractor Supply, and is not crawling with insects. The Feed Bin over near Boonesboro has even better feed, really fresh, but she can be grumpy so I tend to avoid it.

I loaded up two gas cans to be filled at the Liberty station in Charlestown, where they sell gas without ethanol because, according to my repairman, using the normal gas with ethanol is why I have had such issues with my chainsaw, weed eater and lawnmower.  I also loaded up the propane tank for the grill, to be filled at the Tractor Supply store, where it is the cheapest.

As I was driving down Trough Road I saw a shiny blue, very large, tractor, with a spray rig all folded up, coming my direction, so I pulled off to the side for him to get by. He needed to turn to the field right where I had pulled off, it turned out, so I squeezed by him as he moved carefully around me. We waved at each other and went on. Then I thought,

“That was a missed opportunity to talk to a guy who knows what he’s doing.”

So I turned back around to see if maybe I could catch him outside of the tractor cab while he was setting up. Nope. He was doing all the setup and unfolding and everything from inside the cab, all hydraulically operated with switches. Darn. So I headed back towards town again. I didn’t want to get in the guys way, especially after all the wet weather we have had limiting the farm work lately.

When I got to the Sothern States it was a madhouse. It was bad enough that it was Saturday morning, but it was also the first morning without rain for two weeks. The whole back lot was covered with seed chutes loading trucks and trailers. All the seed I saw dropping into the trucks looked treated to me, with that pink fungicide color. In this weather, the seed would probably rot without it. I have had to replant my peas that weren’t treated, with all this wet weather.  Of course, my peas only take up about 15 feet of row, not like it is a major loss.  Inside, there were only some folks manning the registers, nobody from the offices was available. I went back there and found a couple of brochures on soybean varieties and management methods for wheat and corn, but I did not see a price list. Apparently, farmers work directly with someone in the office, to determine what their needs are, depending on crop history, the current weather situation, and the expected disease issues each season. All of them were busy elsewhere, so I brought the brochures home to read them.

Out of 30 varieties of soybeans available at Sothern States, only 2 were listed as conventional, which I think means, not genetically modified to allow for herbicide resistance. On this list 22 were engineered to be Round Up resistant and 6 were engineered for an alternate herbicide called Liberty Link. There are many different companies producing glyphosate herbicides and many other brands of seeds. The main thing is that conventional farmers choose their seeds and treatments according to cost and availability, and what they know will work for them. It is not going to be easy to change any of that and you can’t blame them when their choices are so limited. I read earlier today that sometimes there is even a money back guarantee if you buy the newest products they are pushing, with all the bells and whistles, and you get nothing if you buy the old conventional standbys.

After reading the brochures, it looks like Southern States custom mixes seed and adds whatever seed treatments you ask for. Acceleron is one of the treatments they list, which has an imadacloprid (neonicotinoid) systemic insecticide as one of its ingredients, which is supposed to limit insects only during early growth stages, or about 30 days.  There are fungicides in this product as well. The issue with bees is that during planting, the insecticide can become airborne in dust and coat any bees flying nearby. They carry it back to the hive and it gets mixed in with their pollen, wax and honey stores and contaminates the entire hive and the larvae get it fed to them.  Neonicotinoids are currently being researched for being a possible cause of colony collapse disorder because it may cause bees to become disoriented. It may also cause them to change their behavior so that they become precocious foragers, limiting their time as nurse bees. These growth timing changes can affect the whole colony’s life cycle. Maybe, if this insecticide is really needed (and it may not be) it could be planted as a wet mix to at least alleviate the drift concern.

I cannot imagine being a farmer these days. Just reading the pesticide information does me in, let alone the attributes of various seeds and their genetic changes.  Farmers have to be knowledgeable about so many different realms of plant science, have weather and luck on their side, and then be ready to put in really long hours to get their planting and harvesting done, during the right window of opportunity. There are no guarantees and way too many variables. You have to be an eternally optimistic person to pull it off. I have enough trouble with my chickens, gardens, horse and bees. I hope we can all find a way to save the bees, without making farming any more difficult.