Edgewisewoods This Winter

It has been a rough winter here, starting out with a good size snow right after Thanksgiving, morphing into a “What happened? I thought Winter had arrived super early and now we’ve got nothing. No snow, temps hovering above freezing…What gives?” Then Winter came back with a vengeance and it got really cold and stayed there for days on end, dipping below zero degrees a couple of times and into the single digits on numerous mornings. I put my long johns on and kept them on for the duration. My tall waterproof leather Keen boots and beautiful, thick Smart Wool socks got a serious workout every day and have more than justified their cost. I had good traction and warm feet even in 13 inches of snow. I wore them to the barn to do chores, to work, and hiking as well.

This winter I finally managed to get a heated waterer for the chickens, actually a dog bowl, but they don’t care.  It keeps us from having to haul the galvanized waterer in to the house and thaw it on the woodstove. It doesn’t hold as much, but it is so easy to refill with the freezeproof hydrant out in the barn.

I installed that after the winter of 96 when we had FEET of snow and we got tired of digging a path to the barn everyday to water haul buckets to the horses. Sometimes I wonder why it takes me so long to figure these things out. I tried, once again, to put a tank de-icer in the horse trough but she will have not drink with anything floating around in her water. Maybe next year I will figure that one out. I broke the trough busting the ice out of it this winter and had to improvise with a plastic tub.

The chickens and horse came through the winter fine, laying well and staying healthy.

The dogs spent a lot of time in the house, even though I bought them winter jackets from a friend who makes really nice ones. They were great when it was snowing. I didn’t have to dry the dogs off each time I let them in, just shook off the coats and hung them near the stove. It was too cold to leave them outside all day when I was at work and they turned into couch potatoes quite willingly with very few accidents. They have enjoyed being outside here lately though and now lay exhausted on the couch. It was amazing how close they managed to get to the woodstove when it was seriously cold outside. The cat, Frieda, didn’t go out her cat door any more than she absolutely had to all winter. She loves her heated mudroom, as do we. It is so nice to leave all the snow and mud out there instead of traipsing it through the house. The covered porch/ woodshed was one of our better additions too.

Unfortunately, we did not get our skis out at all. I have been having issues with my shoulder and cross country with poles was not an option. Plus, it was really cold…

Bees -March 2015

My poor Italians did not make it through the Winter. They were alive in January. I could hear them quietly humming when I knocked on the hive. But when I opened the hive up on that warm Sunday March 8^th, they were all dead. There was plenty of honey left, so at least they didn’t starve, but I think maybe there were not enough of them to keep each other warm. It was very sad. The Russians were buzzing all over the place the same day, acting kind of frantic (which made me nervous) so I left them alone and did not open them until this Monday evening the 16^th. They were a mess. They had built comb bridging between some of the frames, there was almost no honey left, I saw no brood and I could not find the queen. I have never found a queen so it is possible she is on one of the two frames I did not move. I put a screened bottom board on to help with mite control, switched the bottom deep with the upper deep, and scraped out all the dead bees. There were way more fatalities than I

expected and now I am worried they won’t make it either. I disturbed them so much that I figured I would leave the one large mass huddled together alone and just feed them and let them rest. I will feed them again in a few days and look for the queen and some evidence of eggs again then.

I have ordered a nuc to replace the Italians and a 3# package for my new hive and I may have to buy a new queen for the Russians. A nuc is an already started mini- hive with a laying queen, some honey, some pollen stores, and a bunch of bees ready to go. There is so much to learn. I have been to two beekeeping classes the last two Saturdays and have joined the Eastern Panhandle Beekeepers group and been to one meeting so far. I was surprised at how many people were there. We filled to overflowing the meeting room at the WVU Fruit Reseach Station over in Kearneysville, WV. I’ll bet there were 150 members present for the monthly meeting. The weather was a major topic. A lot of folks lost some of their bees this winter. The bloom time of some plants the bees rely on has been delayed too. There was discussion about feeding pollen patties, sugar syrup, IPM (Integrated Pest Management) that will need to be carried out. It seems to be a helpful group. They set new folks up with mentors so they would have local support in their new projects. Three speakers talked about rearing queens, splitting hives, feeding and pest control. Like I said, there is a lot to learn when it comes to bee keeping. I have a long way to go but they are fascinating creatures worth learning about.

Wendy lee, writing at Edgewisewoods.com