The Old Folks Home

[bamadude]

Thats funny

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Bama bees are so much fun to have. I tell people the first hive, the bees and the equipment you need to get started will set you back about 300-500$. I'd still have chickens if they didn't lay eggs, and I'd still have bees if I didn't get honey. I love seeing bees around the yard, and my garden does so much better with the bees around. The last 2 years that I've had bees I have not done any hand pollinating. The previous years I had to hand pollinate everything.

And the honey is delicious.

And I think I will be sticking to the floors and the counters in my kitchen for months.

 

[Wisher1000]

I am amazed how much honey I have. I've got 8 frames to extract, I've done 5. Every 2 that I do fill up the 9x11 baking pan. I've been straining it, and have already put up 2 pints and a couple of little jelly jars, and that was only a few frames. This is so cool. And I am gunna have ants. Everything is sticky.

Bama bees are so much fun to have. I tell people the first hive, the bees and the equipment you need to get started will set you back about 300-500$. I'd still have chickens if they didn't lay eggs, and I'd still have bees if I didn't get honey. I love seeing bees around the yard, and my garden does so much better with the bees around. The last 2 years that I've had bees I have not done any hand pollinating. The previous years I had to hand pollinate everything.

And the honey is delicious.

And I think I will be sticking to the floors and the counters in my kitchen for months.

SCG, how does one "extract" and "strain" honey? I am just curious, I guess I could google it......

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Great question, Wisher. We winged it. You're supposed to get an "extractor" and some specialized equipment to uncap the honey and then "spin it" so you save the cells the bees made (it helps them make honey quicker next year to have the cells made). However, we just destroyed the comb. I am going to try to render the beeswax later, maybe make candles.

Capped honey on frame


Uncap the honey:


Scrape the honey out:


Strain the honey (note it will still have little pieces of wax and pollen in it)


Note that you'll have a lot of wax:


And have honey:

 

[bamadude]

Cool. What do u use the wax for?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

You can make candles or other beeswax beauty products (lipgloss is a big one). I'm more interested in candles.

My mom wants some wax for lipgloss.

 

[vehve]

@ChickenCanoe No, she's been coming out a few times, I'm still hopeful this will go away without a broody box. I'll give it a few more days.

@superchemicalgirl That honey looks delicious. You can also use the wax on furniture, or melt it together with some paraffin wax (about 20% bees wax to paraffin wax) and use it for waterproofing clothes. Personally I like the crystallized honey the best.

Our beans are going crazy, we picked enough for 3 meals today, looks like we'll be eating a lot of beans next week. Also harvested a couple of cherry tomatoes and some lettuce.


And here's dinner tonight: Black Angus neck, fries and a feta-pecan salad

 

[Lacy Blues]

@Lacy Blues

Thanks again for the idea of grating the apple to see if my girls would eat it. I tried that trick today but alas, they are not apple fans

They are the fussiest (probably spoilt) chickens .. they also do not eat their peas!

I could try half an apple but I believe they will avoid it the same way they did the corn on the cob "It's a chicken trap .. run!"

I am thinking these gals might be too well fed .. if they were hungry they would eat it!

They do love their lettuce which, of course, has the nutritional value not much higher than water!

That's what I was gonna say. Keep giving it to them, eventually someone will try it and that will fix it.

Hhhm, OK, that is interesting vehve ... regarding the nutritional value of lettuce; I was going on something I read (probably on BYC) that while they would probably love it and eats heaps, it basically was lacking in nutrition and of no value to them. I would be interested to hear what others think or should probably do some research myself.

Those gals of yours are certainly giving you the run around vehve .. sometimes I think they do it as entertainment and have a little chuckle after we walk away rolling our eyes

Besides the girl in the wrong time zone; bed time seems to be the time when my gals like to mess with my head. They were not happy with the existing sleeping arrangements so we remodeled for them. They were happy with the remodel for a week and now they are fussing and fighting and carrying out about who sleeps where again

Iceberg lettuce is almost deplete of nutrition but the dark green lettuces are very good for you/them. Much more in them than water.

Teila, love the pics of your garden and chooks. Do you have everything in pots so the girls can't tear up the roots or do you just have really bad soil?

 

[Lacy Blues]

@ChickenCanoe No, she's been coming out a few times, I'm still hopeful this will go away without a broody box. I'll give it a few more days.

@superchemicalgirl That honey looks delicious. You can also use the wax on furniture, or melt it together with some paraffin wax (about 20% bees wax to paraffin wax) and use it for waterproofing clothes. Personally I like the crystallized honey the best.

Our beans are going crazy, we picked enough for 3 meals today, looks like we'll be eating a lot of beans next week. Also harvested a couple of cherry tomatoes and some lettuce.


And here's dinner tonight: Black Angus neck, fries and a feta-pecan salad

Now that looks scrumptious!

 

[ronott1]

That's what I was gonna say. Keep giving it to them, eventually someone will try it and that will fix it.

Iceberg lettuce is almost deplete of nutrition but the dark green lettuces are very good for you/them. Much more in them than water.

Saying that a food has little nutritional value for chickens just is a way of saying they do not get enough protein and other nutrients to make eggs. Yogurt is not digestible by chickens but is very good for them.

even iceberg lettuce has fiber and other micro nutrients in it that is very good for chickens. It just cannot be a large part of the diet for chickens.

We often are confused by stuff like this.