Virginia

[VA Raptor]

I have two books "The Barefoot Beekeeper" and "Top-Bar Beekeeping". I need to read them more. I want to help promote the bees and maybe have a bit of honey for myself. I am not interested in selling. I am very interested in using no chemicals. I have been trying to be chemical free for close to a year. I cannot afford all organic food but do the best I can. I make many things now that I used to buy to avoid chemicals. Like washing my hair without shampoo. And other such things. Lol, lots of people think I'm nuts....they may not be far off. BUT I am rebuilding my immune system and have seen about half my condition clear. Sorry ....let me turn this back to chickens. Free ranged eggs are part of my plan.

Before we get back on track, have you checked out "Top-Bar Hive Beekeeping" on Facebook? She (Ruthie) is in Isle of Wight and does a nice job of documenting top bars. I don't have any top bars, but might give it a try now that we have our own place.

Also, not sure if you want to be treatment-free or artificial chemical free. I do use organic acids/chemicals (formic, thymol, etc.), but I have been told co-locating chickens with your colonies might help control hive pests. Again, I'm not treatment-free, but maybe this will spark some ideas.

BTW - free range eggs are on my list, but the ladies keep wandering into the neighbors' yards. I really want to try Countryside Organics feed, but none of the listed distributors sells it.

 

[vpatt]

I only know of muscadine....some grow around here, too. But mostly inknow of them from home...and Dolly's song.....honeysuckle vines and muscadine wine.

 

[vpatt]

I will check out the facebook page. I really know very little about beekeeping and need to read more. So I just know I don't want to use anything bad for the bees or that I myself may get from their honey. So hopefully I can learn and see if I want to raise them for sure.

 

[vpatt]

Not certain but I think you have to buy countryside organics from their store....I don't think anyone else sells it. I have a bag right now....I am fermenting it to see how long it will last as it is pricey. I also buy from a mill that has non gmo and soyfree....but not organic.

Oops you said listed distributors.....

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

[COLOR=333333]Muscadine and scuppernong wine - best [/COLOR][COLOR=333333]cholesterol medicine ever discovered and it tastes good too.[/COLOR]

I have a recipe that was passed down from my mom's side of the family from coastal NC. When they died off so did most of their language. My mom passed away this year and I long to hear the language that they and only those women spoke. I find myself speaking in their tongue every once in a while and no one knows what I am saying. They were from Manteo to the Outerbanks. Let see if I can spell it. Those Red Orpingtons went into the Blue Lavender Orpington's run and "momicked" up the living quarters. They also had a bit of an accent. Over the years, I have been told I have an accent. I dont, you people do, is how I have ways felt. So between daddy people of Va and mommy's people if NC maybe I did but, I have spent over 4 decades traveling and living around this world tgat I believe I have picked up locals words from just about everywhere.
Anyone interested in an old soap recipe from my mommy's people of Bath, Manteo, Hatteras & NagsHead Nc, over a hundred years old? Will write it up and post if anyone interested in see it. By the way I am having a glass of Muscadine (a sweet red) with my left over pizza from last night right now

 

[vpatt]

I would love to see the soap recipe. I and my family are deep in the Appalachian dialect.....i love to hear it. And the east Tennessee accent makes me want to go home. And makes me miss my mama and all the family that is gone.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Homemade soap by ReMe and all my dottie aunts long since past.
An old recipe (updated with today in mind in parenthesises)
Oak ash water, is very caustic, wear protection to protect skin and eyes, and do not breath in vapors.
2 wooden barrels, bottom barrel with no holes, top barrel one center hole and two 2x4's to hold barrel with hole over barrel without hole. 
Caution,... Let rain water drip through, do not run water through ashes again, lye increases in strength with each time it is run through the ringer. Lye is a caustic soda, NaOH, sodium, sodium hydroxide, handle very carefully. Hardwoods leach potassium, KOH, is very caustic. 
Do before full moon. 
Put river rock gravel in bottom if barrel with hole, straw, cooled oak ashes and put more straw over over cooled oak ashes. Lastly slowly pour rain water over the top straw layer and let the rain water slowly drip through the straw, oak ashes and through the river rock gravel, takes a couple of days.
Do not use metals!
Full moon soap, a homemade, handmade soap updated to use modern day brands in parenthesises.
Full moon soap, make on a full moon when the next day is supposed to be sunny and you have already prepped the water over the last couple if days just before the full moon. Make sure you are expecting sunny, cool and dry days. 
In a large crockpot over a slow fire, melt the solids first;
A lard, 6 large scoops) three 16 oz jars save jars for oak ash water)
A soft shortening ( I prefer a jar of Spectrum Expeller Pressed Organic Virgin Coconut Oil unrefined it is a very soft solid 16 ounce jar, save jars for the oak ash water. 
1 small scoop of grape seed oil ( I prefer 1/2 cup grape seed oil from muscadines or scuppernongs, or cotton seed oil will work).
2 large scoops of bees wax with a little honey. 
Leave on crockpot on a small fire, nothing blazing for several hours. Melting and bubbly, stir with a medium sized flat piece of wood with holes drilled in it, or a small wooden paddle with wooden pegs. 
When melted add oak ash water (please protect your eyes and skin from any splatters) very carefully because it is very caustic and will burn your skin and do lots of damage to your eyes and skin. Slowly stirring, add unpasturized goats milk or more oak ash water. 
Slowly stirring very carefully and do not splatter. Stir only with wood spoon or wooden stir paddle. Let set over low slow fire till nice and bubbly and some moisture has evaporated, you will be able to see by the ring around the crockpot then remove from fire and add crushed toasted almonds or any nuts, a cup of oats, stir with wood paddle, let sit. 
When it is not hot,( below flash point of essential oils) add almond oil & vanilla beans, and any essential oils (BUT NO ALCOHOLS) Only oils! 
Laddle into a take apart wooden box lined with unbleached cotton muslin. Add lavender, rosemary, any herbs and spices. ( Do not use metals) let air dry during the day out of sunlight. The longer it sits during a cook/dry day the longer the bars will last. Take apart breakaway wooden box and cut with a wire ( now that it is made, dry and cured, please use a metal wire to cut. Wrap in butcher paper. ( we always used scrapes of fabric cut in squares and recycled gift wrap cut in squares) and wrapped soap bars up and stored in a cool dark place in home till about to use and then Unwrap & Expose to the air in the room several days before using. 
Why a full moon? 
They just did! 
Everything was prepared just before a full moon and well orchestrated during the full moon at night. Soap, canned foods, breads, cheese,
Rheumatism (beer or wine) Medicine. Bringing in the honey. Always a full moon. 
I just dont think I appreciated those dotty old ladies enough when they were alive now that I am a dotty old lady I wonder if mine will appreciate me and what I try to pass down to them. 
I wished my granddaughter lived here and not Norway so I can teach her beekeeping, gardening, chicken keeping, spinning, weaving, tobacco
needle(knit, tat, crochet, quilt) crafts, pottery and glass making. 
I did not have a daughter of my own. When I die so will all of this that they taught me, no one to pass it down to. I am in my 60's and I am certain I will not be having daughters. I have traveled the world for over 4 decades and I have met those that I wished were my daughters. Some very nice young women and men in this world. 
We women folk bred like pandas and several never married or never had kids of their own. Childhood was a string of dying aunts that I loved and had to let go of so they could live only in my heart of memories. 
That left over oak ash water will clean your floors and strip your woods! 
I also have black soap. Interested? 

 

[vpatt]

Very interesting!! I have bought black soap but never made it. I knit and spin, too! I still have my loom but haven't done any weaving in years. My granny was a weaver. She helped raise her children by selling her weaving in Gatlinburg. My grandfather made her loom.....he died at 45 leaving her in her thirties with six kids. I remember she used to catch rainwater to wash her hair. I used to make soap and sell it.
My dad was the oldest so some of his younger siblings weren't much older than me. I lived with my granny for a while when my parents went north looking for work.

 

[ApiaryandAviary]

Very interesting!! I have bought black soap but never made it. I knit and spin, too! I still have my loom but haven't done any weaving in years. My granny was a weaver. She helped raise her children by selling her weaving in Gatlinburg. My grandfather made her loom.....he died at 45 leaving her in her thirties with six kids. I remember she used to catch rainwater to wash her hair. I used to make soap and sell it.
My dad was the oldest so some of his younger siblings weren't much older than me. I lived with my granny for a while when my parents went north looking for work.

Oh my goodness. I miss them all and I know you must also.

 

[ki4got]

Muscadine and scuppernong wine - best cholesterol medicine ever discovered and it tastes good too.

LOL hubby and I claim to be 'wine snobs'. we only drink wine from Floyd county. love all their sweet wines (red and sweet mtn laurel especially, drinking blushing dog right now).