Bees and Building

First, The Bees

We have spent a good deal of time attending bee keeping classes and trying to understand how to keep our hives, bees, and queens healthy and happy.  There is so much to know!  We joined the Clark County Bee Club so that we have a network of support and information....but lots of You Tube and some books have been great sources of information.

We ordered all the supplies and Bob constructed and stained the hives.  We sat them in the middle of our "field" which will be filled with wildflowers in a few weeks.

Feeding nectar every 2-3 days

One hive has been very slow to grow, the other has tripled or quadrupled in volume which became a problem last week.  We'd added an additional "story" for them (officially called a Deep Box) but we were a few days too slow to add it.  We guess they thought they were running out of room, so they swarmed or LEFT the hive.  Bob and I happened to be doing a repair on the porch when I noticed (saw and heard) about 30,000 bees in a tornado shaped cloud hovering under a Douglas Fir tree.
I grabbed the camera and here is what it looked like:

Thousands of bees flying up to the tree

As luck would have it, two college aged men were here cleaning our windows.  One of them had helped his dad with bees for six years, so we asked him what was going on.  He said it looked like a swarm, where the bees move out for various reasons.  He called his dad for advice on how to capture the swarm and we were able to do it with lots of help from Adam and Austin.  Original plan was to climb the ladder and saw off the branch with the swarm (20 feet up!)  Since luck was on our side, they didn't have to do that.  The Queen and her followers fell to the ground and the swarm reconvened in the dirt.  Adam and Austin got a long stick, coated the end with honey as bait and they clung to the stick.  Easy transport back to the hive!

Bob discovered the mini-swarm on the ground

Patiently waiting for the swarm to settle on the stick

They used two sticks as one got REALLY heavy

Adam and Austin, our heroes

Austin and Bob placing the bee covered stick into the expanded hive box

We closed them into the hive, and by the following morning, they had left the stick and gone back to their combs and were back to work.  We don't know if we now have THREE queens or two, so we have put the bees into three hives.  One may be queenless and fail, but we didn't know what else to do to insure at least two of the three hives continue to thrive in our beehives.  We were tired and stressed after that day!

And Now, the Building

The basement wasn't finished when we built the house; we weren't sure exactly how we wanted to use it, nor did we have the funds at that time to do anything special down there.  Bob has 1/3 of the basement for a wood shop, complete with his grandfather's tools, 1/3 is for an additional guestroom and bath, and the third (center) space has become a multi use area.  To make it more inviting to use, we have decided to finish it.  Because Bob isn't working at present, he is doing the vast majority of the labor himself.  He finished the framing, then did the electrical wiring and the plumbing so we can add a sink. 
Here is a shot of the space we are working on.

Stairs lead to main living area, back is for storage room

Great light in a walk out basement

We are going with an "industrial" look for a room that will be my mosaic studio, Bob's work desk and a space for working out with gym equipment.

We went shopping a couple of weeks ago and found vintage lights, a vintage 1925 farmhouse sink and faucet and a great table with a galvanized metal top for my mosaic work area.

Standard porcelain sink, advertised in their 1925 catalog

Vintage faucet found at Hippo Hardware

I didn't take a photo of the table, and it is currently disassembled.  I'll post it soon.
One light we found at ReStore and found a compansion at the antique store where we bought the sink.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least, my recent mosaic work.  I did it in a class /work shop over 2 days, so was kind of rushed....not as detailed as I would like, but I learned a lot in the workshop and I love the colors.  We have these type of Black Eyed Susan growing in our field later in the summer.