Thursday, April 30, 2009

Photo O' the Day: Everybody's Buzzing About This Guy's Outfit

From the Seattle PI/Reuters:


Beekeeper Wang Dalin, 40, poses with about 50,000 bees covering his body at Chenjiawan village of Zigui County in Yichang, China. Wang does this once every year hoping to promote non-usage of fertilizer for farming, local media reported. REUTERS/Stringer
(April 30, 2009)

Reuters

Notes from the Day

I got sunburned. Today. In SEATTLE. Good 'ole rainy Seattle stepped up to the plate today. WHOOOOHOOO!


Speaking of Seattle, for those of you that inhabit our lovely city: The Seattle Tilth Edible Plant Sale is this weekend in Greenlake. Don't miss it (and get there early).

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Observing/Twittering

Had I a Twitter account that I actually used, I could tweet about the black-capped chickadee that is currently pulling tufts of material from our front porch mat. I suppose it would make for a nice nest building material. But I am twitterless so the trusty old blog will have to suffice.
 
 

Check out Sonja's website: http://chrisandsonja.blogspot.com/

Finally, we are back in the land of the internet. Oh, it is good to be back. Long posts on both the casa and bees coming soon.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

House/Bees

Another quick update:

-We should have internet by Tuesday. Whoohoo! I can't wait.
-Owning an old house is proving to be interesting. So far we have snaked a stubborn kitchen sink, torn out a toilet (and have not yet replaced it), put up a temporary fence for Bailey, and discovered two tables, two BBQs, and numerous milk jugs and flower pots hidden under a bed of ivy in what was once an old green house.
-Discovered a family of raccoons in our old maple tree (this drives Bailey nuts)
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As for the bees,
we had our one-week inspection today. It was a little cool so it was a short perusal. Both hives appear to be doing well, with lots of small eggs, laying in their individual cells. We saw one queen and she appeared to be in fine form. I promise that I will have a long post about the bees once we get internet to the house.
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We are enjoying the company of Greg and Katherine for the next couple weeks; they made it home safely from their grand Asian adventure and they're recuperating a bit in Seattle (and seeing friends and family) before heading up to Alaska. Tonight Megan and Eric will be coming over as well and we'll get to see a slideshow of their trip. Ok, off to unload the last of the furniture.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

House Update

Heya Folks,

Thanks for all the well wishes. Things are still pretty crazy at the moment: we're going to finish unloading the POD today and we'll probably spend the next week or so unpacking and putting things into place. It's a slow process. In the meantime, we're adjusting to a new neighborhood and a new floorplan. We received a very nice letter from the previous owner and many of our new neighbors have kindly come over to welcome us to the 'hood. So far, Bailey has only chased one cat; we're trying to keep the feline chasing to a minimum as to not ruffle too many feathers of neighboring kitty owners.

We don't yet have internet in the new casa so posts are going to be rather sporadic for a while. We'll try to post some more pictures after our status changes from completely frantic, disorganized, and chaotic to a more typical somewhat chaotic.

Monday, April 20, 2009

And the Big News is that....

WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!


We officially closed on our little abode today. We're going to be sipping champagne out of paper cups and sleeping on a mattress placed on the floor since our furniture hasn't yet arrived.

Bees in da House (their house. not our house)



This is going to be a crazy day (and likely a crazy week) so this is going to be a short post (as I'm gobbling down breakfast). I'll do a more detailed post once things settle down a bit 'round here.




We had a few minor bobbles yesterday with the bees (specifically the queens) but overall I think it was a success. Both colonies were hived in their respective homes in the vegetable garden.

Here mom and I are shaking the bees from the carry box into the second hive. I'm doing the shaking, Karin is standing by with the sugar water spray. The girls are very docile and spent the afternoon checking out their new digs and taking exploratory flights. We had no reported stings although we did usher a few ladies out of the house that had hitched a ride on our clothes. We'll keep you posted on their progress.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Photo O' the Day: Nesting Hummers


Finally! A worthy image for our Photo O' the Day Section. Karin's friend Michaela watched this Anna's Hummingbird zip into her nest from a nearby Salmonberry Bush. The nest is tiny; about the size of an egg, and is perched on the length of rope that is visible in the left-hand side of the photo. The nest itself is about 15 feet off the ground and is situated on a spare sailboat mast that my dad has hanging under the eve of the house. For those of you familiar with sailboats, those are the trapeze handles. This picture was taken from approximately 40 feet away using the digital-camera-through-the-scope trick, as evidenced by the black tips around the corners of the photo. Note the moss and lichen carefully tucked into the nest structure.

Things will soon be buzzing around here

The supplies laid out and ready for action



Exciting news! Our bees will be arriving today! We spent most of yesterday assembling our final frames and placing the hives in their new location. I'm going to pick up our two colonies today and we'll then very carefully introduce the ladies to their new accommodations. Wish us luck (and hopefully very few stings!).

Assembling the final frames

Friday, April 17, 2009

Photo O' the Day: Itchy, Scratchy


oh, yeah, that's it. Good, good, little to the left, now up a tick, yeah, right there. OHHHH, that is nice...

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Photo O' the Day: Sheep Now Come in Multiple Colors

From the Seattle PI: A sheep stands sprayed in tartan style with marking dye at East Links Family Park near Dunbar in Scotland, Friday. The flock of six adults and nine lambs were painted up resembling the traditional cloth in a promotion for Scottish tourism. (AP Photo/ Danny Lawson, PA) (April 10, 2009)

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Picture This...

I'm at one end of the pond, throwing fish food in to the koi. Bailey comes over to sniff the fish-flavored pellets. The next time I look up, he has sauntered to the other end of the pond and has started to delicately pick floating fish pellets out of the water. The fish (and the girl) were not amused.
I've got a volunteer orientation tonight. Wish me luck! And I'm off, like a herd of turtles.

Where is Chris?!


So, you may have noticed that Chris hasn't made much of an appearance on the blog, as of late. I assure you that he hasn't dropped off the face of the earth. He has, however, been working non-stop since we arrived in Seattle, almost four months ago (where has the time gone?!). Work has been majorly busy and he's also finishing up his last quarter of business school. It's been hectic, to say the least. Weekends not devoted to work or homework have mostly been spent catching up on desperately needed sleep. We're expecting things to settle down a bit by the end of June, when he will graduate with his hard-earned MBA. Yay for school. Hooray for being finished with school!

Test, Test

We're trying out the new email posting. I'd do the mobile (cellphone) version too except that I'm about to change my cell number and don't want to set it up twice.
 
-Sonja
 
 

Check out Sonja's website: http://chrisandsonja.blogspot.com/

Photo O' the Day: Mystery Plant


This was flowering along the side of the trail. Part shade, probably a medium-wet location. Any ideas? Guesses?

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

For the Seattleites: Seattle Tilth's Edible Plant Sale


Don't miss it! Edible plant sale
Saturday May 2nd - Sunday May 3rd, 2009.
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Click HERE for a complete veggie list (all 15 pages of it) and HERE for a herb list.

Overhead my 97 year-old grandpa say to my 27 year-old (and 6'5") husband as he walked in the door for Easter Dinner: "Whoa. You've grown"

Photo O' the Day: Shake, Rattle and Roll


Bailey never did learn to shake on command. I wasn't planning on taking a picture of a shaking dog. I was planning on a nice portrait of the Beast, fresh out of the water. Instead, I have a dog that prefers to spread the love (and the water) on the closest recipient. Yuck.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Oh, the poor wee beastie


I was reading a book in the living room the other day when I heard a loud THWACK! against the window in back of me. Bailey and I went out to investigate and found this poor little pine siskin laying on the porch. It was dead by the time we arrived (only 20 seconds or so later) so at least it was a quick and hopefully painless death. Poor little fellow, I hope he/she didn't yet have a nest full of dependant babies. It's always a shame when this happens.
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Photo O' the Day: Contemplative Biking


After my husband thoroughly creamed me this weekend on our bike ride (and I quote Chris directly: "It's hard for me to go this slow"), I decided that a training regimen was in order. So today I hopped on my bike and did a nice hour long ride....at an average speed of 12.4 mph. On a flat trail. Yes, I could probably beat a slug in head-to-head competition, but clearly, not much else. I. am. slow. BUT, that's the point, right? I'm starting off slowly and gaining speed and endurance. Really, I'm setting the bar low so that I have tons of room for improvement. At least that's what I've been telling myself. Here I am pausing to contemplate my slowness at the very nicely restored wetland that is located immediately adjacent to the UW-Bothell campus.
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Word O' the Day: Hodgepodge

Noun:
hodgepodge - a motley assortment of things
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Synonyms:
farrago, gallimaufry, hotchpotch, melange, mingle-mangle, mishmash, oddments, odds and ends, omnium-gatherum, ragbag
assortment, miscellanea, miscellany, mixed bag, motley, potpourri, salmagundi, smorgasbord, variety, mixture - a collection containing a variety of sorts of things; "a great assortment of cars was on display"; "he had a variety of disorders"; "a veritable smorgasbord of religions"

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I was going to post the following picture of the beast. But frankly, I'm getting rather tired of looking at Bailey photos and he's my own beloved dog. I simply can't imagine how painful it is for you. Please accept my most sincere apologies.

So, instead, I'm throwing in a minutely edited frog photo from the other night. Slightly better than the first, no?
And then, just to make this one of the most random posts that I've ever created, I decided to include a photo of our neighbor's mail box. Which appears to have had an unfortunate encounter with something that was bigger and stronger, in this case, a giant tree limb. Bummer. This poor neighbor: he initially installed his own box last year because a car took out the big box and the neighbors were forced to collect their mail from the post office for six months. Only to have his own destroyed and the big box remain untouched. And then, this December, a very lovely hemlock tree crashed through his roof and into his living room. I have a feeling that he's not thinking especially rosy thoughts in regards to Mother Nature at this particular moment.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Easter/Passover


Here in the our household we're combining Easter and Passover: ham plus haroset. It'll be great (and tasty). Have a nice holiday (whichever one you choose).

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Photo O' the Day: Plastic Lake (aka Lake Washington)



We trundled down to the dock the other day to have a look at the lake. Except that it was impossible to see the water, thanks to the flotilla of floating garbage that obscured the surface of our beautiful pond. It's really quite disgusting. Apparently, we have a mini version of the Pacific Ocean's Floating Plastic Garbage Dump. Lovely.
Crappy boat, crappy lake.

Friday, April 10, 2009

From slides to jpgs

We're slowing bringing my parents' slides from 30 years ago into the digital age. Cleaning the slides is the most difficult part. I haven't perfected the process yet, so if you have any suggestions as to how I might go about it in a more efficient manner, I'd love to hear them. I tried just compressed air; that didn't get the big chunks off. I tried a rag; I couldn't get into the corners. Lastly, I tried a soft make-up brush which worked great until I realized that I was gluing tiny pink specks of blush to each and every slide. My latest method is the following:

Brush slides with a clean, soft paint brush

(I know it doesn't look like a clean brush but it is)
Quickly blast with compressed air

View lighted slides in the scanner.

Here is my papa loading his morris minor into the back of a moving truck in preparation for the drive back to Seattle from Princeton.
View photos on the computer.

It's been interesting and entertaining.
For example, check out the beard that my uncle is sporting, in a photo taken on Mt. Rainier during an eclipse.

GOOP

So, it would be perfectly reasonable to question why I ended up with so much purple paint on my knees and legs after my bee box painting session a couple of days ago. Perfectly reasonable. And fortunately, there is a perfectly reasonable answer. Picture this: I'm sitting on the bottom step in the walkway, wearing shorts (Yes! It was warm enough to wear shorts!) and the bee boxes are propped up in front of me on crates (At knee level). I'm using a roller to spread the paint onto the boxes. Rollers are messy. They send little bits of paint flying in all directions, which accounts for most of the splatters on my knee. And those big purple streaks? Um, well, first of all, in my defense, remember that I forgot that it was oil based paint (very difficult to remove) and second of all, I didn't have a rag handy so when I had an itch on my nose I had to wipe the paint off my fingers somewhere before giving the schnoz a good scratch. Hence the long, finger-sized streak around my knee region. A perfectly respectable answer, no? THANK GOD FOR GOOP, it is my new best friend.

Mental Image of the Day: Singing Cyclist

Picture this: Bailey and I are slowly meandering our way down the street, when, on the bike trail next to us, a woman appears on a bicycle, singing opera at full volume. She wasn't going too fast as I'm sure most of her lung power was reserved for the operatic arias.

Velvet Spice Cake

So I realized the other day that it was rather selfish of me to rave about our velvet spice cake recipe and then fail, yes fail, to post the actual recipe. What's more, my lovely mother-in-law asked for the recipe and I failed (again!) to send it to her. Ohhh, bad daughter-in-law. And now she's off on a lovely tropical vacation for the next week. Really, really bad. I realized all of this while I was contentedly munching a lovely velvet spicecake cupcake with yummy chocolate frosting. Here I was: enjoying the fruits of my labor while cruelly denying you the loveliness of this recipe. Selfish. I am so sorry.
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Frankly, I was worried that I was going to get sued by the lovely people over at the Joy of Cooking for publishing one of their copyrighted recipes. I don't really want to be sued. But then, and here you can see how my rudimentary thought process is, I thought: "Hey, they won't sue me. They'll be so impressed by how much I love this recipe and how I inspire everyone out there to go BUY THE BOOK because this is such a great recipe that everyone will want to enjoy lots more similarly fabulous recipes that can be found within the covers". Yes, that's it exactly. So: A) Buy the Book and B) Lovely Joy of Cooking people, if you'd ever like to pay someone (eh, ME) to promote your book, don't hesitate to contact me and C) if you're offended that I published your truly fabulous, awesome, and incredible velvet spice cake recipe, please let me know and I will remove this post immediately. Please don't sue me. Really.
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Did I mention that we love this recipe so much that we used it as our wedding cake? Yeah, see. A truly touching story. You would be downright cruel to sue such a devoted fan.
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Ok, enough. Without further ado:

Velvet Spice Cake

"This cake is well named, as it has a very delicate consistency. Its flavor is unequaled in spice cakes"

Sift: 1 1/2 cups sugarBeat until soft:
3/4 cup butter
Add the sifted sugar gradually. Blend these ingredients until they are very light and creamy. Beat in:
3 egg yolksSift before measuring:
2 cups cake flour (we always use regular flour)
Resift twice with:
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
If the sour milk is very acid, add an extra 1/2 teaspoon soda. Add the sifted ingredients to the butter mixture in 3 parts alternating with thirds of
7/8 cup of sour milk or buttermilk (Sonja here: my mom uses 1/2 regular milk and 1/2 plain, non-fat yogurt. It makes for a very moist cake)Beat the batter after each addition until it is smooth. Whip until stiff but not dry:
3 egg whites
Fold the egg whites lightly into the cake batter. Bake the cake in a greased 9 inch tube pan in a moderate oven at 350 degrees for 1 hour or more. (Sonja here: I have no idea what a tube pan is. I bake this cake in regular cake pans, glass square pans, metal bundt pans, cupcake pans, etc)
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Another note: don't skimp on icing. Use a good one. Chocolate works well as does a light lemon icing. Don't even think about covering this delicious cake with crappy fondant.

Random Posts

Expect quite a few blog posts today...I'm stuck in front of the computer scanning old negatives. Each negative takes about a minute to scan. So I have a lot of down time. As an example of what I'm working on, feast your eyes on this picture of my papa holding one giantly fat baby in a strange bunny suit on his lap...Any guesses as to who the baby might be? Um, yeah, me. Fat on babies is a good thing, right?

On Blogging

Laura over at the Spectrum Blog has a nice reflective piece about blogging; namely, how she is often conflicted about writing about her personal life on a very public forum. She also has several million more readers than I so for her writing about her personal life can have broad repercussions. She discusses blogging in regards to her dating life; I tend to think about it more in regards to job searching. Any hiring manager worth their salt in this day and age will google their perspective employees. Which is probably why I don't post about my workplace or coworkers. There were a few minor exceptions: I posted pictures of Chris and I at the annual Christmas party and I have occasionally posted pictures of coworkers in social situations (ex: Hiking Club outings and skiing lessons). I'm pretty good about asking people if they mind being up on the blog but it's definitely something I consider when posting photos. Anyway, for those of you that blog (God, I really hate that word. Couldn't they have come up with something else?), or for those of you interested in blogging, check it out.

Read Laura's article here.

Photo O' the Day: Calm Water


The Beast surveys the lake. Nary a duck in sight. Another day, perhaps. He'll be back.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Beekeeping

(Photo: Here)
Hi Folks,

This is a rather longish post on beekeeping; for those of you not interested in this subject matter, I'd recommend that you skip down to the following post. Since I'm assuming that most of you aren't familiar with the lovely art of beekeeping, I'm going to describe the basic bee box setup and the costs that we've incurred thus far. If you're just interested in costs, scroll down to the very bottom.
A quick note about costs: startup costs for beekeeping are significant! I've already twice exceeded my initial budget. While it's possible to purchase used equipment, there are significant risks associated with that option (I'll discuss this later) and you'll most likely find yourself purchasing brand new boxes and frames, which are shockingly expensive. I'd recommend finding a buddy to split the costs with; it makes for a happier pocketbook and there will [hopefully] be lots of honey to split between the two of you.

Disclaimer
A short disclaimer: I am a novice beekeeper. In fact, I've never kept bees before, although I did grow up around them as a child. You might want to keep that in mind when reading this post. That said, I'm not stumbling along completely blind: my mother, Karin, kept 12 hives in the Central District (of Seattle) over 20 years ago. I think that qualifies her as having a fair amount of beekeeping experience. Of course, said experience is 20 years old. Another thing to keep in mind when reading this post.

The Setup

Here is the setup: We will have two hives. They will be kept at Mom's house in Seattle. We are evenly splitting startup costs. We ordered our bees through the Puget Sound Beekeepers Association. They should arrive on April 18th. (You'll notice that many beekeepers around the country have already received their bees. It's colder and wetter up here in Seattle so we have to wait a while longer). I am doing all the initial work to get the hives in working order; both of us will participate in getting the bees situated into their respective hives. Mom will probably do the weekly hive checkup since they'll be located at her casa.

The Basic Hive



-Bottom board (also called a floor or a base). This is what you stack the boxes onto. It is also the main entrance to your hive.

-Brood boxes (also called brood supers or "Deeps"). These are the deepest boxes in the hive and they are stacked directly onto the bottom board. Here the queen lays her eggs and the workers store honey. Two brood boxes are stacked together on the bottom board.

-Queen Excluder. The queen is bigger than the workers. Fatter and longer. A fine-meshed screen is placed on top of the upper brood box, making it impossible for her to access the upper boxes. Why do this? Well, if she can't fit through, she can't lay any eggs in the upper cells. That means that only honey will be stored in these upper areas.

-Honey supers (also called simply supers or "Shallows"). These are the narrow boxes that are stacked on top of the queen excluder. Honey will be harvested from these boxes. The brood boxes will remain in place throughout the winter. The hive will live off of the honey stored in the brood boxes while we enjoy the honey from the honey supers. That's the theory, at any rate.
-Frames. Each wooden frame is filled with a sheet of honeycomb. Some people cheat and use a thin plastic sheet covered in honey comb. We're cheaters, we're using the plastic version. The bees will create cells on the plastic that will be filled with honey.
Used Equipment/Bee Box Prep

Now, some information on why it's generally not a good idea to purchase used equipment. There are several bee diseases out there, including a particularly noxious one called fouldbrood. It comes in two strains: American and European. If your hives are infected by foulbrood, you must immediately kill the colony to prevent the disease from spreading to other hives. Many beekeepers burn all the equipment: boxes, frames, combs, etc. Heartbreaking. Twenty years ago, my mom's bees came down with foulbrood, the bees were subsequently killed, and the bee boxes were fumigated (sprayed with highly toxic chemicals). Apparently they don't fumigate boxes anymore because the chemicals used were so nasty. Now they just burn the boxes. After fumigation, the boxes sat in our garage for two decades. Until this year. When I decided that that we needed to put them to good use.
Here are our boxes, looking a bit dismal after spending 20 years in the garage
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I did some research on using bee boxes that had been contaminated by foulbrood. Bad news. Foulbrood spores can remain viable for 40 years in affected beekeeping equipment. This is the most compelling reason to purchase new supers and frames. Unless you really trust the seller, there is no guarantee that your newly purchased equipment won't be chock full of lethal fouldbrood spores, not to mention other nasty things. The good news for us was that our boxes were fumigated, hopefully killing the spores. To minimize the risk even further, I spent the last three days with a blowtorch, charring the inside of each super to a nice black patina. My mother says that I came into the house smelling like smokey honey. Heavenly. Parts that couldn't be torched were washed in a strong bleach solution. Keep your fingers crossed. We're taking a risk here by using formerly contaminated equipment. We did throw away the interior frames (which hold the honey comb), which are said to be the most likely to contain foulbrood spores.
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After the equipment with thoroughly charred, I used a scrapper to scrape most of the propolis off of the inside of the boxes. Following the scraping, I used a belt sander the remove the remaining wax and charred material (yay for power tools).

Following the sanding, I painted the boxes. We saved a bit of money by using paint that we had laying around the house. Hence the wacky color scheme. Please note that only the outside of the boxes are painted.

TaDa! Those are some fine looking bee boxes! Note that only the two deepest boxes (on the bottom) will initially compose the hive. Shallow supers will be individually placed on top as our bees require more space for honey production.



Now we're waiting for our frames. Hopefully they'll arrive before the bees since they require assembly. Once our frames are completed, we'll stick the plastic sheet that has been finely coated with beeswax. The bees will 'draw out' the frames, creating small cells out of beeswax. Each cell with be filled with one egg (which will develop into a worker, a drone (male), or a queen), honey, or pollen.
Note
A small note on painting: I used two colors of paint. Grey and blue (periwinkle). I painted the grey first. Like a good girl, I carefully read the paint instructions. I noted that it was latex (WATER BASED). When finished, I carefully cleaned the brushes and equipment in the sink. All was ducky. I moved onto the blue paint. Since I was now a painting expert, I did not read the directions. When I was done with painting, I admired my handiwork and then took my equipment back to the sink for cleanup. Except that this paint wasn't waterbased. I only discovered that after I had added water. Big oops. Did I mention that I was doing cleanup in the kitchen sink? My mom's very WHITE kitchen sink? With bright blue paint? To her eternal credit, I have one of the calmest moms on the face of the earth. I think it helped that periwinkle is her favorite color. Cleanup took an extra long time. Let this be a lesson to everyone.



Costs
So, we obviously had some of the equipment, cutting down on our costs. We still had to purchase bees, frames, and some miscellaneous equipment, which I've broken down for your perusal. We ordered our supplies from Western Bee, which I've heard is one of the cheaper options, at least for the West Coast Folks. Their website is currently down so I ordered over the phone. Other options include Dadant & Son and Brushy Mountain.
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-Package of Bees with Queen: $70 x 2 = $140
-Deep Wooden Frames: $0.50 x 40 = $20
-Deep plastic fillers (that go into the frames): $0.97 x 40 = $38.80
-Shallow Wooden Frames: $0.49 x 40 = $19.60
-Shallow plastic fillers (that go into the frames): $0.82 x 40 = $32.80
-Frame nails: $1.00 x 2 = $2.00
-Economy hive tool: $3.75
-Safari hat: $8.75
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Grand total: Including tax and shipping: $319.21. Yeah, not cheap at all. Maybe you should recruit more than just one friend to help offset the costs.
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Now, let's talk about what we DIDN'T buy, since we saved money on some big ticket items:
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-Boxes (big, expensive items) For two hives, you'll need a total of 4 deeps ($ 14 each x 4 =$ 68), and at least six shallows ($ 14 each x 6 = $84 ). Approximately $ 152 .
-Bottom boards (2). $30 total.
-Queen excluders (2) $ 12 total.
-Inner lids (2) $20 total.
-Outer lids (2) $30 total.
-Smoker (1) $ 29 .
-Gear: hats with/veil (1): $ 10, gloves (1 pair): $10 . Some people buy the entire outfit but I don't think it's really necessary.
= $293. (A few caveats: Don't quote me on these prices. They were quickly pulled from the Dadant catalog. Secondly, I know you can buy pre-assembled hive kits. Perhaps these might be cheaper than buying pieces individually. I looked at the price per item cost since I needed only a few select parts. Lastly, I only bought enough honey super frames/cell sheets for two honey supers per hive. Why? Well, for starters, I live in Seattle, where it's cold and we have a shorter honey collecting season. Secondly, the bees will have to spend a lot of time and resources 'drawing out' the combs. This reduces your overall honey yield the first year. The second year you should be able to reuse the combs. And last but not least, I can order more if I find that we're running out. I'm way over my initial budget and I don't want to spend more money upfront if I don't have to)
So, add another $ 293 to that $319 that we spent and you're looking at a startup cost of at least $612, not including tax and shipping (where applicable). Major ouch. Now, if you find that you love beekeeping and will continue with it for the next decade, you'll be set in terms of equipment. Again, these are SETUP costs. Yearly costs will include the following: replacing colonies, should they not make it through the winter. Also, some folks medicate their bees, which will also carry a nominal yearly fee. Come fall, you'll also have to rent a honey extractor and have plenty of food grade buckets on hand in which to store your honey.
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Ok, that's the scoop. Wish us luck this year in our new beekeeping endeavor!

Photo O' the Day: Beetle Mania

I discovered this beetle while the fam was scoping out a spot for the bee hives. Surprisingly, it's difficult to find a good location, particularly if you live in Seattle. Ideal spots are protected from wind, have good access, don't interfere with everyday garden activities, and, most importantly, get plenty of sunlight throughout the day. We had our spot all picked out until we discovered that it wasn't getting good morning sunlight. Back to the drawing table.
This is actually beetle number two. I found another dead one in the vegetable garden and stashed it on a fence post until I was able to retrieve a camera. Upon my return ten minutes later, I was unable to find it. Perhaps he wasn't so dead.