Sarsaparilla Soda

On hot summer days, I like to drink soda.  I purchase the more expensive brands (A&W move out of the way!) because I don't drink soda all that often, and when I do, I like to really enjoy it.  Jon decided last summer to try making our own soda.  Recently we made Sarsaparilla!
We got this recipe from Homemade Root Beer, Soda, and Pop by: Stephen Cresswell

3 to 4 quarts of water

9 T chopped dried sarsaparilla root

5 T chopped dried sassafras root bark

1/4 cup raisins, coarsely chopped

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/8 tsp. yeast (we use champagne yeast)

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1. Heat 2 quarts of water to a simmer.  As the water heats, add the chopped roots, chopped raisins, and sugar.  Simmer uncovered for about 25 minutes.  Remove from heat, cover, and let cool for 30 minutes.

2. After the sarsaparilla mixture has cooled 30 minutes, pour it slowly into a jug with 1 quart of cool water, straining as you pour.  (I use a one gallon jar with a metal lid).  Fill the jug to the top with water until there is about a 2 inch headspace.

3.  In a small bowl, proof the yeast----add yeast to 1/4 cup lukewarm water.

4. Shake the water & sarsparilla mixture in the jug vigorously for about a minute. 

5.  Add the yeast mixture to the jug and agitate vigorously again. 

6.  To reduce the sediment that will settle to the bottom, use a coffee filter to catch the debris.  Pour the mixture into your sterilized bottles.  Cap and let sit for 48-72 hours.  After 48 hours, check the carbonation.  When the carbonation is right, refrigerate and use within 6 weeks. 

Makes 7, 12-ounce bottles. 

This was our first attempt at making sarsaparilla.  Next time we will use less sassafras root bark and add a vanilla bean for a little milder flavor.  The carbonation results were pretty impressive---probably the result of the champagne yeast.  In the past, our soda results had a strong yeasty smell and flavor because we were using brewer's yeast.  Champagne yeast doesn't produce that yeasty smell and taste, but it certainly produces the bubbles quite nicely!!

Queenless Problem Fixed but I'm Still Waiting for Honey...

Funny thing happened last week---one of my hives swarmed...again!  This time I witnessed them leaving their swarm spot in the tree going to their new home; so I have no idea which hive this swarm came from or when the swarm happened.  Thankfully it was a small swarm and I couldn't keep it anyway because my hives are full.  It was an amazing sight to witness though because they moved together in a swirling motion as one large cloud as they went across my yard and then across the street in the wooded area behind my neighbor's house.  I don't know where their final resting place was, but I have been told there is a beekeeper on that street so hopefully the bees will be taken care of.

Today I decided to check both hives.  The queenless hive that I had introduced the swarm to, now has larvae so I know there is a queen present in this hive. Whew!  There is always the fear of killing or injuring the queen during the swarm catch and transfer into the hive.

For any beekeepers reading this, I need your help!  Both hives have had honey supers on for almost two months now and there is no new comb built!  Last summer one hive drew out about 3 frames of comb and partially capped honey so I saved it for this year because I didn't think it was worth the time to harvest that little bit of honey.  The only frames that have comb built this year, are those same frames that were built last year (they have repaired the broken comb, added more honey, and capped it).  I've taken the queen excluders off for two weeks to give the queen a chance to walk on the frames to emit her pheromones; and I've smeared sugar syrup all over the frames to entice them.  Nothing seems to work.  The brood boxes in both hives are absolutely packed to the gills with nectar and capped honey.  In fact, if I remove frames, I end up destroying comb and capped honey (which becomes a real mess) because they build the frames out really wide.  Help anyone??

Update: July 22,2011
This week I sent an email to the Zenger Farm bee listserve about the bees not building wax in the honey supers.  One member suggested I spread melted beeswax onto the frames to entice the bees.  I decided to give this a try!  Honeybees just love beeswax and are drawn to it...quickly.  I forgot to close the back door and had several visitors in my home.  No big deal really, just a reminder...

I melted the beeswax in a stainless steel pan that I dedicate to beeswax melting only. 

Using an old pastry brush, I spread the wax on the front and back of all frames.  Just like the pan, this pastry brush will now only be used for beeswax. 

Solar Wax Melter

Another project out of the woodshop this month!  We found a lot of great designs for solar wax melters online, and decided to combine a lot of the ideas into this wax melter.  Everything you see here is reused materials.  The wood came from scrap wood from miscellaneous project; the handles are chair legs leftover from the milk stool project.  The window came from our house when we replaced the windows 2 years ago;  the black sheet metal is leftover scraps from the solar food dehydrator project; and the silver sheet metal came from a random thing a friend gave us attached to a canvas bag (she thinks it was a grass catcher for a lawn mower).  The screen with large holes is leftover from a big piece we bought for catching leaves in the rain gutters.  All in all, the project was fairly simple and free to build.  Ideally all of the sheet metal should be black to absorb the heat and increase the temperature, but we are trying to be resourceful and use what we have.  I don't like the idea of using black spray paint like others have suggested.  The dimensions of this melter are 17x26 inches.  My husband did a little research and found the suggested angle for the melter is 20 degrees.

To give this wax melter a good trial run, I melted a lot of brood comb and some broken wired wax foundation.  Brood comb is old comb in the bottom of the hive where the nursery, honey, and pollen stores are located.  This wax was given to me from Zenger Farm, an urban farm located about 3 miles from my house.  

Melting Point of Beeswax: 144 to 147 °F

This is a pile of comb that was taken from the brood boxes. It's darker than honey super comb.

When the sun hides behind the clouds and the temperature drops, the wax immediately hardens.  It's pretty amazing that this bright yellow wax came from the dark comb.

Here is the final product----golden yellow and smells wonderful!  I lined the box with waxed paper so the wax can easily be removed with no sticking.

I used an old diaper changing cover for the filter.  You could use a sheet, t-shirt, or anything to catch the small debris.  I wouldn't bother using cheesecloth because you'd need several layers and it's one more thing to buy. Let's be resourceful and use what we have.

This picture shows something you don't do: put plastic foundation in the melter.  I was like, "Duh! What am I thinking?!"  The temperature gets too hot and will warp the foundation.  I am humble enough to show my mistakes.  ; )

I thought it'd be helpful to list a few tips if you're interested in solar wax melting: 

Tip 1:  When you store wax, make sure it's in a mice-proof location.  Mice love to eat old comb!!

Tip 2: Do this away from your hives because bees will be attracted to the wax aroma.  The wonderful aroma does waft in the air!  For this very reason, I did the melting in the front yard and the beehives are in the backyard.  I had a few interested bees come and visit the wax when I was replenishing the melter, but it didn't become a huge problem. 

Tip 3: Remove the foundation wires before adding the wax to the melter---makes cleanup easier. 

Tip 4: For easy cleanup, use aluminum foil on top of the metal sheet. 

And for a little bee humor...

q: Where did Noah keep the bees?
a: In the ark hives, of course!

High Flying Queens

What an adventure swarm catching is!  You just never know what you're going to get, when it's going to happen, and where it's going to land.  Sometimes a beekeeper will be fortunate enough to have a swarm land on a nearby shrub or on a low-lying tree branch.  Well, I wasn't so lucky...about 25 feet up in a tree (thankfully in our yard)!!  I couldn't just watch this swarm take off because: 

1. There's like $100.00 just hanging in that tree and

2. Who knows what ignorant folks will do to them when they leave the tree (e.g. spray with chemicals, spray with water...)!!

3. I have a queenless hive and this swarm could potentially solve this problem.

4. There are other bee folks in the area who could use a swarm. 

This video is really quite hilarious because everyone involved responded in a different way to thousands of bees falling from the sky.  The neighbor friend didn't quite know what he was signing himself up for, my husband, who rarely cusses, was in a state of shock, and I had to catch this box with about 5 pounds of bees and tape the lid shut without smashing any bees.  I laugh every time I watch this video!!

This swarm catch required more than 2 people so our good neighbor friend helped out!  We only have one bee suit and one bee hat net so that left one person with nothing.  Dave willingly volunteered because he doesn't care if he gets stung.  For those thinking the worst for this brave soul, Dave only received 6 stings.  Jon and I---Zero.

The video is self-explanatory, but here's what we did:  We attached a cardboard box with holes cut in the sides (with screen for ventilation) to the end of our fruit picker.  My husband held the fruit picker with the box directly beneath the swarm.  The neighbor used a tree trimer to shake the branches where the bees clung onto.  I stood below everything holding the ladder, and caught the box with the bees and duct-taped the lid shut.  It's really quite simple...

Click to enlarge this picture.  It's showing all of the bees in swarm mode.  They have just left the hive and are coming together as a new colony. 

This is one giant swarm 25 feet up in an oak tree.  It's split between two branches which makes capturing it very difficult.  At first I thought it was two separate swarms.  For beekeepers reading this, would swarms gather this close to each other?

After the branch was shook, the box was brought down to the ground where I duct-taped the lid shut.  At the bottom of the box, I cut a little flap so the remaining stragglers can still come in.  The bees at the entrance will fan their wings and waft a pheromone in the air letting the stragglers know where to go.  If the queen wasn't in the box, the bees would leave and cluster together again where the queen is.  Thankfully the bees remained in the box.

Later in the evening when the remaining scout bees were in the box, I opened the box and poured them into the queenless hive.  I don't have a video for this, but you can imagine that excitement...

Queenless

I discovered two weeks ago that one of my hives is without a queen.  I figured something was wrong with this hive when activity outside the hive dwindled.  Having two hives is really the best way for a new beekeeper to learn about such things.  Upon inspection in the hive, I found very few eggs and larvae but a lot of drones.  Seeing the eggs and larvae should be a good sign, but in actuality, it meant doom.  Why?  The sign of drones indicates a "false queen" is present in the hive.  A false queen is a worker bee laying unfertilized eggs which are drones.  Drones are male bees and males don't do much for a colony other than mate with the queen and gorge on honey.  Sorry y'all, but the male bees are loafers who eat honey and have the privilege of going to other hives and stealing their honey.  If a worker bee (i.e. female bee) were to go to another hive, they would be pushed out by the guard bees and possibly killed.  But justice does exist because when a drone mates with a queen, their internal organs are pulled out of their body and they fall from the sky dead.  C'est la vie!

This a close-up of a drone honeybee.  Their bodies are much larger, especially their eyes!!

These are all worker bees nursing the brood (baby bees).  They are significantly smaller than the drones.  If you look closely, you can see the curled-up larvae in the cells. 

The problem with having a false queen, is that the colony carries on with life as usual until eventually the food is gone because there are not enough worker bees to gather nectar and the worker bees eventually die of old age (about 6 weeks).  This process can happen fairly quickly.  The weakened colony is also under threat of robbers from other hives who can easily steal their honey.

I have three options to reviving this hive and getting a queen.  I can either:
1. Buy a queen.
2. The bees can raise a new queen from fertilized eggs and/or larvae (this frame comes from another hive).
3. Introduce a swarm.

After spending almost $100 for this colony, I wasn't willing to invest more money, and I can't just wait around for a swarm, so I decided to take a frame of eggs and larvae from my other thriving hive and put it in the queenless hive.  Ironically the frame I chose also had a partial queen cell on it.  It was a partial queen cell and I was trying to convince myself that it was a drone cell (because drone cells are bigger than worker cells and are located on the edges of the frame---the same location for queen cells) I was in denial because I didn't want this colony to swarm (it's so robust and could potentially make a lot of excess honey!!).   All we can do is wait and see what happens because there's still a two week period before the queen emerges and mates and then another few weeks before the queen's eggs hatch.  Within that time period, the colony could dwindle and not survive because not enough bees would be around to take care of the nursery.  We'll see...

Question for you bee folks reading this:
If a "false queen" is present in the hive and a frame of eggs and larvae are introduced, will the workers even think to make a queen?  Meaning, will they even think they need a queen since there's a "false queen" laying??

Spinach Makes You Strong!

This is my second spinach harvest this summer from the garden.  We're lucky enough to have mild winters here in the northwest, so spinach can be planted year 'round.  This spinach was planted last fall and it's been trying to bolt for 2 weeks now.  Despite our pinching of flower buds and numerous spinach salads and pasta dishes, the spinach needs to be pulled and re-planted.  The only way I know how to preserve spinach is by blanching and freezing it.  It's a very simple process.

Here is the spinach I harvested from the garden.  This is from 6 plants. 

Wash the spinach and remove all stems and unhealthy leaves.  I leave my leaves in their original shape (no cutting).  This is the pile of spinach leaves with stems removed.

This is the overflowing compost bucket full of yellow/brown leaves and stems.  

Once the leaves have been washed and removed from their stems, add them to boiling water and boil them for 2 minutes.  After 2 minutes, transfer the spinach to cold water (I put a bowl of water in the fridge for a few hours).  This process is called blanching.  It helps preserve the nutrients, flavor, and color of your vegetable. 

Strain as much water off the spinach as possible and lay the spinach on a towel to dry.  Some people use a salad spinner (I don't have one).   

Once the spinach is somewhat dry, add them to your containers for freezing.  I use plastic freezer bags.  And to think that big pile only gave us 2 bags...

UPDATE July 15,2011

I completely forgot that I had this soup pot with a colander insert.  I used it today while blanching peas.  It works flawlessly because all I have to do is lift the strainer pot up when the timer is finished and all of the water drains into the pot below it.  After the water drains out, I pour the vegetables into the bowl full of cold water.  Simple----more efficient this way. 

Bee Hydration

With warmer weather sneaking in, it is important to have a close and secure water source.  Honeybees get warm just like us and they use water to cool themselves down.  A honeybee will bring water back to the hive and the colony will cool the space by evaporating the water through a fanning motion.  They are essentially creating air currents within the hive.  In the evening, bees will often be outside the hive sitting on the landing board, beating their wings----they are bringing cool air into the hive. The brood (baby bees) must stay between 92-98 degrees Fahrenheit and too much heat can cause wax to soften.  Water is essential for the colony so a close water source makes sense so they are not expelling extra energy just to retrieve water.

A neighbor recently knocked on my door asking if I had a water source because apparently my bees are scaring birds away from one of his bird baths (he has 3).  I wanted to retort back, "Well, get your birds out of my yard because they're eating my bees!"  (See Birds and the Bees blog entry)   Some people just don't understand bees and they think a beekeeper can "control" where they go.  I think the title beekeeper gives people that assumption.  This is just another challenge I have to overcome with the neighbors and my hives.  I really can't wait to live in the country with more space between me and the neighbors!  To answer his question, yes, I have a very large water source for the bees----my son's swimming pool!  My son actually enjoys watching them crawl around on his toys despite the fact that he's not as willing to go swimming now with the bees around.  Last year the bees didn't use the pool much because Paul was using it on a daily basis; but this year the weather has been too cool so the bees have moved in because Paul is away...

I included a few pictures of honeybees drinking nectar from the fire sticks in our yard.  The bees absolutely love this plant and so do I!  It's fun to watch them crawl around and stick their heads into the individual flowers with their butts hanging out.  Click on the picture for a closer look.