Hive report: 27 April 2017

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It was clear and sunny this morning with only a bit of steady breeze, so I lit the smoker and invaded the girls’ living quarters to see how they are settling in.

The colony seems to be doing well–given that I only installed the package on 14 April in an almost-brand-new hive with no drawn combs in the brood box. Added to that we’ve had a series of chilly, rainy days when there could be no foraging.

When I opened the hive today I was happy to see that four of the eight frames have comb either drawn or being drawn on them, and one side of the fifth frame was being drawn. On inspection, I saw eggs, larvae in various stages, and capped brood–all looking like a good laying pattern from this queen. Two of the frames were quite heavy with brood, pollen, and honey. There was a little capped honey, too.

I found the queen on one frame in from the outside on the right.  Some frames on the left of the brood chamber were completely undrawn, so I shifted everything toward the left, and put two of the empty frames on the right so that the brood is now more central in the chamber–I didn’t change the order of any frames with brood on them though–just shifted them toward the left. I sure hope that was an appropriate thing to do. (I suspect that this right sided distribution of drawn frames and brood has something to do with how I replaced frames after removing the shipping box from the hive–I should have split the empty frames–shifting the frame with the queen more toward the center of the hive. But that’s what keeps beekeeping interesting–always learning.

The colony seems quite calm–even while I was removing burr comb that they had constructed between the frame tops and the inner cover (and had filled with “nectar”–I couldn’t help wondering if that “nectar” was the sugar syrup from the bucket feeder that was on the hive. After inspection, I put the bucket feeder back on but if the weather holds, I’ll not refill it–letting the girls get on with foraging for nectar and pollen–or remove it in a couple days if it looks as if they are no longer taking the syrup.

Because I put these girls onto undrawn (but wax coated) frames, I had an entrance excluder in place so that the queen couldn’t get out of the hive–trying to be sure that the new package and queen didn’t abscond. Now that they have brood, I’ll remove that, but I think I’ll leave the entrance reduced for a bit longer until there are more bees in the colony (which shouldn’t be long given the amount of capped brood that I saw today).

For now, all seems well. Long live the (unnamed) queen in hive 2017A!

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Spice & herb information

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I’ve had a leisurely day–studying about bees in hopes of taking the Journeyman exam at the NC State Beekeepers Association meeting this summer, and as usual when anywhere near access to the internet, doing a little browsing that, inevitably, leads to food or something closely related to it (if not bees or honey).

I found a website that I thought worth sharing on the Kitchn called Spice Intelligence with articles (and recipes using) spices and traditional blends.  There are discussions from asafoetida to za’atar.

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Reading about bees…

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On a chilly, grey, drizzly day, what could be better than a good book, a cat, and maybe a big mug of hot cocoa?

If you’d like a glimpse into the bee hive, I’d recommend “Bees Make the Best Pets” for an hour or so of delightful reading. It’s also available for Kindle.  Jack Mingo has a delightful way of describing the events of the hive.

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Please note: I do not have affiliate links with either Amazon or The Regulator Bookshop; I provide the latter as my favorite independent store with excellent customer service for special orders.

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Happiness is…

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.an empty queen cage and busy bees!

Since I installed the package of new bees on Friday, I’ve mostly left them alone other than placing, and replacing feeders. The girls seem to really be slurping up the sugar syrup, and drawing out comb.

I did only enough inspection to see that the queen was out, remove the cage, and watch the queen moving around on the frame.

I’ll open the hive again on Saturday or Sunday to see if I can find eggs on the frames. So far, it looks as if the new colony is off to a good start.

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The bees are home!

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20170414_101643Lots of beekeepers converging on Bailey Bee Supply this morning at the opening time to pick up packages of bees. This was my first time picking up and installing a package–last time around I started with a nuc–so, a new experience for me this year.

I spent yesterday evening reviewing videos and blog posts about how to install a package in the hive. After looking at all the “traditional” methods, I went back to some posts on one of my favorite beekeeping blogs, Honey Bee Suite, about an easier way to do a package install: set the shipping box into the deep from which several frames have been removed and let the bees wander out instead of doing the “shake” method.  Since I’ve switched to deep boxes for my brood chamber, I decided to do the “overnight” installation.

The most difficult part of this was getting the package open–some very serious staples in the cover and the strips that held the boxes together for handling. The real hitch came 20170414_101724when every rubber band that I had in my pocket broke before fitting around the frame. I had to leave the queen cage, briefly, lying on the top of the box, and go get new rubber bands.

Trying to inspect the queen in her cage was interesting. First I shook most of the bees that were clustered on it when I pulled it out of the shipping box and started trying to see the queen. I had just long enough to see a healthy looking bee zipping around in the cage when I had a “glove” (on my ungloved hand) that completely covered the cage as well as my hand. I was looking for marking of yellow, but a friend noted “orange” in a FaceBook post for his package, so I suspect that I just didn’t see the marking on her thorax through all the bees clustering on my hand and the cage.

The queen in her little cage is now rubber-banded to one of the frames, and from the activity,  obviously anxious to get out.  Even though she traveled from Georgia with this little group of bees, it’s still not the time to let her out: the bees will do that by eating through the plug of “candy” at the end of her cage when they both had a little time to settle in.

Several hours later, it looks as if the bees who got out and were flying around the hive are making their way back inside, though they are still exploring.  Because I was putting the girls (and the queen) in a completely, brand new hive, I put an entrance guard on the hive so that the queen cannot leave when she leaves the cage–they girls need to stick around and make this home.

With luck, they will move out of the shipping box this afternoon and tonight. I’ll leave them alone until tomorrow when I’ll remove the shipping box from the hive and put the rest of the frames back in.

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I got so entranced in working with these little creatures that I didn’t realize until writing this that I did that whole procedure without putting on my bee jacket and veil. I think I’ll try to remember that when I go back to check the hive in the morning! I guess maybe the girls are going to be friendly.

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Getting ready for the bees!

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It’s been an absolutely lovely day here. Finally, the wind has died down–for the last few days, I was feeling as if I were back in California with the Santa Ana winds. Frankie, the cat, gets terribly fussy and whinges a lot when it is windy–and he’s done a lot of that the last few days (I do mean whinge–not whine). To the wind, add the spring deluge of pollen–the world is chartreuse as pollen settles on everything, everywhere, coming in through the smallest crack in the window, if you dare open the window. Obviously, not the best conditions to get my woodenware ready for the new package of bees to arrive.

Fortunately, today was lovely–a bit of breeze, not too humid, and just pleasant to be outdoors. So today, finally, I was able to get out the Watco Teak Oil and get my woodenware ready. I was beginning to feel really frustrated because my package (3 pounds) of bees and the queen are due next Friday and I really wanted to get that done so the hive boxes have time to sit and air out (even though I don’t do anything inside the boxes). Now I’m feeling good because I’ve gotten two hives and airing out. Tomorrow promises to be another lovely day for me to “conditioning” the rest of the woodenware for the season.   20170408_170850

I’ve made one change for the coming season since I’ve now had bees for over a year, including one winter, and have had the experience of losing colonies added to that. I feel like I can begin to be opinionated, at least to a degree. I began with all eight-frame, medium boxes–for brood and for honey, and it had a colony overwinter in fine shape, did a split, and had two colonies as of last November–which didn’t make it.  So some experience. As I worked my hives over those months, I decided that I didn’t like the medium for the brood box, so this year, I’ve switched to eight-frame deep boxes for brood (instead of two medium boxes)–even though they will be heavier to lift. I’ll keep using medium boxes for honey supers.

Now, to wait anxiously until 14th April for my package of bees to arrive. That will really tell me that spring is here!

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Eggs, egg salad, etc

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It’s amazing what you find whilst skulking about on the internet. The latest “odd” thing was a novel method of making lots of hard-cooked eggs at one time: in the oven.  It sounds simple–I may have to try it just to see if the texture is as good as reported.

But one thing leads to another–I guess that’s why it’s called browsing. On a chilly, rainy day with a big mug of not cocoa in hand, it’s not possible to simply check one link, so this one relating to cooking eggs lead me to a link on pickled eggs and other eggy links, including “All About Eggs” which covers eggs other than chicken, as well as information about color and size, and printed stuff on the carton, just in case you want to know about cage free or natural.

 

6-Pack-Chicken-EggsEggs (and milk) seem to be among the necessities in my kitchen. Whether working–or have a lazy hiatus between jobs–eggs get used in so many ways. Some of the less frequent uses include deviled eggs and pickled eggs. If I’m in a mad rush to meet a deadline an egg (or two) are easy to turn into a quick meal in so many ways. Omelettes, scrambled, poached, egg salad, or just added to soup or as a “dressing” for veggies.

 

Although I don’t make deviled eggs often, I do collect recipes for those occasions that call for them. Mostly deviled eggs call for mayonnaise. I’ve got no problem using mayo in them but I like some options for flavoring.  Following the Food52 link lead me to a recipe calling for yoghurt which sounds kind of interesting (though it does include some mayo).

I almost always have mayonnaise in the fridge–but a recent reluctance to venture out in the rain to go to the grocery store left me without mayo and a need for some quick egg salad, which like deviled eggs seems to almost always call for mayo.  I had the onion and celery, and capers so I decided to “wing” it: chopped up my eggs, and carefully, bit by bit while tasting added Arbequina extra-virgin olive oil (again from Bull City Olive Oil–love that place) that is a medium intensity but still rather delicate, and then just (again by taste) a bit of apple cider vinegar, and finished with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Definitely not southern-style egg salad, but very good. It’s likely that I’ll do it again even if there is mayo in the fridge. (I did eventually find an egg salad recipe using olive oil.)

That little experiment got me looking for other recipes for egg salad made without mayonnaise–some recipes that I found just use mustard (I do sometimes put some mustard in egg salad), others used Greek yoghurt (though I don’t “do” non-fat–and I use Skyr as starter for my homemade). Another recipe that I found interesting was one using avocado for the “fat” part of the egg salad–so intriguing that I may have to try that when next I have a ripe avocado on hand. And then, the delightful post from Food52 on “How to Make Egg Salad Without a Recipe” which I think will elicit a smile (at least) if you’re an egg salad fan. If you want to really take your egg salad to another level, take a look at “Mediterranean Egg Salad” or “Egg Salad: The True Breakfast of Champions“.

Why my foray into egg salads? Well, hot weather is approaching, and I know I’ll be looking for more meals involving minimal heat–and I really like eggs, but always looking for new ways to use them–maybe even graved eggs!

Wondering about other things to do with eggs? Try here.  A son gôut!

from wikipedia

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A one-dish oven meal

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It’s time to do the weekly (at least I try to make it weekly) troll through the fridge to see what is left from last week, to use for the first two or so meals this week. There’s some kohlrabi, radichio, fresee, lettucepart of a rutabaga, a head of radicchio, and there’s part of a bag of frozen butternut squash in the freezer that should be used as well since it’s already open. There are also two boneless, skinless chicken thighs and two black pepper and onion sausages.

The chilly, drippy, damp and grey weather calls for something warm and colorful. This weather has left me feeling like I really want quality time with the cat and a good book, so I’m thinking oven type meal. It can’t be a stew–already did that quite recently. So a roasted supper seems like a good idea–and something with lots of flavor!

I’ve been wanting to try roasted radicchio, butternut squash is good roasted too–and that certainly would be cheerful and colorful. Although I usually use bone-in chicken thighs for roasting, a little perusing of recipes from The Kitchn I found a suggestion for roasting the boneless, skinless ones as well.

  • A little further browsing suggested 425ºF.for about 20 minutes for the thighs.
  •  From Bon Appetit for roasted radicchio suggested 450ºF for 12 minutes for a head cut into six wedges–I think I’ll cut mine a little thicker
  • For the butternut squash, a recipe from Food & Wine suggested 425ºF for about 40 minutes for 1-inch dice of raw squash. The frozen squash is par-cooked, so I think the 20 minutes should work for that. Since this is frozen, I’m not expecting it to brown in the oven–it will be too wet, but better than dealing with way too much squash. It should still taste good.

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It was a pretty good result for a trial run with just whatever was in the fridge, and went into the oven all in one baking dish.  It’s a combination that will likely even happen as a planned meal in the future.

The chicken thighs didn’t brown much but were tasty; however, I definitely my chicken thighs bone-in and skin-on–especially if you salt and air dry the skin so that it gets crispy and brown. I may have to give bone-in a bit of a head start on cooking, then add the other stuff.

The butternut squash did as expected–cooked fine but didn’t brown. Again, still tasted good and it was great with the radicchio.

I didn’t get part of the core with the radicchio, so my wedge fell apart–oh well, a learning experience. But roasted radicchio is now right up there with grilled or roasted cabbage. The edges a little brown and almost charred, but tender (though still some texture. The bitterness of this against the sweetness of the squash was great. That’s a combination I’ll come back to again.

It wasn’t particularly photogenic since the radicchio fell apart as I removed it from the baking dish to my plate and the chicken wasn’t browned, but it was a very tasty meal with some good taste contrasts.

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 A son gôut!

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Pesto variations

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I get the impression that lots of people think “pesto” means what we consider “traditional” basil, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan.and/or pecorino romano blended in olive oil. The name really refers to the method of preparation–pounding or crushing using mortar and pestle.

With the convenience of a blender or food processor you don’t have to do the laborious pounding so this is an easy, no-cook sauce–right up there with gremolata  or persillade to at zip and zing to summer (or winter) dishes. It’s also a way to preserve some summer bounty into the winter when you want to resurrect a bit of summer–when you have an excess of summer herbs, make it, and freeze it.

As hot summer weather looms, pesto of various sorts is great for use in lighter meals–pasta, bean or legume salads, and with summer vegetables. Bon Appetit just posted recipes for different kinds of pesto–with recipes: 22 Pesto Recipes for When You Want Greens *and* Cheese might just provide some inspiration for summer meals.

Go ahead, get wild an crazy with variations on the traditional basil pesto!

A son gôut!

Just have to share this duck recipe!

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I love duck breasts–it’s a great way to have duck when you are trying to do single-serving cooking since the breasts are readily available frozen from the supermarket. There are some in my freezer now, and one of my favorite citrus fruits is a lovely blood orange.

I was just perusing the WordPress and my FaceBook updates and saw this recipe for “Duck and Orange Salad with Duck Crackling”  from Mrs Portly’s Kitchen.  The pictures came very close to having me drooling all over by keyboard–such perfectly cooked duck and that jewel-like blood orange gel!

I’ve never tried cooking duck breasts without the skin–but that would make it much simpler than searing them with the skin on but this looks like it would be well worth every bit of effort. And the crackling–yum!

I think I saw blood oranges at The Fresh Market last time I was there!