Beneficial Bee Lip Balm Giveaway!

We need help naming our fourth baby goat. Glenn, Oliver and I picked him up last Wednesday and have yet to figure out a fitting name for him. This goat will be the father of all of our baby goats in the coming years. We are told he will be big, stinky and urine soaked, but sweet.

The Rules:

1. Please leave your name suggestion in the comments section of this blog. You can leave as many name suggestions as you want. If you feel weird about leaving blog comments, you can e-mail me.

2. If your name is chosen, we will ship your lip balm to you. We are happy to ship all over the world.

3. Names like Shadow and Midnight will disqualify you immediately.

4. The winner will receive a four season gift pack (all four of our lip balm scents in a cute box).

5. The winner will be notified on Saturday July 17th.

6. Bribes will be accepted, but will not guarantee a win.

I tried to take some nice pictures of the new goat this afternoon for the blog. My plan was to have an Oliver-free blog, but the new goat decided otherwise. Like all of the other animals on this farm, the goat thinks Oliver is the greatest. So, Oliver ended up being in virtually every shot because the goat wouldn't leave his side!





The Prize (minus the bees):

The Beneficial Bee Sanctuary?

I was doing dishes and thinking the other day about bees. Word has gotten out around town that Glenn is a beekeeper and we have received several calls over the past two years from people needing help with bee swarm and hive removals. The calls are generally from people who love bees and wouldn’t consider exterminating them, but who cannot afford to spend two hundred dollars for live removal. Unfortunately, bee boxes are expensive and Glenn has been unable to help remove bees in many cases because he has nowhere to put them.

For Christmas, Glenn’s parents bought him two new bee boxes. Glenn used one box to capture a swarm from one of our hives and the other was sitting empty waiting for a bee call. Our neighbors up the street are renovating an old school house for a wedding venue and needed to find a new home for the bees that have made their home in the school house for the past six years. Glenn was intrigued by the challenge and agreed to help move the bees out of the school house.

Later that same week, we got a call from the county. Bees had made their home in a gas well head on a county work site and had to be removed. I initially said we would be unable to help, as we were out of bee homes. When the county found out it would be cheaper to purchase a bee box for us than paying an exterminator, they called back with an offer.

The county transaction led to my deep bee thinking. What about starting a bee sanctuary? We could offer to remove bees and move them onto our property if we could get a donation for a bee box ($60). Bee lovers could “sponsor” a hive that would have otherwise been exterminated. They would receive a picture of their hive with an annual update or something. Glenn and I would donate our time doing something we love: helping honey bees. Hmmm, now how can I set up a nonprofit in my spare time?

The calls made for a stimulating and sticky week of bee removals. Glenn and Oliver removed the bees from the county site first. As soon as I could leave work, I met them at the site to take my honey covered three-year-old home. Oliver had a great time helping his dad. When he wasn’t being chased by angry bees, he was watching hawks and finding snakes.




We scheduled the school house removal on a weekend so I could be "the assistant to the beekeeper." Grammy and Pop came along to help keep Oliver busy and take photographs. My mom gets the photo credits for (most of) these pictures.


The Assistants


Hive Removal

Smoking the Hive

Removing Comb

Brushing Bees

The Final Touches

Oliver's Favorite Part: The Honey!

Oliver is our preschool bee ambassador. On his share day he brought in a section of comb collected from the county site. The children were fascinated, but mostly wanted to smell the honey. Oliver did a good job trying to describe the process to his classmates.

After the hive removals, several bees were left stuck to honey covered hives in buckets on the porch. Oliver and I set up a M*A*S*H unit to revive the survivors. Grammy came to help with the bee saving efforts and we were able to get around 100 bees total back in the air next to their new hive. Each bee was carefully lifted out of the honey, dunked in water and dried. The bees seemed angry, but I'm sure they were thankful inside.


Can you guess how many stings we endured over the week of removals and revivals? ZERO!

Three Goats, Three Alpacas, Two Swarms, One Livestock Guardian Dog, and a Fetus

I have several farm updates! I planned on blogging last week, but I got sick with a gallbladder issue and spent the last part of the week throwing up, going to the ED, and eating a liquid diet. (By the way, I promised myself I would not mention poop or vomit anymore in my posts, but here I go again, sorry). So, the good news is that I have lost a few pounds over the past few days. I was starting to get a little big around the middle. So here are the things that have happened around here over the past two weeks.

1. SWARM CAPTURE

Glenn was working in my parents' greenhouse last week, when he heard a swarm of bees fly into one of their oak trees. Glenn excitedly called me, so I rushed home from work to help him capture the swarm that landed 15-20 feet off the ground. I didn’t do much but take pictures and curse when the swarm landed on my head under the tree, but I can’t miss an opportunity to watch a swarm removal. Glenn went up the ladder countless times to collect all of the bees. The bees are satisfied with their new home and now live in our front yard.


2. ALPACA, DOG, GOAT

The three alpacas, dog and goat have all managed to work out their differences and seem to live in peace with each other. Our goat, Leche, thinks she is an alpaca, and has been seen grazing, sleeping and frolicking with the alpacas. When Lotta gets a little too rough for her, she runs to the alpacas for defense and they actually seem to take care of her. You can see Leche in the shelter eating with the alpacas, while Lotta is forced to stay outside.

Occasionally, Lotta will do something silly, like wake Mic up from a nap. Below Mic is giving Lotta a good warning spit in the face.


3. BABY BB

We decided to have an ultrasound this time around for some peace of mind (mine, mostly), but we did not find out the sex of the baby. Both grandmas came to the appointment as we were lucky enough to schedule it when Glenn’s parents were in town visiting. Here is a peek at her profile. Glenn is already claiming she looks like him. He’s probably right, Oliver was born looking like a miniature version of him (and that’s a good thing; Glenn is pretty cute).

4. NEW GOATS

Glenn brought home the new babies! We have been working with them, trying to get them on the bottle, but the male in particular seems to like eating alfalfa instead. Here are both Grandmas, each holding a new baby goat. In the second picture we are attempting to lure them back to the house with an alfalfa “carrot.”



5. WILDFLOWER BIKE RIDE

The annual Wildflower bike ride rode through again this year. As usual we woke up early to cheer on the bicyclists. Our alpacas and goats were quite a hit. Oliver served as the alpaca guide, taking photographs with the bicyclists and alpacas, and correcting people when they called Remmy or Mic a llama.

6. BACKYARD SWARM

Yesterday I heard a loud buzzing sound in the back under the oak trees. It turned out to be a swarm in action. I have only seen swarms once they have settled onto a tree, so this was a real treat for me. The air was thick with bees. It was beautiful! Just look at how many bees were in the air at the time of the swarm.

Beekeeping Fashion Tips and Other Hive News

I made an amazing discovery today. Maternity jeans make for excellent beekeeping pants. I was able to tuck my shirt in with ease, the cinch the waist just tight enough to keep bees out. I felt very proud of my outfit until Glenn made a snide remark about looking like I belonged in the 1980s. Apparently men do not find this look "sexy" anymore. So, I wouldn't recommend wearing this outfit on a first date, but maternity jeans do come in handy when checking the hives with no one else around.

Yellow and orange pollen made for some beautiful bee shots today. I believe the orange pollen was collected from our blossoming pluot tree. We saw the bee in the second picture doing the "waggle dance" to show the other bees how to get to the pluot tree. Bees are so smart!


Glenn had a tough day today. While inspecting hive number two (our previously stronger hive) he was attacked by ants. His smoker then went out in the middle of the inspection. Here he is trying to light the smoker and fight off an ant at the same time. Keep in mind, this is the same man who made fun of MY beekeeping outfit.

You can see Glenn freaking out a bit about the health of hive number two in the picture below. Glenn thinks the hive has chalkbrood, a fungal brood disease. The brood looks spotty, and the whole bottom part of the hive was empty. The second picture shows what we found in the cells in the bottom part of the hive. Can any beekeepers tell us what we are looking at? We will keep you updated about the health of hive two.

My Camera Sickness

I've been on call all week, so instead of getting tipsy on the 31st, I stayed sober enough to answer compelling questions like, "Is my fallopian tube coming out of my vagina?" Don't worry, it wasn't. I also spent the week taking hundreds of pictures. I have been a little sick about having my camera available for pictures. Driving home from work (without my camera), watching the blue moon rise, was agonizing. I also tried not to have a fit when I learned that we drove right by a golden eagle devouring its prey. I'm sure those "once in a blue moon" opportunities will present themselves again.

So what to do with the hundreds of pictures? I decided to pick my favorites and publish them here. I'm hoping to blog about something a little more exciting tomorrow. We will have to see how things turn out.

Slender Salamander


I took this picture for our new lip balm display.


Pumpkin Smiling


Blue Moon Behind a Tree


The neighbor's puppy stole Oliver's sword.


Frozen Bee

Manzanita Bees

I planned on not blogging this weekend to give myself a break. Oli and I went on a hike and took our cameras along in the hopes of spotting a bear. Instead we found this beautiful Manzanita in bloom with dozens of bees collecting its pollen. I can't resist sharing some of our pretty pictures.

Jessica's Pics (Olympus Camedia camera):




Oliver's Pics (V-tech Kidizoom camera):