Weekends in Dundee

Join us as we explore Willamette Valley Wine Country one weekend at a time!

The Honeybees ~ Beeswax Candle Making

by

Have I mentioned before that our honeybees are amazing!? So amazing that I’m about to show you how to make candles out of beeswax! If you missed the first post in this series, go check out how we melted down our beeswax. As I stated in that post, we didn’t get enough beeswax of our own to make twelve candles, so I purchased some additional beeswax at our local beekeeping store, Ruhl Bee Supply.

The first thing you need to do is figure out what type of candle you want to make. I decided to go with these mini Ball Jars that make nice size “votive” candles.

DSC00346

[Read more…]

We Bought Goldfish for Our Honeybees!

by

So this post is a long one…mostly pictures, but I just couldn’t help myself. I am so excited about having a fish pond in our backyard, even if it is just a cattle stock tank!  So you may be wondering what goldfish have to do with honeybees, but the truth is, it’s a bit of a symbiotic relationship (ok, that might be an overstatement!?). Honeybees need water, and if you have a pond you need goldfish to keep the mosquito larva away. See there…we just had to buy goldfish for our honeybees!

So it started out with a trip to Wilco where we picked up a six foot cattle stock tank. We then started to prep the area where the tank was going. We raked back the bard dust, tried to level the soil, and ultimately used a bag of sand to get things leveled.

DSC08451

[Read more…]

Removing the Honeybee Packages

by

Way back on April 25th…yes, I’ve got a backlog of photos…please forgive me! We pulled the honeybee packages out of our new hives. We received our honeybees on April 15th, and general practice is to let the packages rest in the hive for 7-9 days so that the honeybees can accept their Queen and start making honeycomb. Due to some inclement weather, we had to wait a little longer than we wanted to, which meant that honeybees started to build some “rouge comb.”

DSC07983

[Read more…]

Painting the Hives and the Honeybees Arrive

by

I know I’ve been a bit quite on the honeybee front, especially after our visit to Ruhl Bee Supply back in March, but we’ve really been doing all sorts of work to get ready for the spring beekeeping season! I’m always hesitant to do a blog post before the finished project is ready to present, so you’ll have to forgive me with the amount of pictures and text in this post…this project has been a long time coming!

It started with a conversation between myself and The Renaissance Man about beekeeping and what we really wanted in the year ahead. We unfortunately lost one of our hives this past winter (we’re pretty sure it was a sugar ant invasion), and were trying to figure out our strategy for the coming season. I wanted to get involved this year with a few hives of my own, and so the decision was made to add two more hives and replace the hive we lost. And what does a crafty girl do when you give her bee hives? She paints them!!!

DSC07196

[Read more…]

Buzzing with Excitement ~ Second Year Beekeeping

by

Things sure have changed since my last visit to Ruhl Bee Supply. Last year around this time I was nervously following The Renaissance Man into this huge warehouse building full of honeybee supplies. I had no idea what I was doing and was convinced we were getting in way over our heads with this whole “Beekeeping Thing.”

I’m happy to report that this year I felt like a seasoned pro! We must have spent two hours perusing the store and slowly filling our carts with new honeybee equipment. Just look at all of those supplies.

Ruhl_Bee_Supply_1

[Read more…]

Winter Daffodils & Honeybees

by

Yesterday was a beautiful day, it was the kind of January Saturday that you dream about! The sun was out, the temperature was in the mid-60s, and I could feel the hints of Spring almost everywhere. Despite having our fair amount of rain this winter, the temperatures have remained mild and I’ve been slowly watching my daffodils peak out of the ground.

DSC06696

[Read more…]