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Quarantine Hobbies

We have all seen the birds. What about the bees?

Technically I ordered the bees in February before the pandemic but the Italian queen and her 8-10,000 homies came in April so it ended up being a pandemic hobby. I built the hive boxes during the pandemic.

Yes, I took a sawzall to my back fence. We just had it installed 2 years ago. My wife was/is pissed. Guys Rok!


View attachment 46865
I would like to keep bees but I think I need a bigger area and fewer neighbors.
A few years ago a swarm took over our composter for about a week and they left us some nice hive that my wife used to make lip balm.
 
We have all seen the birds. What about the bees?

Technically I ordered the bees in February before the pandemic but the Italian queen and her 8-10,000 homies came in April so it ended up being a pandemic hobby. I built the hive boxes during the pandemic.

Yes, I took a sawzall to my back fence. We just had it installed 2 years ago. My wife was/is pissed. Guys Rok!


View attachment 46865
Why did you cut the fence?
 



Why did you cut the fence?
I didn’t want to set hive in backyard grass as we have dogs and wasn’t sure they would leave it alone. From what I read and the few people I have talked to it’s best for the hive to face South so I couldn’t put it behind the fence, which would be ideal. This left me with few options in our backyard. This has been a mental hobby for some time and I have seriously wanted to start for the past five years. A couple years ago I was watching a discovery type channel about a bee keeper in Australia who had problems with honey badgers raiding his bees. As a result he created a platform about 5 feet high off ground with different mechanisms to keep the honey badgers out of his hives. This got me thinking about something similar for a hive in my backyard.

There are pros and cons. The pros are you have direct line of sight and I can watch bees easily. They are off ground so no problem with dogs and so far no problems with kids. The cons as I’m finding out is that you should regularly inspect your hive which means I’m 3 feet off the ground while working in the hive. The bees wax the boxes together and each box is heavy. I have almost fallen numerous times. When it is all said and done I will spend more on decking then I did on the hive.
 
I would like to keep bees but I think I need a bigger area and fewer neighbors.
A few years ago a swarm took over our composter for about a week and they left us some nice hive that my wife used to make lip balm.
As you can see we back up to a pasture so we don’t have problems with people behind us. I don’t think I would have done it if we were surrounded by houses. The bees aren’t the problem. It’s how people react or perceive the ‘threat’ of bees.
 






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This is my first cowhorn pepper, more on the way along with poblanos, yellow limon, and a hybrid cayenne.. The tomatoes are starting to hit. Zucchini, squash, and onions. We just did a small 16x16 garden for her this year.
 
View attachment 47340

This is my first cowhorn pepper, more on the way along with poblanos, yellow limon, and a hybrid cayenne.. The tomatoes are starting to hit. Zucchini, squash, and onions. We just did a small 16x16 garden for her this year.
I leave the gardening to the wife, she does an incredible job here in the desert. Egg plant, cucumbers, various types of lettuce and some peppers. This year, though, the chickens are eating it before we are.
 

Well, my first pint of pickled peppers and onions (cowhorn and hybrid cayenne/white and red onions) did not seal when I canned it. So, it is refrigerator pickling. I am honestly thinking of pulverizing the whole mess in the blender and making hot sauce since it is basically the same thing as Tabasco pre grind right now.
 

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