A busy Saturday

Volunteer Fire Department Friday night in Marlow was entirely too exciting. Starting midafternoon or so, there was a clear smell of smoke in the air in the southwest part of town. Thing is, after the nine houses on Baine Rd, it’s two or three miles to the Alstead or Gilsum town lines, and another mile or so to the first road in those towns. So we could have a serious fire going before we knew it. So we had one set of neighbors show up at 5, and another about 11 on a four wheeler. Today two different sets of our volunteer fire department went bouncing into our woods. But so far, no more smell of smoke, and a severe thunderstorm warning. We need the rain desperately.

Extracting honey Today was honey extraction day, no matter what. We need to get those hives tucked in for winter. Fortunately another week and the bee escapes had done their work. The super on the hive on the right was empty. The one on the left still had about fifty drones and perhaps three workers. Drones don’t sting. We repeated the drill from 2005: Grab the super, around the corner, extract quickly, put the empty frames out for the bees to clean up. We got roughly 35 pounds of honey. Honestly I was disappointed, hefting the supers I’d hoped for twice that. But it’s 35 pounds of yummier honey than I’ve ever had from a store. We’ll put it up in 12 oz. bears.

The new bee suit continues to be a great success. Unhappy bees, but none got to me. I’m waiting for the next cool evening to go in and really check out the hives for winter. If I don’t get the burr comb cleaned up now, I likely never will. I’m hoping not to have to feed the two queenright hives, but that too I need to verify.

Chipper This evening we fired up the wood chipper to make horse bedding. The extra ten horsepower on the tractor are a big help, but we managed to jam it anyway. I took it apart and managed to mislay the bolts for the exhaust spout. And thus to dinner.

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