Getting two new beehives

Dear Family & Friends

For two years, we kept a beehive in our garden which we bought from a local villager. Sad to say, we lost them in early spring this year. We still couldn't understand how it happened...but it was a very devastating experience. Nonetheless, we won't take it as a defeat.

our two beehives

Our fifteen year old daughter has been teaching English to a local little girl about her age. In exchange: she asked if her grandfather could supply us with a beehive family to replace the one we lost. They were pleased with the idea and are giving us two beehive families:)

To see a field of sunflowers always brings multi-joy:)

The  grandfather managed to secure two swarms for us:) For the moment, the hives are still with him as he is getting them established in their new homes. Once their hives has enough honey to sustain them, they will be handed to us to stay in our garden.

Sunflower field in our village

There's vast sunflower fields in our village area. Our two beehives are in the vicinity, so they can get and store more food as they settled in their new home. The kind grandfather visits them in the field and brings water to feed them.

This is a carrot that has bolted into flower to produce seeds for the next season:)

We are excited to have another chance of beekeeping venture. For the moment, I'm planting as many bee friendly plants in our garden, especially those early flowering ones for the benefit of the bees, and other beneficial insects which will make a happy garden - and a happy gardener:)

Hope you are keeping a happy and content - sending you wishes of a perfect weather today- one that is not too hot/and not too cold ...your way:)

Yours

Do you do seasonal chores?

Dear Family & Friends

There are things we tend to do in season.. planting certain plants are one of those. I usually go to the market to get my onion sets for planting, but this year, I want to grow 'shallots' instead. After explaining what a shallot is to a grandfather market vendor, he assured me that the onion sets I'm buying would produce multiple onions per plant. Sounds like shallot, although it looks just like the usual onion sets to me!! I got 1/2 a kilo worth costing just under 50 pence:) and this will be enough, if not more, for our whole year's supply!

My first shallot sets to grow in the garden this year

Whilst I'm busy sowing, planting, and growing things in the garden, inside the house, my girls are also inspired to arrange and rearange their bedroom layout and clothes in their wardrobe and drawers.

shirts neatly  rolled in drawer - done by colour and design..I heard!

Sometimes, chores that are repetitive, done seasonally, can bring comfort. At least they don't require much thinking and for a minute or two, the brain cells can have a little holiday break;P That's how I figure it for myself.

Well, I wish you have some comfort in everything that you are doing today too. Enjoy the work of your hands this week:)

Yours

10 kilos of honey!

Dear Family & Friends

Excuse my excitement, but yes...it's another post on our homestead honey harvest! I still can't get over the fact that we got our very own honey from our garden bees without doing much work! Bees are the most amazing creatures that God created for us! Nothing is more wonderful than to have a free and pure honey...That's our greatest treat!

A bottle filled with pure sweet honey...with some hint of herb from our garden

We had our honey comb harvest extracted at our neighbour's home because we don't have an extractor equipment. Although it is possible to do without but it would take a while to drain all the honey out...anyway, they offered us to make use of their gadgets, and showed us how to:) 

Filling up bottles upon bottles of honey on our kitchen table 

We only have one beehive...and only harvested about 1/3 of the honey that is in there...the rest of the honey are left for the bees to enjoy ...after all, it's theirs and they really worked hard to produce litres and litres of honey. We are grateful that there are more than enough for them and for us too:) 

we bottled about 10 kilos of honey!

Honey is a very good food. We don't often buy them because they are a bit expensive... and a bottle of honey never last long on our table! So I am so excited with the extra bounty we received, it should keep us happy for a year before we go get another harvest:) Because we have lots of herbs growing like weeds in every corners of our garden...we noticed our honey got the herb flavours in it too...that's double benefit for us:)

If you ask me, it's all worth keeping honey bees in the garden.There's no big work involved. The bees are also my garden friends...I love them buzzing around me as I work in the garden...it is never true that they are out there to sting you for nothing. On the contrary, they are there to give you healthy food...their own honey, and maintain a very fruitful and beautiful garden for you too! Miss J got honey smirked on her face and the bees came to clean it all out for her...it feels just very ticklish till they finished their cleaning job! Isn't that amazing!

Yours

Our first honey harvest

Dear Family & Friends

Who would ever think we would one day harvest our very own home cultured honey? We wanted to produce our own honey years ago...but we were a bit daunted by the idea...due to our ignorance! Besides, there's also the fact that it would cost us for the initial investment.

Our first harvest of honey still in frames...waiting to be extracted

Then, one day we approached an elderly village grandmother who had an old beehive structure that needed some repair. She gladly gave them to us. We fixed it, and that's the start!

These are free honey from our garden courtesy of our garden friends...the bees!

Next, we approached a village beekeeper and asked him if he would be happy to teach and guide us through beekeeping. He was kind enough to come to our house to check what else we would need to start with...we also bought a bee family from him, He came to our house every other week for a couple of months to followed up with the bee progress and settlement...till he was happy to leave everything under our care.

eight frames of honey filled combs taken from our beehive

With all these kind people around us, we gathered confidence with what we are doing... Time has arrived, when we added another tier to the beehive so we can profit some honey for ourselves.

a trial piece of honey comb to taste

Today, another village grandfather came to teach us how to harvest our first honey! He even lends us the use of his honey extractor. We are indeed so blessed with kind people around us:)

honeycomb oozing with the sweetest honey

You should see the joy radiating through my little family's face as they sample the first little piece of our very own honeycomb filled with honey. Life is sweet:)

Wish you could share our joy in experiencing a simple sweet life in our village home. It only takes little to bring big joy.

Yours

One Busy Beehive In Our Garden

Dear Family & Friends

The garden is full of flowers at this time. I planted many flowers that bees and butterflies love in order to provide food for them. Flowers like Zinnias, Globe artichoke, echinachea, marigold etc.. Bees in particular, work so hard all their challenging short life. I feel that we should make way to protect and care for them in whatever way we could. Yes, in return, there's a reward for our effort...such as pollinators for our garden plants, honey from bees, and the beauty and life they bring into the garden:)

The beehive is opened for inspection

Today our bee supplier came to our house to aid and guide us in our beekeeping journey...because we are still in the "learning" process. He showed and explained to us what's going on inside the beehive at this moment. Yes, our bees are very happy... they are expanding their colony fast since they joined us late spring this year.  

This giant beekeeper friend of ours is not even well protected from possible bee sting

We saw many baby bees and stores of honey. At first we thought we might not get any honey from them this year, but upon checking, there will be plenty for them and enough for us to enjoy too:)

This wooden slat is almost full and covered with capped honeycomb

Every wooden slats were checked and it all look good in there:) We added more slats to enable them to expand their colony further.

There are several wooden slats with honeycomb now, which we started with just one 4 months ago

I have watched a lot of you tube videos on life of bees...it's very interesting to know more about these amazing creature that God created! I am so encouraged to make our garden an environmental friendly place for these insects. Right now, I'm working on planting rows of Lavender, Globe Artichoke, and Echinachea for the bees. These plants are perennials and are easy to care for.

We add the wooden slats gradually as we see their need for more 

If you have a garden, make it a friendly place for the bees...or even go further by having a beehive...it will bring a lot of excitement.

All for now, wishing you a nice and happy day today:)

Yours

Beekeeping Update

Dear Family & Friends

Beeware! Or rather bee aware...:) Bees are beneficial and friendly garden creatures! Many of us think of bee as insect that stings....well, it's a misconception. If not threathened, they never do. I love being in the garden and bees buzzing around me.. They're constantly busy going from flower to flower, and they never bother me.

Since we got a live beehive, we fed our bees sugar water for a few weeks, to help them get establish and keep busy building their new home rather than spent a lot of time gathering food. But all these have paid off...we're not putting sugar water anymore because we noticed that the queen got the nest and there's even babies in there already feeding honey:) Next year, there should be enough honey for us too:)

one busy bee covered with pollen

We're so happy they settled well with us...and we added another frame for them to build more honeycomb. If this one hive goes well, we might fill the other one too. Hopefully we would find how to build or encourage another colony...because to buy a ready-made colony is not cheap!

Neighbouring field with beehives

There's so many people who keep bees for honey in our vicinity...some does it for business. We only have one hive and our aim is to have our own homemade honey....probably as we get more confident, we will get a few more colonies....for now....it's all exciting time of learning.

Here's wishing you a lovely day today:

Yours

We Finally Got Our Own Beehive

Dear Family & Friends

We wanted to have our own beehive for some honey! It's all a daunting task but the man in our household is all for it! After making a lot of inquiry, he finally found a man who could come and help him set up a hive and provide the bees too. We thought of having two hives, but it was quite expensive and settled with just one for a start.

A few preparations were needed for the beehive - the wall of wax for their immediate use 

A lot of preparations were needed to do. Fortunately, we were given an old beehive which needed a bit fixing. From there, other preparations were also needed to aid the bees in building up their hive from inside.

The beehive at the end of our garden

We found a suitable place for the bees, at the end of our garden.  We covered the ground with cardboard and will top it up with woodchips to prevent weeds as we won't be able to do weeding around the area without disturbing the bees later on.

The prepared wax where bees will build their honeycomb were placed inside the hive

Finally, the day arrived when the bee provider came and helped us do the final set up of the hive.

First week of June, a father and son team came to help us set a beehive

The father and son team set in a family of bees inside the hive.

A family of bees were settled in the hive - their new home!

We won't be able to gather honey for this year...but we are looking to have some harvest for next year. For now, we will work to keep the bees happy in our garden. So, you can expect some stories about them from time to time too.

Hope you have a nice day today.

Yours,