Honey & Webs & the Little Red Hen!

Well, it's official. I have just turned in my last assignment for my online class. I am SO glad it is over. You can check out my mock classroom website at The Hive. I have also finished my observation of the third grade summer school class at Cogburn Woods. Now I have to finish my write ups for it, which aren't due until July 23rd. So now I need to start focusing on catching up with the work for my children's lit. class I'm taking on Tuesday nights.

sigh.

It never ends....

On another note, I did extract about 2+ gallons of honey from hive #2! Riley was a great helper, but Owen couldn't have cared less about helping, even though I tried several times to get him to help! When Riley and I had about two frames left to do, he finally came out to see what we were doing. When he saw Riley picking honey and wax from the freshly extracted frames, he wanted some too. Not so fast buddy!
I reminded him of the story of the Little Red Hen that I had told him around the campfire last weekend. I told him that he was like the animals that wouldn't help the hen with the bread, so he couldn't have any of the honey yet. Oh, you would have thought that I had just broken his favorite toy! He asked me if I was kidding, and when I said no, I got a very reluctant "Yes, Daddy."
(He got some later as I was straining it! He helped me get the strainers and the bucket.) ;)
I'll post some pics of the honey when I get home. It is very dark! It has the color of molasses, and you can't see anything through it. But it is still quite tasty! I'll have a picture of it compared to the last super I had extracted.
Anyone have any idea what would make such dark honey? blackberries?


Edit: Here's the picture of the honey. Ignore the fingerprint on the jar, Linda....


Here's an article I found about dark honey. I have a new selling option it seems....
Dark Honey v. Free Radicals

Teaching About Bees

This week I've been doing observation in a third grade summer school classroom. I have to get 48 hours of observation/teaching time in for my Masters. So for my lesson I have to teach, I'm teaching them about, what else? Bees! So today I brought in my veil, smoker, hive tool, and a frame of capped honey, along with some pictures of my hives and my bees. Let me tell you, it has been a blast! The kids seem really excited about it! I only wish I could get an observation hive to bring in and let them see the bees up close.

Michael Bush's observation hive---->

I'm also working on a website for my ED 630 Computer Literacy for Teachers class. I had to pick a topic, so I picked (drum roll!) honeybees! I have been gathering a collection of about 20 websites that I can direct both students and/or teachers to. Once I have this website (and collection of websites) available, I'll post a link here so other beekeeping teachers can have access to it. I'll also be attaching my webquest for 5th graders that I developed.

On another note, I went to the opening night of the Rush tour Wednesday! It was awesome! I'm planning on writing a post about it soon, and will include some pictures that I took. I must say, the 11th row from the stage has a nice view!

In the meantime, have a great day!

Mmmmmm....Pepperoni Rolls.......

Ok, every now and then I get a craving for pepperoni rolls. So I'm cheating and I'm thawing out frozen bread dough now to make some.

Man, I love pepperoni rolls.

What's a pepperoni roll?

Sinner!!

Only one of the best snacks on Earth! They are like manna from angels in Heaven sent straight to EARTH!

Go visit Bob's Pepperoni roll site for more info.

According to his site, and the recipes there, the best ones have cheese and pepperoni sticks in them. I put slices in mine (because it's more available and cheaper!) and rarely use cheese in them, although they are quite good that way!

The picture to the right is from Bob's site.

I can't wait for the dough to thaw!!

The End of a Hectic Week!

It's finally here!
Friday!!

We've had VBS this week, and I've been teaching the kindergarten class. We had a good class, and a good turnout for the week, with our biggest day being 304!

On Monday, I needed to start my observations of the 3rd grade summer school class at Cogburn Woods Elementary, so Erica filled in for me at VBS. Isn't she great? I like her. I think I'll keep her...
So I spent Monday from 7:15am until 2:oopm sitting and observing the first day of school. My plan is to do the same thing every day for the next two weeks. Then hopefully I'll have finished my 48 hours!

The church that is affiliated with the school I work at was also having their VBS this week. They called me Monday and needed me to drive the bus for their afternoon Camp Alpha sessions. On Tuesday, I took them to the Braves v. Marlins game, on Wednesday we went to the Georgia Aquarium, and on Thursday we went bowling at Stars & Strikes in Cumming. It was quite busy, as we would leave from our church, eat lunch in the truck, and then be gone until about 6-7 each evening. It was a lot of running, but I think the kids had a good time!

On the bee front, I was finally able to get out today after VBS and check the bees! In the ongoing saga of hive 1, I found the queen today. She was in the deep, and had several bees following her around. I was surprised to find that there were only a couple of cells with eggs in them, so I'm hoping she's just getting geared up for work! She looks like she has mated, so hopefully she'll get with it soon.

Hive 2 is still going gangbusters. I removed the queen excluder, as there are now two mediums full of almost capped honey on the deep! I've already removed one medium super from this hive earlier (see pictures below), and they have filled two mediums in about two weeks! And we're in the middle of a drought! The queen is a Kona queen from Hawai'i, so I'm very pleased with her daughters right now! I plan to pull the top super next week, and I'm going to leave the other super on for their own usage. I'm planning on putting a shallow super for cut comb on in place of the medium.

Hive 3 looked good. This is the hive I installed in mid April with a Cordovan queen. They are doing well, and have almost filled the medium super I put on a couple weeks ago. They seem to be working hard, but they aren't going anywhere near as hard as #2!

Well, that's all for now! Keep praying for rain! (I just heard thunder!!)
Steve

Profiting from CCD?

I thought this was an interesting twist on the news about CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder).
I find it oddly macabre to think about profiting from it..
Profiting from the Plight of the Disappearing Honeybee from thestreet.com

Here's a bit of it:

"Whether this is a world disaster or not, we at Stockpickr are tracking the Disappearing Honeybee portfolio, a list of stocks that could benefit from CCD.

First off, look for plants that don't require pollination from bees. Corn and soybeans fit the bill. The obvious play here is Archer Daniels Midland (ADM - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating), the "supermarket to the world." "

And:

"All sorts of explanations, from pesticide spraying and falling queen-bee fertility to cell-phone pollution (they're alleged to interfere with bee radar) and fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, have been offered as possible causes...However, if the Biblical prophecy angle turns out to be correct, buy the streetTracks Gold ETF (GLD - Cramer's Take - Stockpickr - Rating) on the way to Armageddon." (I don't care who you are, that's funny right there! - Steve)

I guess if we're going to have a worldwide shortage of a species, better make some money from it!

(Don't get me wrong! I'm as capitalistic as the next guy! Love the free market! I just thought this was odd!)

I thought this sounded good, though:

Bill to protect Bees