Robo’s World

Our rooster got beat up badly by a fox in the Spring and it was questionable if he would make it. Fortunately he has recovered quite well. During his recovery, he wasn’t fertilizing the eggs, so when one of our hens went broody, we weren’t too optimistic of how many chicks we would get. Turned out for the worst, no eggs hatched. But the poor hen was so determined, she continued to sit on the eggs even after some of them started to exploded. We were not aware of this until we smelled the stench of the rotten eggs. I immediately cleaned out the nest and disposed of the mess. The poor hen, Henny Penny (as our son named her), didn’t seem to understand and was all discombobulated. So for the heck of it, I made a new nest in the same nesting box and placed some Guinea eggs in it. She knew it and refused to lay on them and returned to perch with the others for the night. To my surprise, the next morning I found her nesting on the eggs. I figured it was a long shot that she would continue to lay on the eggs for 28 more days after already spending almost a month on the batch of bad eggs. Well she did, and now we have a proud mom with guinea keets. I’m hoping they will be calmer that the normal guineas, and so far, they seem to be. They are going on 6 weeks old, and at night, some of them roost on mom’s back.

We have a black & yellow garden spider (Argiope aurantia) living in the burning bushes by the south side of our house. My son and I enjoy feeding it Japanese beetles and watching the spider mummify them. It is even more enjoyable than feeding them to the Guinea keets. Unfortunately, there are more than enough Japanese beetles to go around. Here is a short video clip of the spider in action.

I was out in the yard working tonight when our black lab Cinder started barking. The guinea hens where in the yard wandering around and squawking, but not the serious trouble type of squawk. I immediately thought a bear. I had gotten a call on Friday from my parents neighbor that a bear had knocked a hive off my parents’ garage roof, so I knew it was that time of the year. I quickly ran around the chicken coop to see what she was barking at and realized that there was something in the live trap. Continue Reading »

Today I mixed a bit of thin sugar syrup for a spring feeding to help boost the bees. We have had very cold nights, and not to many days that have been above 50degrees. This is the time of year that puts a lot of strain on a hive as it attempts to keep the hive warm enough for brood rearing. I can never remember if the ratio is by volume or weight, not that it needs to be an exact science, but here is how I generally mix syrup…..

The easy way to mix these recipes is to use pounds of sugar to pints of water.

• 1:2 is 1 pound of sugar dissolved in 2 pints of water. This is a Spring mixture used to stimulate the queen to start laying.
• 1:1 is 1 pound of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of water. This is a mixture used to encourage comb building.
• 2:1 is 2 pounds of sugar dissolved in 1 pint of water. This is a Fall mixture used to make winter stores.

I spent some time today browsing thru some of my bee books looking at Pollen Substitutes. Here is an excerpt from “Keeping Bees” by John Vivian about making and feeding pollen substitutes.

Artificial Pollens
An artificial pollen formula developed by the USDA’s Beltsville, Maryland, research labs provides 13 percent protein and 70 percent carbohydrate from augmented soy flour. It is mixed with sugar syrup and sold commercially as Beltsville Bee Diet…… You can make a pollen substitute from ingredients available at any health food store. Mix three parts by weight soyflour with one part of brewer’s yeast for a basic dry feed. Some beepeople add up to one part nonfat dry milk. Mix in as much natural pollen as you have for better acceptance by the bees; even a small amount will make the artificial product more attractive to them. Do not use purchased bee pollen; you have no way of knowing where it came from. None of it is checked for bee disease, and imported pollen has been a proven carrier of the disease nosema. You may find wild pollen in harvestable quantities in a cattail swamp, but not until well after the critical early spring weeks are past. To save some for next year, bang ripe cattail heads against the side of a garbage can with a plastic bag in it. Winnow out the cattail frass and freeze the pollen.

Feeding Dry Mix
Feed the dry mix by sprinkling it on frame tops or putting it in a cigar box with half-inch holes drilled in all four sides. Sprinkle some on the box top and leave it near the hives. The bees will find it. An easily handled pollen cake can be made by mixing the dry ingredients with enough 2:1 sugar-water syrup to bind a patty into a hamburger-like consistency, size, and shape. Do not mix with honey from any outside source unless you boil a 1:2 water/honey mix for five minutes; even store-bought eating honey can carry disease spores. Keep a supply of patties on frame tops until you see the bees carrying natural pollen.