Flowers & Bees Just Go Together

We moved our beehive recently. They now live on a 30 acre lot, hosted by a family who graciously offered their home to us when we were needing a space to keep them with our recent move.

They sit amongst beautiful flowers and trees, and have a lake to drink from. It's the most bee friendly space I've seen, and I thought we were pretty great to them in our yard. If they weren't spoiled before, they should definitely feel the love now.

The study of bees is an incredible journey. It's so wonderful to be part of something so massively larger than us and to be doing our part to help save the bee populations, and as a by product saving our food source.

It seems like pretty old news that there is a problem with bees vanishing due to pesticides that screw up their gps to make their way back to the hive after foraging, and brings about illnesses for them, as any poisons would for an individual. I think it's also pretty well known by now that about 1/3 of what we eat is a direct result of these pollinators, so if they were to disappear completely, our cycle of food and diets would immensely be changed. In fact, I'll take it a step further and say that if you follow Michael Pollan's guide in his book, "In Defense of Food," where he highly encourages most of one's diet to be fruits and veggies, I'd estimate more than 1/3 of your diet is impressed upon directly due to these little pollinators.

But I'm always in awe when I encounter knowledge of more experienced beeks (as we often call beekeepers in this little community). I had no idea how democratic the hive can be, but learned recently that when a hive is about to swarm, or move locations, they send out a few bees to check on options. Those bees then come back to the hive and share their findings, and then the bees VOTE on where they would like to move. Yes, someone has studied these little bees and their waggle dance to learn down the minute where they are in their voting process and can tell you by their body language and little dances how many minutes until the hive will be relocating and in which direction they will fly off to get there. It's incredible.

We have to save the bees!

Even if you can't have a hive, you can do research on planting some of the bees favorite foraging flowers. Just having a bit of water out and some pollen friendly flowers is a small way you can help this cause. And please, don't use pesticides. 

P.S. Borage is a bee favorite.

Below is a photo of our hive in their new home.

The string of bees to the left is them festooning, which means they are in the process of making comb by stringing wax together.

Our friend Larry helped, and is learning beekeeping by helping observe our hive.

The thing about bees, is making sure they have plenty to forage, and this time of year there are so many beautiful blooms in bounty that I made some flower arrangements for our host family since they are moving into their new house soon. All of these beautiful flowers were hand picked from their garden. Look at those dahlias!

Beeswax Candles!

Did you know that beeswax candles clean the air when burned?

Beeswax candles are unique to other types of waxes in that when burned they actually emit negative ions that help clean the air. Their mild, sweet, honey smell make for a nice natural aroma, so other scents aren't a necessary addition. And they have a nice, natural golden color, which can vary per batch due to the natural state of extraction, which I think gives it charm.

How do they clean they air exactly? Well, the negative ions emitted from the candles neutralize the positive ions in the air, suck them into the flame and drop the particles to the ground. This is why it is often good for allergies, hay fever and asthma.

Another benefit, is that hand rolled beeswax doesn't drip! So, you don't have to worry about it getting messy while they burn.

Paraffin candles are a by product of petroleum, which are believed to release toxins into the air, and soy is often a gmo product that was sprayed with chemicals, which is then in the product of candles made of soy. When burning beeswax candles that are known to be pesticide free, you can know that you are not only helping clean the air you breath, but you are being more earth friendly, while still enjoying candle light.

Up in the Etsy store you can buy some varieties of beeswax candles from us. They are great wedding or shower favors, home decor, or housewarming gifts!

Here are some photos of a sampling of what you will find and more!

Photos by Justin Lucarelli http://lucarelliphotography.com

Collecting Pollen

Well, we moved our hive to our own backyard, and it is just feed outside of our bedroom. The bees are a bit stirred up from the move as they reorient themselves and reset their internal GPS systems.

As you can see from this video, the forager bees are bringing in a lot of pollen--you can see the orange dots (they look yellow in this video) on the back of their hind legs. This is a really good sign! It means we still have our queen bee and she is laying brood, so they are bringing in pollen to make food to feed the babes.

After a week goes by and gives them some time to acclimate, we will open the hive to take a look at the brood, and we will be moving their hive frames into a new box. We want them to be less agitated when we open up their home, which is why we are waiting a week to do so. Hopefully I will be able to take photos and post the job on here for you to see. But in the mean time, you can see lots of activity in this short clip.

Photos of Matt and Chelsea's Wedding by Brookelyn Photography

All of the photos of the wedding and in this post were taken by Brookelyn Photography. To see more of her work visit Brookelynphotography.com. She did a fantastic job with the entire wedding, and I'm so thankful she was able to photograph some of my arrangements for me.

Thank you to my dear friends Matt and Chelsea for allowing me to be part of their special day by designing their floral work. The location of this wedding was at the South Coast Botanic Gardens in Palos Verdes, California. If you are having a country or garden wedding you may want to take some notes on some of their details!

 Some details:

Guests brought blankets for the reception and checked them in upon arrival.

Lavender bunches as favors.

Messages left for the bride and groom.

It was a really beautiful July day, and I was able to get the flowers done right before being put on complete bed rest.

National Honeybee Day!

August 17th is National Honeybee Day, so it feels worth mentioning. There is a big event in Santa Monica (I believe at 3rd St. Promenade) to help bring awareness and celebrate the growing community of urban beekeepers and supporters of urban beekeeping, which I unfortunately won't be able to go to, but if you want more info, Honeylove.org will have a live feed on their YouTube channel or you can go in person if you are in the area and interested!

It is an event where dressing in black and yellow is encouraged and I'm sure involves trying and tasting honey products! They range from making seed bombs to trying honey or makeup products. I really hope to make it to more of these types of events in 2014. They really stress the importance of community for beekeepers to resemble the community of the bees we care for, so we can exchange experiences and tips with one another. Or if our brood gets too full, we can trade frames with others who want to expand their hives if we are wanting to maintain the current size to prevent swarming. 

There is a learning curve for everyone regardless of how long you've been doing it, and this community is generous in sharing their knowledge. I encourage you all to check it out, and please let me know if you went and share your experience/thoughts on the event with me!

Bee Update & Honey Harvesting Tips

Bee Update:

Problem: Our hive lost its queen! She abandoned the hive, making for distraught bees buzzing loudly to communicate their discontent for a hive lacking in order and purpose. Without a queen laying eggs for the nurse bees to care for, their chain of order is all thrown off.

The total development time for bees is as follows:

-16 days for a queen
-21 days for a worker
-24 days for a drone

So, hopefully it won't be too long before order is restored and a queen is made.

Solution: We put newspaper on top of the top hive box and placed another hive box on top and added some bees from another hive who will make a new queen. The hope is that they will then chew through the paper and join our current hive with the new one.

*When we originally moved them, we had some deformed bees resulting from disruption during development. It goes to show how important it is to have careful gestational attention in even the smallest of creatures. Those bees are gone now since their life span is only up to 6 weeks long, and they are growing and strong still despite having lost their leader.

We now have 4 hive boxes.

Harvesting Honey tips:

Nectar mixed with honey will ferment the entire batch. Harvest must be capped honey only, which assures us that no extra moisture gets in for bacteria growth, so it is crucial to not be impatient as we wait for a full box that is ready to harvest.

Otherwise, honey never goes bad. If it crystallizes, you can use it as is in coffee or tea, or if you prefer you can place it in a pot of water to warm it and melt the crystals.

Chelsea & Matt's Wedding 2013

Bridal bouquet top view:

Bridal bouquet side view:

Center pieces were each a little different per the bride's request and placed in blue mason jars:

More photos to come!