# Carriage House Farm 2009 Season



## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Swarms...swarms and more good swarms!









Forty Foot Extension Ladder and My Dad for Counter Balance









This was a swarm, from the same colony, in almost the same exact location and HEIGHT. Fun! 









Ground cluster in a bush. I would have guessed it came from the grain facility directly across the street. They have upwards of three to four cut-outs every year. The building is used to store "brewer's grain" which is pretty much nothing but gluten being sent to dog food companies. One big warehouse of simple protein basically.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Swarm In The Air which led me to the only trap out I did this year...









This was on one of the University of Cincinnati's parking garages...well right a the front entrance to one, not on the garage proper. 









Two weeks later. Bees moved in but some where using a smaller upper entrance to the tree that I had missed on the back side.

They had filled up half the frames with Black Locust prior to removal.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Entrance to the above colony...


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Working Out yards and the swarm yard...

SBB are ones I picked up from Dean early last spring. They work well so far. I do not migrate but these guys are in a flood way and I need to be able to move them to high ground IF needed. This location is right next one of our clover/alf-alfa fields and about 12000 acres of soybeans and managed park property that had a massive wildflower bloom this year.










First two swarms were already drawing out and loading the second deep.

This pallet is the same one month later...









Four colonies full. All are back down to double deeps or doubles with a single super depending on weight.

Did enough swarms and test splits this year to add two more pallets to this yard. Behind the hives is wetland and thistle and my gun range.

And this is how I manage these, just throw everything into the Mule...


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Honey Shots

Restaurant Honey and Pollen...









A Farmers' Market Local Food Expo...


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

I was put into the hospital twice this year because of bee stings. I seem to have developed an unfortunate allergy and have started going to an allergist to tackle the problem when everything else failed.

Fortunately both times happened out of sight of the general public so I have maintained some level of humility. 

I cannot imagine stopping though.

This is a photo of reactions to various stinging insect venoms. Yellow Jacket and Honey Bees kick my rear right now. 









Last year I was stung about 40 or 50 times. This year 20. The 21st sting was the first bad reaction I have ever had.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Bee on my windshield. This is a neat vantage point for a photograp that we do not always get.









Harvested Queen Cells culled from packages placed on undrawn deeps in March.
50% ratio of raising queen from cells when provided with a frame of of workers and food from another colony.










Queen castle...










Over all 65% successful when doing 2 frame splits using frames that had queen cells on them.

Went from 11 colonies to 30. Hope to double to 60 this year.

No treatments other than powder sugar dusting the fall of 2008 and mid season splits this year. I purchase a couple packages as wax drawers and place them out in an outyard. Swarms are brought in to two yards. All but six colonies are from local mutt stock.

Not too sure if it matters. They may all crash this year. Who knows. Between the allergy and goal to keep bees that require no treatments I probably doing stuff others might not.

I was called a total of 97 times this past year for bee removal. 11 were other insects and 10 were swarms. The rest were cut outs, which I have stopped doing till I get a handle on the allergies.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Honey harvest was 80 pounds avg per 30 colonies. I also purchased some from Ron Householder (White) and Dennis Best (Orange Blossom)

Here is a pic from meeting with Orel as he headed down South to Florida.









Screened Bottom Pallets purchased from them in the back of my F350









Here is Ron's father-in-law in Ron's honey house...


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Spring Pollen









Lots of red pollen...tons of it. Well, not literally.


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## jesuslives31548 (May 10, 2008)

Enjoyed the pictures..


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## mythomane (Feb 18, 2009)

nice shots. never had black locust honey...


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## StevenG (Mar 27, 2009)

WONDERFUL pictures! Thank you! Sure do hope you get a handle on your new sensitivity to bee stings... bummer!


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## NorthALABeeKeep (Nov 10, 2004)

very nice pictures. Thank you for sharing.


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## jhs494 (May 6, 2009)

Very nice pictures! It was really nice to look through them on this cold Ohio day.
Thanks for sharing them with us.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

This colony is three years of no treatments. I did splits, swarm recovery, and queen cell harvest. Pollen Patties were put on in March of 2009 to help buildup.

In the end I have six colonies this year from this one.

Picture was taken at the end of April / beginning of May in the middle of the Locust flow.










I may have posted this earlier...

My wife and I have a new addition to our home. 

Her co-worker got Morgan the little bee outfit, so wwe had o dork it up a bit.


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Did you get out of the sawmill business? I don't see the link on your site anymore.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Not enough time in the day. 

Right now we board 32 horses, raise, harvest, and sell 169 acres of corn and beans, and do the whole organic produce and honey thing. We are expanding into large leafy green production and root crops (potatoes, carrots, onions, and turnips) and hope to double the number of hives we have. I need to start hiring folks soon.

We still saw lumber for neighbors, but its no longer something we have time to properly do as a business, especially when the others are working out so very well. We normally do it in the winter. The mill has always been more my father's thing than mine but it was something we both enjoyed doing together. Right now he is spending the winter recovering from hip surgery he had done right after we got the harvest in. I have two sawmill "jobs" sitting off the ground ready to mill, but we are waiting on him and the customers are fine with that.

Its nice to have though and the mill has paid for itself fifty times over just in what we have sawn for ourselves. It is one more tool on our farm.


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## CentralPAguy (Feb 8, 2009)

I just enjoyed your pics. Thanks for sharing. It helps bring something sunny and wonderful into a Winter afternoon. 

Sort of like a kickstart for us anxiously waiting for the arrival of warmer temperatures as we start planning our new year. Again, thanks so much.


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## earthchild (Jun 30, 2009)

Great pics! Thanks for sharing. You mentioned you developed an allergy to stings after your 21st sting this year. I'm just curious about your reaction. Forgive me for sounding ignorant about the topic. I just want to know your experience since I'm beginning to have severe localized reactions myself. Like, balloon hands and such. Thanks.

PS the pic of you holding your "baybee" is absolutely precious.


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## Durandal (Sep 5, 2007)

Not much swelling really. I get zapped and within 5 to 10 mionutes I get a tingling sensation, followed by dizziness. My blood pressure drops like a rock.  Twice I have vomited.

Anytime I go into bees I take an antihistamine at least one hour prior to being in with the bees and carry a dose of epinephrine. I gone from veil only to full head to toe.

Which REALLY blows. Let me tell you.

I get a shot every tuesday right now. Have to sit in the office waiting for a half an hour to 45 minutes to see if there is a reaction. I've had one reaction in the office. Not a horrible one but bad enough to get everyone worried. They moved me back to the previous dose and now we are over the amount that initially caused that reaction.

So who knows.

Fortunately my wife has good healthcare. Us farmers usually have squat.


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## earthchild (Jun 30, 2009)

Thanks for your reply about your reaction. I'm happy you decided to go with therapy rather than shying away from beekeeping. If I ever develop an allergy, I would do the exact same thing. I can't imagine a life without it.


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## bluegrass (Aug 30, 2006)

Wow
I am allergic but nothing like that. It is interesting that you get a decreased BP without swelling. The drop is caused by vasodialation decreasing vascular resistance, but usually that is also what causes swelling.


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