Swarming Bees

A couple days ago I happened to be home for lunch a little later than usual when I noticed a lot of extra activity at the bee hive. There were more bees flying around than usual and then it just got crazy. They were pouring out of the hive like liquid. Before I knew it there were thousands of bees in the air and I thought I had just lost my whole hive to a swarm. They moved off as a cloud over to the neighbor's house where the neighbor came out because of the buzzing. It was just insane how many there were. Then as quickly as they exited the hive, they condensed to a tight ball hanging from a redwood branch about twenty feet up.

I went to work and then decided to see if I could catch the swarm so gave it a shot that evening. I had to climb up the redwood tree and tie a rope around the branch so that I could cut it and lower it. It kind of worked, or at least I thought it did. I was able to get the branch lowered and then most of the bees into a cardboard box with a frame. But then I noticed another bunch higher up. I think I had knocked the queen off when I lowered the branch and they just congregated in another place. So a couple days later they're still there. My neighbor, Yvette, brought over a deep super and placed some bee lure into it hoping that they'll move in. It hasn't worked so far but maybe they'll find and choose it before they move into someone's attic.

A Morning on the Farm

We have five visiting chickens that we're boarding for a couple friends of ours down the street. They came from Fifth Crow Farm in Pescadero. There's an Americauna, a Black Australorp, a Delaware, a Rhode Island Red, and a Leghorn. That gives us ten chickens at the moment. The Leghorn, which always reminds me of the Warner Bros. character (I say, I say son...), had only laid a couple eggs since she arrived and started to wonder what was going on. She is also a regular escapee so when I saw her out again this morning, I knew she had to be laying somewhere else. Sure enough, under our little deck landing I found five white eggs; her out little stash.

In addition to hosting chickens, we also have some quasi-adopted cats. Our friends Brooke and Ian moved in a couple doors down and they have two black cats, Sacco and Vanzetti, aka CC and VZ. They've decided they really like our place and feel free to come and go as they please, in and out of the house.CC is a bit of a hunter and we found some feathers on the bath mat yesterday, evidence of his latest kill. And then this morning I found him with a live bird in his mouth. I tried to get him to let go of it but I couldn't grab him. Oh, well, we have plenty of those little birds around and maybe it'll keep them from eating so much of the chicken feed.

A Raccoon Ate My Baby

I should consider myself fortunate that I haven't had problems with raccoons since owning chickens. But it's the fact that they haven't been around that has made me complacent about protecting my chickens. I moved the chicks outside a few weeks ago and they've been living in the chicken tractor, which has been working out well. Then I was mountain biking Tuesday morning and when I got back to car there was a text message from my neighbor telling me there was a raccoon trying to get the chicks. He sent that at 7:30am and I didn't get back to the house until 8:15am. Sure enough, the raccoon had reached through the chicken wire and snatched one. It couldn't pull the chick through but it was somehow able to eat the head off through the netting. The one time I'm not in the house at that time and a raccoon shows up. I'm surprised the raccoon was out during the day considering they're more of a nighttime creature.

I moved the chicken tractor into the chicken area and hoped for the best that night, which was a bit stupid since I knew the raccoon was around and that it knew there were chickens. Sure enough, right as I was getting into bed I heard the chicks making a commotion. I ran downstairs and found the raccoon trying to get at the chicks again. I ran into the carriage house to get a weapon but since it was dark I ended up grabbing the flat ended shovel. I had it cornered but then it escaped and I chased him across the yard. It scrambled up the fence but got a little stuck in the lemon tree so I tried to run it through with the shovel. Because it was the flat ended one, it didn't do anything. I needed the pointed shovel, which might have done some damage. I so wanted to kill it.

Turns out that I saved the other four chicks but the raccoon had already gone into the chicken house and taken one of the big girls. I found her dead in the carriage house, her head stripped of feathers. I am determined to protect my chickens but it's a constant battle. Now I'm putting them all into the chicken house at night and closing it up tight. I ordered a chicken door from AXT Electronic in Germany that will open and close automatically via a light sensor. That should keep them protected at night but if a raccoon is willing to still come in the morning when it's light out, I'm not sure what I can do.

Raised Beds Progress

Yesterday and today I assembled the pieces of salvaged wood for the sides of the raised beds. They turned out nicely.

They'll be 3'x7' beds, which isn't exactly an even number but that's what I determined was going to fit best in the proposed space.

Salvaged Wood

There was a pile of wood outside of Hellarity House this weekend from what appeared to be demolished interior partition walls. It's beautiful old Douglas Fir, 2" x 2 1/2", so I salvaged the long pieces and removed all the nails, screws, and electrical boxes. I have a few ideas for reuse in mind, one being the raised beds I've been planning to build.

R.I.P. Hellarity

The end of an era has occurred right across the street from Finca 57. For the last nearly fifteen years the house at 836 57th Street had been occupied by a group of squatters practicing a form of communal living in what was known as Hellarity. For the last seven years they had been in a court battle with the owner who had purchased it a foreclosure auction in 2004. That battle apparently ended a couple weeks ago and they had one last hurrah with live music until midnight and then somebody with an acoustic guitar and singing at the top of his lungs until dawn. At least that's what I could hear.

I have mixed feelings about their demise. On one hand it was an eclectic part of a diverse neighborhood. On the other hand they seemed to have an open door policy for whomever wanted to show up, some of whom didn't have respect for the neighborhood or the neighbors. Midweek amplified punk/metal music wasn't out of the ordinary. Visitors often lived out of their cars on the street, left garbage in the gutters, and one group even urinated on the sidewalk in front of my house. While I was able to discuss these issues with the regulars, it gets tiresome to keep having to deal with it. Needless to say, it's been pretty peaceful around here since they've been gone.

Pretty much immediately workers started to empty the place. They tore off the front stairs and chain locked the gates. They've filled this dumpster in front at least three times with trash, furniture, debris, and who knows what else. I'm not sure what the plans are but I've seen inside a couple times and it seems like you'd have to demolish the whole thing and start over. Then again, having seen my share of decrepit houses redone completely, you can strip one to the bones and start from decent foundation and framing. I'll be curious to see what they do.

Top Story Addition

I went back into the hive yesterday to do some remodeling. In just a week I noticed a surprising difference in the weight of the upper super. It was quite a bit heavier, which means honey production is in full swing. I added another regular super on top to them a little more room for honey. I think this is the configuration I'll leave it at and harvest the upper supers alternately. I also added a queen excluder and a new screened bottom board.

 Before

After