Biking to work

I rode into work yesterday. My bike ride for Habitat for Humanity is Saturday and I've been a little lax. Definition of "lax" - haven't really spent any time on my bike in 3-4 months. I was doing 30+ mile rides there for a while in spring and early summer. Now I'm struggling to keep up a good pace for 10 miles :(.

Raleigh is far more friendly for bikes than Richmond. Here they at least care if there is a hit and run death of a cyclist. But yesterday was very nice in that no one beeped at me or tried to run me off the road. Its the little things that I consider wins. It was the ride home that make me the mot concerned. It was raining and late. We had a 5pm demo and I didn't want to miss it. I didn't leave the office until 5:30 and still had to change and get on the road. Fortunately the ride home is much quicker than the ride in (mostly down hill). With the rain and low visibility, I thought I would have more problems with the other traffic, but it turns out no one is walking during this time - which opens up a nice friendly path - the sidewalk. Normally I would not be a proponent of bikes on sidewalks - too much can go wrong with different speed critters on the same path, but since Raleigh doesn't have bike lanes on every road - you need to do wants require to not risk your life unnecessarily.

I did make it back to the house before it was completely dark - which would have sucked on my last leg, along the community greenway. I was covered in mud though and my back pack took much of the abuse (it also had my MacBook Pro in it - which fortunately did not get wet at all). I am glad that I got the cycle-cross bike instead of a regular road bike. I was able to handle the standing water and mud without too much problems.

Thursdays is supposed to be nice so I'll have to ride then too and I'll have a hope of not dying Saturday. I still haven't ridden in a group. I'm more a solitary person when I'm exercising or playing games. Sure there are times when I'd like to be part of a group, but for the most part I'd rather just rely on myself instead of others. I don't know what to expect when there will be a ton of other cyclists out there with me.

Sugar-Free Honey

I totally forgot my most favorite question of the other night. Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not the best person for hiding my emotions. I do half of my communication through facial expressions.

This woman walks up to the NCBA booth and asks: "Do you have any sugar-free honey?" I'm afraid that I gave her my "are you making fun of me" look. I tell her that no table sugar was added, but that honey is 70% fructose and glucose. There is not much getting around that. She then tells me that she found some sugar-free honey at some store for her mother. At this point I have mostly recovered (but I think it was too late) and said that I'm afraid that we don't have any of that.

I later looked up "sugar-free honey" on da google and found what I expected: imitation honey. This stuff should be condemned by all peoples. The other was this crazy plan by the Indian government to have bees in the middle of Stevia fields and then be fed the leaves instead of sugar-water after the nectar flow. I wish them luck - but I have my doubts. Honey naturally has a low glycemic index, far below sucrose, so why all the fuss.

So in terms of my own learning pains, I put a front boardman feeder on Mary's hive and started quite a storm yesterday at noon. This caused a lot of robbing and fighting . I later read from the local associations newsletter that you should avoid front feeders in the fall for this very reason - doh. The funniest part is this morning when I checked on them - they maybe drank 1/2 cup of it. I'm guessing that all of the fall nectar is far more tempting and the just decided that the 2:1 syrup is just a little too rich.

State Fair

I was an honest salesman tonight. Well at least a salesman and I didn't lie on purpose. I workeed the North Carolina Beekeepers Association booth selling honey and answering questions (they got answers for free and I think they paid too much).

My favorite questions for this evening:
Q: How are your bees doing?
A: Fine and yours?
Q: I don't have any bees?
A: Want some?

Q: Do you have comb in honey? (Got asked this at least 20 times)
A: No, sorry. A bee colony can make 8 lbs of honey or 1 lb of wax. Its just too expensive to use wax in that way.

Q: What's the best honey you have for sale?
A: All of it. (But if were me and it will be at the end of the night. I'd get the darkest you can find. It has more flavor, nutrients, and won't crystallize as fast as the lighter honey)

Q: Why don't you have any honey from Wake county?
A: Too much rain this year to get a good nectar flow. Hopefully next year will be a little drier, but not too dry.

Q: Why are the honeys different colors? Is it flavored differently?
A: The dominant flowers that the bees drew honey off of cause the coloring. There will also be a subtle difference in flavor. The darker amber it is the more they were pulling nectar from tulip poplars. The lighter is from clover, holly, cotton, and locust.

Q: Which honey will be the best for my allergies, cough, joint pain, scars (for real), etc.?
A: Which county are you from? Well here. This is from the hive closest to you. (I felt bad about this answer, but I know honey makes me happier, so the placebo effect may help them.)

Q: Aren't you afraid of getting stung?
A: Nope. I'm afraid of spiders, but I have a healthy respect for my bees.

My four hours went by very quickly. I was sharing the booth with one of the senior members of the Wake County Beekeepers Association. I let him handle all of the tougher questions about hive management, health of the local hives and local beekeepers. I handled small talk and customer engagement - which frankly surprised the hell out of me that I could be that extroverted. I was able to in the couple of short lulls to ask about some hive management questions that I had too. He was able to calm me down about some feeding questions (i need to do a 2:1 sugar to water ratio for the fall) and pest management.

At the end I was actually sorry to have to leave, but the building was closing . I did pick up some great dark (nearly black) honey from New Hanover county for Susan's cough . I may have to see if they have another evening that they need someone :D

Exploration Day

Yesterday was the first day for the bees at the new location. It was cloudy and sprinkling, but there were a lot of scouts out and about. At first they would just come out slowly and then do a spiral up into the air to above the tree line and take off to where ever they were going. But by afternoon they were all over the place. I was hoping none of the neighbors noticed the increase in curious bee activity and such a cool day. They should be spreading out more soon and then it won't be a big deal at all. Bloo did like watching them from my office window, which is right above them. They would fly up and land on the sill and do whatever and Bloo would just stare at them. I told him that I didn't think that he would enjoy eating one.

We also made it over to the State Fair. I think Susan is planning on entering one of her knitted items next year - I hope so. I spoke with one of the Wake County Beekeepers members and found that there was still an open slot at our exhibit on Tuesday night, so I'll be working that.

Finally moved down

With all of the fuss of moving it was quite an orchestra to get my hives down here to Raleigh. I needed to get them inspected in VA and then get an application to locate them in NC. Both State Apiarists were very helpful and understanding about the whole thing. NC's told me the only thing he would have interest in was if my hives had Foulbrood. Which I knew they didn't because they didn't stink to high heaven.

This morning I drove up to VA to hang out with Jake and to pick up my hives since we are mostly moved in at this point. While watching some football and Jake working on his main hobby - turned pens; he asked if the inspector had told me about his inspection. I had only heard that I passed, but nothing else beyond that. He said that the inspector told his grandfather (whose farm where my hives were located) that if I had put them in a different corner of the field they would have done a lot better - AHH CRAP! And now they are down here and I don't know if they are in a less optimal location again.

So here is how you relocate two hives (one hive body a piece) in a Toyota Matrix: have a brilliant wife (check), listen to brilliant wife (check), follow advice of brilliant wife (check). I had a sheet of fiberglass screen that I was going to cut up a bit and put over the hive entrances. Susan said: "Why don't you use the rest of it as a barrier between the back seats and the trunk?" Well, duh! ("Why didn't I think of that - that's awesome".) But in my defense I did come up with the name: "Danger Cage". Which Jake and I fashioned as the penultimate defense for my drive back.

50000 bees, 3 hours, 160 miles from the farm to the new house.
defenses:

1. Air conditioning running at full - probably 40 degrees in the car (slows down bees a ton)
2. Night - bees can't fly at night so I only need to be concerned with crawling bees (cuts off a full dimension of travel)
3. Hives with entrance screened - they would need to be pretty crafty to get past fiberglass and duck tape
4. Tarp - bought 6x8 tarp and a roll of duck tape at Home Depot on the way up, made me giggle for some reason.
5. Danger Cage - floor to ceiling screening and duck tape
   
6. Wore my bee suit jacket on the drive - kept me warm and was ready to pull my hood on if worst came to worst.

I was surprised when I picked up Elizabeth's hive - it must be around 70 - 80 pounds. I think that hive will make it through the winter just fine with that much honey. Mary's on the other hand was probably 45 - 50 pounds. I've always worried about that hive and it seems like will need some special care to survive. I got some new stands and pollen substitute that I'll give them both here in the next day or so. I think I'll also put one of the top feeders on Mary's and probably a front feeder on Liz's.