Belly Bacon & Buzzy Bedtime

Ian was very excited to break out his new (to us) Bradley Smoker to turn some of our cured pork belly into delicious, delicious smoked bacon.

He then used said bacon to make even more delicious white wine steamed mussels for supper. He served them with our fresh spinach as a side salad with dried cranberries, pumpkin seeds and a sweet poppy seed dressing. What a treat!

Can you tell that we do not drink much wine around here?
This bottle is from a trip to Niagara that Ian and I took with my parents
BEFORE we were married and moved to Ottawa!

In addition to feeding the humans of Gael Glen Farm well today, our buzzy bees were also well fed - though it was their last ration until springtime. I tucked our ladies away safe and dry right in time for our first big snowstorm.

Let the winterizing begin.

I started by wrapping each hive up in a black, insulated hive cosy.  

I hammered a nail over the lower entrance to make sure that the bees can come and go easily for cleansing flights and so that neither the bees nor the air flow into the hives are hampered by the cosy.

I then elevated the back of the hive a few inches so the hive is tilted forward.  This is in case any moisture from the bees' breathing happens to condense inside the hive.  The drops will travel forward to the front of the hive and then run down and out the front entrance instead of dripping down from the middle of a level hive directly on to the cluster of hibernating bees.

After removing the inner cover and listening for my ladies' soft buzzing from deep within the hive, I placed several sugar cakes on the top bars of the hive.  I could even feel a gentle waft of warm air on my face from my strongest hive.  Bees are the coolest!  The sugar cakes serve both as emergency rations for the bees if they eat through all their stored up honey and they also absorb moisture from inside the hive helping to keep the ladies as dry as possible.  Experienced beekeepers will always tell you that it is not the cold that kills bee colonies but too much moisture.  If the bees get wet, it is easy for them to become chilled and sick.

I covered the sugar cakes with a homemade "quilt board".  This is a pillow case stuffed with clean, dry wood shavings.  These also serve to absorb moisture.  I left an inch of open space at the front of the hive to ensure good air flow inside the hive between the upper and lower entrances.

I covered the quilt board with the inner cover and then placed a block of insulation on top before fitting the outer cover on and securing it all with two bricks.

And there you have it - all five hives are tucked in and ready for winter.

Just in time too because the snow has arrived here on Gael Glen Farm!

Snowy butts!

Well, I did say that we were ready for winter to come!