Happy Halloween from Coon Hollow Farm

Happy Halloween, Fall, Samhain and a Blessed New Year from Coon Hollow Farm!!!

The heartbreaking loss of a hive

Over the past few days, I have noticed a lot of yellow jackets at hive #1. This is not a good sign! They are coming and going at will with no guard bees to drive them off. So today, I went in to see what was up.

What I found was empty frames...

no dead bees in clusters or spread about...

and tons of honey, but NO bees. What has happened to this hive that I have had for 3 years is something called absconding. This is a term in beekeeping when for unknown reasons a hive will just take off. Sadly at this time of year, this hive is a goner in more ways than one. So the hive has been closed down as we head into the winter with just 2 hives. Beekeeping is never simple, we can only do the best we can, the bees call the shots! Kisha's hive is also bee strong. The bees were given a powdered sugar treatment as well for mites. It's sad to loose a hive, I care about the well being of these amazing creatures.

Their first eggs!!!

The little chicks from the spring have finally laid their first eggs! They are well over 20 weeks old and I was getting a bit worried! Most lay after 16 weeks of age so they have been some late bloomers here!

Cleaning beeswax the easy way!

You accumulate a lot of wax when you keep bees. There are so many uses for it and is a very important by-product of your bees!

When all the wax is gathered, we place it on a few cookie sheets and place it on the picnic table out back...

and the girls come to clean it! No sense in wasting any honey they can consume after harvesting it.

When the wax is cleaned, place it in a pot and fill with water. The pot should be one that you are only going to use for this very purpose! It will be ruined by a ring of propolis and wax that you can never get off!

We place the frames outside for them to clean as well.

Place your pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. Skim out all the debris that will be mixed in with the wax. The skimmer can only be used for this purpose as well!

Let the water and wax cool. The wax will float to the top and separate from the water. Rinse the water out and there will be a lot of debris in the water. Fill the pot again, this time only half way and repeat the boiling process. At this point you can strain the water and the wax while hot, bring it back to a boil and let it cool.

Here is two cakes of wax, cleaned and beautiful. After I took this picture I re-boiled the cakes into one big block. The bottom will have propolis caked to the base, just scape it off. Save it if you want to, I don't keep it. Nice beautiful wax ready to use!!!

It's the naked truth!

It's that time of year again, that time when there is nothing but nakedness in the chicken coop! Feathers here and there, feathers everywhere!

And with all that nakedness, less eggs! They stop laying and put all their energy into growing more feathers. We usually get quite a few eggs with 2 hens, today, just 4 ! Hopefully they will get their feathers in quickly as the cold set in!

Welcome Pepper!

Welcome Pepper who has come to stay with us during breeding season! He's a handsome fellow with a nice dispostion. He fell asleep in the truck on the way here. It was not a long ride but He made us laugh how he took the opportunity to relax and take a nap!

Honey Harvest season comes to a close

With smoker in hand, I set out to collect the remainder of the honey. The girls were slow to cap it, I have been really busy and the weather has not wanted to cooperate when I did have time.

The honey was beautifully capped...

In some areas they really got out of control with the capping!

The supers were pulled off the remainder of the hives...

Queen excluders were removed which they managed to propolis almost to the point it was hard to pull off!

Each hive has two Hive bodies on them, plenty of honey stores, brood with healthy queens as well!

So I will be busy for the next few days, spinning down, straining and bottling lots of golden delicious honey!!!

Acorns, Acorns, Acorns

How about a handful of Acorns? Or...

a bowl full of Acorns? These are fun to make and made from wool and alpaca. The past few fairs I have done have these on high demand, so I have been felting away!

Fall Inspired Gourds

I was looking at some fall photos the other day and became inspired by the pictures of the gourds.I pulled out the felting board and got to work.

I was showing Tim one of them and he was not impressed because he thought it was a real gourd, he was surprised when I told him the were made from scraps of wool and alpaca! They will be available at our next shows coming up. Just some fall inspired fun!

Angora Wool Goodness!

Tawny (shown) and Mr Fluffer have been more than generous with their wool. The summer requires shearing every 6 weeks so they can stay cool and be tolerant of the warm weather.

We have close to a pound just from Tawny who is not even a year old!

So, with all we had I decided to wash it and set it to dry. It is currently drying and will be mixed into some batts for spinning. I absolutely love their wool and find it the softest fiber on the planet!!!

Nothing says fall like Mulling Spices! Yum!

As I prepare for fair season, I am trying to add new and different things to my table! I was going through some bags and came across some great mini bale jars. I had some spices, I dried up some orange peels, crushed some nutmeg, broke down some cinnamon sticks, added some allspice and cloves, instant mulling spices!!!

I bottled them up, added a muslin bag and a tag. Needless to say they would make a great gift and my house smells amazing too!

It's Fair Season!!!

This fall we will not be hosting any Open Houses, instead we will be off to do some fairs! We are changing it up as my skills move towards primitive and colonial interest. Starting this weekend we will be at:

**The Woodbury Historical Society's Annual Colonial Fair, at the Hurd House in scenic Woodbury, CT on September 14 for noon to 5

**Stratford Historical Society's Colonial Fair to mark their 375th anniversary in historic Straftord, CT on September 20 and 21, both days, 9 to 5, all day.
**McLaughlin Vineyard in Sandy Hook, Ct. from 12 to 5 on September 27.
**Meigs Point Nature Center's Farm Festival, Farm, Fishing and History Fair, Boston Post Road, Madison, CT on October 4 & 5 from 9 to 5 both days.

We are looking forward to meeting new people and enjoying fall via the fair way!!!

The girls deliver!!!

As beekeeping season is winding down, the harvest is on! The girls have delivered in a big way this year! We have comb honey as well as honey!

Capped and ready to go to the fairs! A bounty indeed! Thanks girls!!

The Super Healer-Jewelweed Salve

This is Jewelweed, that weed that pops up all over the yard this time of year. Nature has provided this plant as one of the most amazing healing plant. It is amazing for poison ivy, bee stings and other types of ailments. I have been staring and staring at it all summer. The honeybees have been all over it, so as the nectar source and the flowers are dropping off I decided it was time to make a salve.

I gathered a generous amount throughout our property. I figured it should be collected in different areas to assure a strong tincture.

It was boiled and allowed to sit overnight to allow the healing properties to be extracted from the plants. Then strained to a dark green extract.

Our own beesax from our bees was added to the extract

Here is a great picture of our beeswax from our "girls". It is just amazing!

Jewelweed extract is a bit strong so I choose to add some essential oils of Orange, Lavender and Tea Tree as ell as Vitamin E to act as a preservative. I looked up a couple of recipes for this salve but choose to combine a few to make the way it should be.

After being poured into tins and allowed to cool, it is ready to begin healing!!!

How do you beard when it's hot???

This morning I went up to feed the chickens and noticed the hives were "bearding" due to the heat. This was Kisha's hives idea of a "beard", they are clustered and cooling off.

Hive #1 was the funniest, as I looked at this one I thought they were all saying "don't touch me"! These girls are spread out it seems like quite a few of them are out.

Hive #3 are out but clustered with many bees trying to cool off too!

and Hive #4, which is our biggest hive seem to have less bees out trying to cool but their beard seems to have bees on top of each other. It is muggy and hot here in Connecticut with showers expected today. These girls need to get their umbrella ready!

Our new farm sign!

Special thanks to our friend Jim who made and gifted a new sign for the farm! It was hung up some time ago and I just got around to posting this!

It's all in the feeders!

I truly believe a teacher can always learn from a student, your mind should always be open to everything. This is true for me as well, this year I have had the pleasure of mentoring Kisha who I have mentioned. She actually turned me on and gifted me with one of these amazing top feeders.

They actually have a floating system that disallows bees to drown in them. I have always shied away from top feeders for this very reason. This system is sold by Brushy Mountain Bee and is amazing!

A close up of just how safe these really are!

They fit snuggly on top and have space in the center for them to come up through to get the sugar water safely. We then place the screen top over it. This also allows for refilling with out the bees being able to react.

This is a picture of the first one that Kisha gifted me with, notice the center opening, that is where the bees come up through. These feeders have made a tremendous difference in the management and the success of our bees this year!!!