All Categories - Monica King

Bugs in a Rug

5/21/2021

Many people ask what items I use during a removal. Here is the light, it is rechargeable and has the red light option for safety and containment.

Removals, especially cut-outs, more importantly of Africanized bees, should be done only by those with years of beekeeping experience.

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ARIZONA BEEKEEPING THROUGH THE SEASONS - A Checklist

3/12/2021

Open feeding a protein supplement during dearth using a metal Mexican flower yard ornament can be attractive to look at and attractive to the bees helping to keep them from finding forage in chicken feed, compost bins, or other places that may upset your neighbors......

ARIZONA BEEKEEPING THROUGH THE SEASONS
Monica Miksa-King Honey Farm
www.monicamking.com

Every hive is different. Different elevations of Arizona will be different. Seasons from year to year are different depending on rainfall. Plant for pollinators, paying close attention to those that bloom during our dearths and that are heat and drought tolerant.
Always be observant.

EARLY SPRING
(March-April)

⦁ Check once a month for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch.
⦁ Supplement feeding if food stores are low, always monitoring frames for the following brood raising ratio: 1 pollen +1 Honey +1 water = 1 Brood (Build demographics for highest numbers of foragers during flow)
⦁ As nectar flow begins, remove entrance reducers and mouse guards (if used).
⦁ Start checking weekly and increasing brood chamber. Make sure queen doesn’t get honey bound. Add frames and additional boxes as needed. Add queen excluder if using.
⦁ Start checking for swarm cells.
⦁ Remove and replace any old unwanted frames.
⦁ Make splits if wanted, "walk-away" splits not recommended due to feral drone population, make sure to have new queens available.
⦁ Requeen if needed.
⦁ Check ant guards.
⦁ Check mite count once a month and/or treat for mites.
⦁ Start setting up swarm lure traps (if experienced with AHB).

LATE SPRING
(April-May)

⦁ Check once a month for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch. Re-Queen if necessary.
⦁ Continue checking every week, moving frames in brood chamber and adding boxes as needed. Can reverse hive bodies.
⦁ Check mite count once a month and treat if needed. Being careful of what treatment can be used during a honey flow, or treat but do not harvest.
⦁ If heavy flow can extract honey (end of May), always leave enough honey for the bees
⦁ Check ant guards

SUMMER (Dearth)
(June-July-August)

⦁ Check once a month for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch. Requeen if necessary. Queens will reduce laying.
⦁ Reduce entrances, watch for robbing. Do not break any honeycomb when doing inspections. Do not drip/spill any syrup.
⦁ Check mite count once a month and/or treat for mites. Being careful of what treatment can be used during extreme temperatures.
⦁ 110 degrees plus....Heat of day can spray water inside entrances of weak hives. I use a specified garden spray pump just for this, adding some Himalyan Salt to the water.
⦁ Beekeeper needs to take caution, can easily dehydrate in suit. Take drinking water along, can put frozen ice packs in pockets, etc.
⦁ Can cover with shade cloth, plywood etc., strong hives (high demographics) can deal with the heat.
⦁ Make sure water source is available at all times. Need 1 quart to 1+ gallon of water per day, per hive, depending on size.
⦁ Be prepared to feed sugar syrup, do not open feed syrup (encourages robbing).
⦁ Open feed dry protein supplement for foragers.
⦁ Add ventilation.
⦁ Remove boxes and excluder (if used) as needed, reducing hive.
⦁ Check ant guards
⦁ Make sure entrances are slightly sloped downward during monsoon.

EARLY FALL
(September-October)

⦁ Check once a month for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch.
⦁ Check mite count once a month and/or treat for mites.
⦁ Supplement feeding if food stores are low, always monitoring frames for the following brood raising ratio: 1 pollen +1 Honey +1 water = 1 Brood (Build demographics for highest numbers of foragers during flow)
⦁ As nectar flow begins, remove entrance reducers and mouse guards (if used).
⦁ Start checking weekly and increasing brood chamber. Make sure queen doesn’t get honey bound. Add frames and additional boxes as needed. Add queen excluder if using.
⦁ Check ant guards
⦁ Pre-order Nucs/Queens for Spring

LATE FALL
(October-November)

⦁ Check once a month for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch.
⦁ If fall wildflowers, can extract honey, always leave enough honey for the bees.
⦁ Check mite count once a month and treat if needed. Being careful of what treatment can be used during a honey flow, or treat but do not harvest. Or apply mite treatment after harvest.
⦁ Make splits if wanted, "walk-away" splits not recommended due to feral drone population, make sure to have new queens available.
⦁ Check ant guards
⦁ Pre-order Nucs/Queens for Spring

WINTER (Dearth)
(December-January-February)

⦁ Check once a month (temps above 55 degrees) for marked European queen. Have marking pen ready to re-touch. Queens usually not available. Queens will reduce and some will stop laying.
⦁ Reduce entrances, watch for robbing. Do not break any honeycomb when doing inspections. Do not drip/spill any syrup. Can add mouse guards.
⦁ Remove boxes and excluder (if used) as needed, reducing hive.
⦁ Be prepared to feed sugar syrup, do not open feed syrup (encourages robbing).
⦁ Open feed dry protein supplement for foragers.
⦁ Make sure has good water source available.
⦁ Fix equipment & build swarm lure traps
⦁ Take inventory and order more equipment.
⦁ Pre-order nucs/queens.
⦁ In higher elevations can wrap hives when temperatures below freezing for extended periods.

Unfortunately, nowhere did I mention Vacation time for the beekeeper. As an urban beekeeper if you go away from or do not have time to check your hive(s) find a friend or hire someone that can do this for you. It will prevent future headaches and losses.

Also be able to roll with the "punches" Mother Nature hands out, don't take it personally, there will be great years and there will be okay years and then there will be some horrible years. We are at her mercy.

Bee Removal from a Seed Thresher

11/7/2020

Honeybees in October

11/7/2020

Unpredictable Weather & Horrible Soil

11/7/2020

Vitex Log Hive - Part 2

11/7/2020

DIY Bee Removal?

9/25/2020

"Can I lure the bees out of my wall by placing an empty hive next to it?"

Odds are very slim, in fact you may possibly be better off playing the lottery! You have an established hive in your wall, building, garage, hollow tree, irrigation water line box, or other inconvenient for you location. A very good question is how to economically and ethically move the hive to a new home. Many people like to hope that by putting an empty "bait" or "lure" hive next to the entrance of the established hive will make the current bees want to pack up their belongings and move to this new, fancy, upgraded, luxury home you made just for them. Here is why I have never heard of this working:

An established hive has a combination of brood in various stages, stores of pollen and honey. The queen's pheromone is throughout the hive. There is so much work for them to do. From raising the young that is in various ages, caring for the temperature, cleaning and making more comb, storing pollen, turning nectar into honey, guarding the hive, and much more. They depend on each other working together to make the hive function and thrive acting pretty much as a single organism.

You can place an empty hive nearby and you will likely see bees going in and out of it. Are they moving in? Most likely, no. They are searching for resources as they will salvage wax or honey out of your hive to take back to their own. IF a colony does move in, it is likely a swarm from another location and you will then have two hives!

They only way to remove the hive from the inconvenient location is to gently transfer the brood comb and queen and scrape out any signs of wax. Then seal it up to prevent any other bees from moving in. Once a hive has made a home others will choose to live in the same spot after they are gone if given the opportunity.

June 23, 2020

7/24/2020

Many people want to live off grid.........many of these same people dream of a "simpler" life. Here is a day on our homestead:

It has been so hot! No air conditioning off grid! Well, honestly we do have a portable unit but unless you stand in front of it you don't get cool. The house stays a toasty 86 to 95 degrees when the highs of the day are over 105. So in order to sleep at night we do not cook or bake in the evenings unless it is outside. Today called for rain and winds so that was out. So the schedule must be rearranged to make dinner in the morning with the cooler temps and windows open. I started out baking a cake and making fried chicken while I ate hard boiled eggs for breakfast. I embarrassingly ran into some old Bisquick in the back of a cabinet that had weevils. ugh! So I added that to the leftover chicken batter and baked the chickens a treat. We also go through a pitcher of tea a day, today I added sprigs of Holy Basil from the garden to the black tea for a nice refreshing twist. Cleaned up a little of the dining room table that looks more like a desk / workstation and did dishes. Finished this all before 7am.

I have a lot of bookkeeping to catch up so that is taking up some of my day. I also posted some items on our ebay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/theprehistoriccollector
Today was mostly listing the duplicate books from my reference library, titles such as "Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest", "Back to Basics", "The Dehydrator Cookbook", and "Herbs" to name a few. I also added some posts to our Patreon account showing some really cool Maricopa and Papago Pottery. Then it started raining! This is a big thing, HUGE! Our monsoon rains have been late this year and while I was away, Dan was unable to keep up with the watering. Many plants where lost including my artichokes, luffa, and tree kale. I am so bummed but feeling refreshed with the wonderful wet ground soaked from the 1.25" that fell in a few hours. With the generator off during the rain, I sorted some of Dan's hunting equipment then when the electricity was back on I made labels while downloading two months of his video camera......he needs a new one. Isn't it always something go out? Need to research what to get him. When I make burgers I fill the pan, so I fry 4 at a time, we had leftover patties for today and I did splurge and make some french fries in canola oil on the stove top.

In the late afternoon, I gave Dan a haircut..........not only does this save money but also saves a trip to town. I take a relaxing bath and put on a prairie skirt, breezy and comfy but then remember I didn't take care of the chickens and ducks.....oh and it rained! yuck.......We have one pair of mud boots that are Dan's so I slopped down to the coop to gather eggs and feed everyone. They loved their cooled baked bisquick/batter cake and clucked with excitement. Dinner was heating up the fried chicken and serving it with warmed tortillas and cabbage slaw with fire cider vinaigrette. Rounded out the evening with a rerun of "Cheers" and fell asleep researching those darn camcorders on my iphone.

Checked on the bees water to make sure the fish didn't overflow out onto the ground from the rain.

"Rascal" following me to the chicken coop.

Dressed up to go egg gathering in the mud

God drew a line between heaven and earth tonight......

Mrs. Emde's Eggplant Casserole

7/24/2020

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Onion, Diced
1 Large Eggplant, Diced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
2 cans Stewed or Seasoned Diced Tomatoes
1/4 to 1/2 Cup Sour Cream or Cottage Cheese
1 Tbsp Flour
1/3 Cup Butter
1 Cup Seasoned Bread Crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Saute the diced onion, eggplant, and garlic until eggplant becomes slightly translucent. Add the two cans of tomatoes, continuing to blend over medium heat. In a small bowl, mix the sour cream or cottage cheese with the flour, blending well. Add into eggplant mixture and stir. Pour into an 8" by 8" casserole dish. In a pan on medium heat, lightly brown the seasoned bread crumbs with the butter. Spread evenly over the eggplant. Put into oven and bake uncovered for 20 minutes.

Saute the onions, eggplant, and garlic until translucent.

Add the cans of tomatoes, and mix well

Stir in Sour Cream or Cottage Cheese mixture .........sour cream was used in this photo.

Pour into an 8" by 8" glass casserole dish, top with the seasoned browned bread crumbs then bake.

Oh my this casserole is so delish! Creamy eggplant and crunchy topping! Leftovers can be dressed up......my clever mom diced up leftover lamb and added okra! Be creative.

Grandma Ann's Pierogies

7/22/2020

Mom was shown how to make Pierogies by Grandma Ann, one of our families most cherished recipes, simple and filling.

Ingredients:

Milk
Flour
Eggs
Cottage Cheese
Greek Seasoning
Parsley
2 Large Sweet Onions
Butter

Made more by feel than measuring (if anyone really needs measurements just ask and when I make them next I will measure everything out).

Add flour to a bowl, I am guessing we used about 3 cups on this batch. Add eggs to moisten the flour, we used three, but it turned out a little dry so we moistened the batter with milk (we were running short on eggs). This is actually a basic egg noodle. You want the dough to be sticky. Set inside refrigerator to rest for a bit, in this case it was around 30 minutes.

Mix Cottage Cheese with seasonings of your choice, we used parsley and Greek seasoning adding an egg and mixing well. You are making enough filling for your dough. In this case I believe it was about 2 cups of cottage cheese mix.......or so. I promise to work on the measurements but as you make them you will learn how easy it is to make large or small batches just by feel.

Sliced the large onions in rings and saute in butter, lots of butter. Caramelize the onions.

Start to boil a large pot of water.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and in small batches stretch out or roll on a floured surface. Mom is so good at this that she only needs to use her palms to flatten, no roller needed. Cut into squares. Drop cottage cheese filling onto one side using a teaspoon, dip your finger in water and dampen the edges of the dough, fold over and seal.

Drop the raw pierogies in the pot of boiling water. The pierogies will float when cooked, ladle out and put into onion pan. Coat the pierogies with the onions and continue cooking for a short period, they are wonderful when slightly browned.

The cottage cheese mixture

Making of the Pierogie

Cooked pierogies floating to the top of the boiling water

The onions caramelizing

Finished! Where is my fork!