Back Yard Gardening – From My Backyard
June 25, 2017
I have a freezer still full of blackberries, a pantry full of blackberry preserves and wife that says, “No more Jam!” What’s a guy to do? Ok Hun, it is your birthday on the third of July, how about some blackberry cobbler and Blue Bell vanilla ice cream? I will share a recipe that has […]
June 23, 2017
Beekeeping, Gardening, Recipe cucumbers, Lamb Bacon, tomatoes Leave a comment
So, no lettuce in my summer garden so I had to sub for it! English cucumbers made a nice and flavorful replacement. For the tomato portion of the sandwich I sliced up a ripe Brandywine heirloom variety. Yummy so far. I also have a bit of homemade involved with the bacon.
The bacon is lamb bacon, cured and smoked in my backyard/kitchen. 
I had just finished slicing it up, making it ready for packaging. I have another whole one in the freezer waiting for Fall recipes. Each lamb breast used for the bacon recipe is about 3.5 pounds. The flavor is just amazing!
Posing with the cucumber and lamb bacon is another variety of tomato that handles the Houston summers pretty well, Celebrity.
The bees are also keeping me busy this summer. I am off to Navasota to pick-up five new queens. The queen’s in my two captured swarms are not laying well and will need to be replaced. I have, what should have been a new queen this spring, that is not laying well, so, down the road she goes. The last two will replace two older queens.
It will be hotter than Hades tomorrow, requiring a beer or two to cope with the heat. I have some of my Honey Blonde Ale on tap to stave off my thirst. Bee season will slow down a bit later on then, time to brew more beer. No rest for the wicked!
TTFN
Bishop
June 8, 2017
Beekeeping bee removal, bees, pollen Leave a comment
I removed a small colony from a water meter box this morning, June 8th, 2017. 8:30 AM start time and it was warm enough to work up s great sweat!
The contact sent a note to my wife saying she had a “large nest ” of bees in her water meter box. Large is always a relative term. Upon arrival I realized that this was a small water meter box, so, unless packed from end to end this would be a small colony. I did learn that the home owner is very allergic, so, any number of bees would “bee” too many. I do appreciate her patience and concern to allow me to attempt the removal.
A 10 frame box for relerence, you can see a handful of empty frames with rubber bands wrapped around them. I use them to keep the cut out comb upright until the bees reattach them to the frames.
Not a lot of activity and they seemed to be pretty mellow. Regardless, I suited up just in case!
They had built 4 decent sized sections of comb with capped brood, pollen and a dab of capped honey. There was also a palm sized segment of new comb being drawn. FYI- palm size means that of a regular palm, not my XXL hand. Based on the homeowners last inspection they had been working at least 3+ weeks.
I will let them settle in overnight and move them in the morning. Hopefully I can get enough growth out of them before fall!
TTFN
Bishop
From My Backyard 