Yesterday was the worst! Well, at first anyway…
I was out on the porch rocking my boots and talking with Jason Beeman about our home brew schedule for later in the day. When from the corner of my eye I noticed all the hives on the new baby blue hive stand had fallen off the backside and were all dismantled in the hedge. I think I did pretty good, I calmly excused myself from the conversation with Jason claiming I would call back in an hour to confirm my schedy. Then ran in slow motion crying towards the toppled hives, I imagine I looked very much like the painting the scream by Edvard Munch
To complicate things even worse as I stumbled past the pond I noticed one of my fish in the pond had died too. Like a sick death house of mirrors my feet grew heavy and my judgment impaired as I stopped and scooped the lifeless orange fish from the pond freehand and tossed it into the brush. With water being such a commodity the days of flushing are far behind me I guess. Like they say “ ashes to ashes, dust to dust, what’s a fish without a bush”…
At some point I must have come to and realized there was a major mess to deal with. Three of the four hives that fell over had colonies in them. The other was just boxes stacked high we used a couple weeks ago as props for the shoot Meg did of Chris, Rob, and I as a Bee Magnet promotional.
The hive stand must have given way to the over saturated soil at it’s feet and the hives all fell back. The other three hives still had bees in them but they were all pretty soaked and only one appears to be still flying today, 3 days later. Interestingly enough the one colony that looks like it will be okay was a two queen colony where apparently all the bees have moved into the upper hive. They were so drenched I put a large towel directly over their brood chamber for a couple days that really helped with drying up some of the moisture. When I removed the towel the bees that stuck were what I’d call slightly annoyed thrusting their abdomens in the air as I plucked them off one by one and gently returned them to the hive entrance.
I have to say the trauma of the day was quickly numbed by the beer I consumed with Jason as we started the next batch of homebrew at his place. The experience was like steeping a serious 5 gallon pot of tea with honey and hops, outside on an over-sized Bunsen burner. The last two batches of brew Jason made and I just helped with the bottling, it was exciting to see the entire process. for the three batches so far we have been utilizing Napa Valley Honey. We decided to try and up it a notch and follow a recipe that used a little bit more honey witch would increase the alcohol content. Mind you, the last two batches weren’t easy on the % scale. I think we were guessing about 7% - the same as an IPA or Racer 5. We are hoping for an alcohol content of about 8-10% on this new batch. Like Jason says” it’ll be talking back to you”. Lots and lots of sugar in this batch which means the yeast will be able to create more %. The recipe we tried is a Midas Touch Clone (Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, Delaware).
Or the hives....
Even the Winnie the Pooh hive bit the dust.
But things got better as the day got longer...
Jason transferring the rainwater we used to brew the Midas Touch Clone recipe.
I know, I know ..." Al Gore would probably think this part was a bad idea.
He claims there is acid in the rain... Right, Like the overall global temperature is increasing too...
Me getting my BEE-on while Jason feels his heat-on.
One fat sack of steeping barley.
Beautiful... Too bad you can't smell it, bliss!
The secret recipe - well, a xerox of the secret recipe.
The honey crystalized so badly we needed to use an icecream scoop to get it out.
Just like high school science class, only with a much more intense heat source.
Face up to the life with smile , no matter what will happened.
Posted by: Coach Bags | May 03, 2011 at 01:16 AM