No diffuser? Try a Pillow Mist for a Great Night Sleep

My son was a horrible sleeper! Before he got his own "confuser" (that is what he calls his diffuser), he absolutely loved this pillow mist. He would spray it on his "blankie" before bed every night.

He did not show a huge response to the sleepy time roll on we made. He liked to use it but it did not change his sleeping patterns. He did much better with the spray. We started with just Lavender. He was sleeping better but still waking crying (we thought it was really bad dreams). I did a little research and decided to try adding White Angelica. Yeah! No more night terrors. He would still wake up but he was not crying with terror. Mostly there is no crying at all. It was more to do with wanting to have his Daddy next to him than it is not wanting to sleep or having a night terror. So here is what I made:

I use a 4 ounce glass bottle for his spray.

1.   Fill about 1/2 way or 2 oz. with Vodka

2.   Add 2 oz. distilled water

3.   Add 4-5 drops vegetable glycerin

4.   Add 15 drops Lavender Essential Oil and 15 drops of White Angelica

5.   Screw top on and shake a little to mix

Now he is a little older and has his own diffuser. He still uses his pillow mist occasionally but he gets the same aromatic response with his diffuser. He loves his "confuser" and turns it on all by himself each night. We bought him a spill proof one which is perfect for kids and the bedside.

How about you? Do you have a diffuser? If not, have you tried other ways to use your oils aromatically? If you want to learn more about how to use essential oils let me know. I teach classes in person and online regularly and would love to have you join us! If you are ready to jump in with oils I would love to help you. It is super easy just click on this link...Sign up for Young Living Starter Kit Here


Blessings!

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New Queen and New Markers

It's been a stressful month around here. My last update was about Kosnica's swarm. Since then I have been watching for the new queen in Kosnica to hatch and return from mating!

While I was patient (read NOT) I decided to work on some markers for the hives. Each hive has a rock on top to keep the lid on snug. I want to paint the hives but really have not had the spare time to committ. (I think that is more of a winter project.) So in the meantime my daughter and I had some fun painting rocks....

 

Rock painting is actually quite fun and my daughter has already asked to do it again. We used acrylic paint and sprayed it with varnish once dry. They turned out really nice. It will be interesting to see how they stand up to the extreme changes in weather on the top of the hives.

Ok, back to the queen! Kosnica was quite agitated during its weekly inspections. They were clearly not happy with their situation.  The last couple weeks were the hardest since there is such a large variance (2 weeks!!) when you can see evidence of the queen (eggs). I was pretty anxious and prepared for the worst.

Here is a general timeline for a new queen:

For those of you trying to do the math here is my best guess on where Kosnica was in the timeline: 

• June 21st, the hive swarmed. Typically they swarm before the queen cell is capped, which they did. 
• June 28th, when I inspected the queen cell was capped. (I do not know how long before or after my inspection it was capped- so you see the problem). Being on the conservative side, I should have started to see eggs between July 11th and the 25th.
• July 21st inspection I did not see any eggs, however honestly, I did not thoroughly go through both brood boxes. I was overheated and the bees were crabby. I should have taken more time.
• My last inspection, July 29th, I was planning to go frame by frame to make sure the queen was not there. This is where I pick up the story...

Since I did not see eggs on my last visit to Kosnica, I had feared the worst. What was I going to do? Try to find a queen this late in the summer? Then I realized- I had a queen. Alveare is still a very weak colony but has a queen. So I began to make plans on merging Kosnica with Alveare. In preparation, I spent several days researching how to merge two hives. I had it all planned out for the next day if I did not find any eggs.

I needed to go very slowly and spend my time looking carefully. I removed three honey supers and a deep box filled with honey and went into the top brood box first. Imagine my relief when the second frame into the brood box I found eggs!! I cheered (maybe actually squealed) with delight. I quickly closed up the hive so she could continue with her job of building up the colony. 

For now I am going to focus on what I can do to help out Alveare. We will see what honey I end up with from the other two hives. Until next time, that's the buzz!

Blessings!

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What's that Buzz?

My hive last year was so compliant. They only drew in the lines and were very pleasant overall. PLUS they gave me over one hundred pounds of honey. This year on the other hand, my hives are challenging me constantly. In this post I will share some more of their antics of late. First, since I have a few hives I will be discussing, I will give you a little bit of background on each of them before I get too far into my latest update. I named each colony so I could keep them straight. They are all named "hive," but in different languages.

Alveare (Italian for hive) is where Athena is. The hive started out as an Italian race of honey bees however I am not sure what Athena is, I would say is is most likely Italian. She is our new queen whom I have written about. On my last two checks she has been there however her brood pattern is spotty. The picture on the left is from this hive. See if you can find Athena, she is marked with a white dot.

I am hoping this colony picks up soon so they have a better chance to survive out long winter here in Minnesota. Currently they only cover about three to four frames. Only time will tell if she will be able to build a strong enough colony before winter set in. Lets pray for a long summer and fall.

Panj (Slovenian for hive) is an Carniolan colony which is doing very well. I used Panj to help Athena along when she was first introduced. Panj is the colony I switch locations with Alveare so it lost the foraging bees that day. However it is still going strong and in fact on last inspection I found the queen (unmarked) and was so excited. Its really hard with so many bees! They are currently running strong with three full deeps and are making extra honey. If you look at this picture you can see very few empty cells, this queen is a super star. Those are all baby bees in those cells soon to be born.

Kosnica (Croatian for hive) is an Italian based colony and has always been the strongest hive. It filled its three deep boxes and received its honey supers a good week before Panj. However with that comes some bee-attitude. In mid-May this hive had started a queen cup on one of its frames which freaked me out a bit. A queen cup is the start of a queen cell. The location of the cup made it a supercedure cell. Meaning if they filled it they were planning on replacing the queen. Talk about stress for me! Losing a queen is huge with our short season. False alarm, the queen cup was never filled and was gone by next inspection. However as you will see this is not the end of Kosnica's shenanigans...

So let's get back to where I left you last... Athena was out of her cage and doing well. My plan was to let her be for a couple weeks.  My strong hives were doing so well. I did quick checks for eggs to ensure the queens were there and ok. I removed a little burr comb (drone brood which the bees make on the bottom of the frames- it makes a mess). And I accessed for the need to add supers, otherwise I let them bee. 

Mid June we had some really hot days so I let the next inspection go a few extra days. Normally I go in every seven to eight days. This one was planned for day eleven. Before hand, I was sitting outside with my kids eating lunch and I could hear a buzzing sound... I thought there was a hornet's nest close by. I told the kids to get in so I could check it out. As I carried our garbage to the driveway I found the source. There was a swarm forming above my driveway!!! One of my hives was swarming!!

I quickly inspected and found Athena wondering around. Alveare was a small colony, but thankfully still there. Then I went to check the other hives. However, since my other two queens are not marked, I was mostly going in to see if they were missing large amounts of bees or looking for other signs of swarming. Yes, both had bees.  However, Kosnica had made queen cells from the burr comb wax and hid them with the drones on the bottom of the frame. My strongest hive was now queenless. Well, at least for the next three weeks until the new queen *hopefully* starts laying eggs.

I left my hives to go check on the swarm. The swarm settled on a branch about forty feet up in our big oak tree. I set out a lure box with some lemongrass but they had other plans. Within two hours the swarm took off in a cloud and buzzed off over the houses and treetops.  

That buzzing, like a small engine plane was half my hive and my super star queen showing me they had other plans this summer.

Well, that's the buzz, for now...

Blessings!

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DIY Hair Detangler

Oh for years I bought the premade stuff. No more! It is so easy to make it yourself!

Seriously this is so easy it is embarrassing.

Ok ready?

1. Take a spray bottle.
2. Add conditioner.
3. Add water.
4. Shake it up.
5. Spray on hair.

Ok so you want more details?

Here is my exact recipe:

1. using a 4 ounce bottle
2. add about 1 tablespoon of conditioner
3. optional: add essential oils for hair health and to repel bugs (lice!) I use 3 drops of each: lavender, cedarwood, ylang ylang, rosemary and tea tree.
4. shake well and spray directly onto hair

There you go! Now go untangle.

Blessings!

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God save the Queen

So where did I leave off on our girls journey? Oh yeah I left you up on the hill wondering about the possibly missing queen. Well long story short... turns out she flew the coup. After eight days there was still no sign of eggs in the hive. The other two hives had brood (babies) at various stages. My bee supplier did not have queens in stock for another week. To top it off in three days we were leaving for vacation for a week so there was literally nothing I could do until I returned.

When we returned from vacation I inspected the hive. I was elated, I found capped brood and larvae! That means eggs were being laid. Well lets say I had a brief period of excitement. Until I realized it was not the kind of eggs I needed. It was all drone brood. What is drone brood? Drones are boys. When you have ALL boys that most likely means the female that is laying eggs is not fertile (has not been mated), and not a queen. It means one of the girls panicked and started to lay eggs. She is called a laying worker.

When you have a laying worker, the hive thinks it has a queen since there are eggs and brood. However a laying worker can only lay unfertilized male eggs. This means as time goes on there will be less and less females to do the work. (Boys do nothing in the hive but consume food and fly off to mate with queens from other colonies).

As I started to research this I found that it is really hard to correct this problem. Its impossible to identify which female bee from thousands of bees is the one that decided to lay eggs. So all the female workers look the same. How do you get rid of her to replace her with a new queen?

After much discussion and research I came up with a plan. When my new queen arrived I had to dump the entire hive out of its home about 50 feet away up the hill. The reason for this is that the laying worker would not be able to fly back to the hive. Her abdomen is swollen since she started to lay eggs and she would not be able to fly. The majority of the other bees would fly back home.

This hive was already weak from being almost a month with no queen. So once I removed every single bee, I brought back the box and switched places with one of the other hives. The foraging bees who were out in the fields collecting pollen and nectar would return to the place they left from and make the weak hive their new home. This would give my weak hive a boost while the new queen had time to get accepted.

A hive can only have one queen. They identify their queen by smell. This queen was brand new and they would not recognize her. Queen Athena needed to be released slowly or the hive would kill her. Her cage had a piece of fondant candy plugging the hole. This candy would take the bees 3-5 days to chew through to release her. In that time the hope is that they will become accustomed to her scent and accept her.

I checked at five days and surprisingly she was still in the cage. I waited one more week. When I returned I am happy to say I found her walking around a frame. She was out of her cage and was alive. All good news! So I removed the empty cage and closed up the hive. Letting her start her very important work of rebuilding the hive. She has a lot of work ahead of her, she is a month behind so hopefully she can build enough of a colony for winter. Only time will tell.


For now, that is the buzz... blessings!

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Super Simple DIY Dry Shampoo

No time to wash? Or maybe something keeping you from it? Before my surgery this fall I found myself looking for options. I tried out a few store bought dry shampoo but hated them. They made my hair feel weird, kind of sticky. It also made my hair snarl up as the day went on. So the do it yourself part of me got to work.

Here is what I found... There are many options for oil absorbing powders. However after much research I chose arrowroot powder.  Arrowroot powder is all natural, very gentle on your skin and is great at absorbing oils. It also has anti inflammatory properties and many beneficial minerals as well. (look up other uses for it, you will soon find it a favorite too!) Adding essential oils gives it a great scent and has the added bonus of health for your hair!

Super Simple DIY Dry Shampoo:

1. Put your arrow root powder in a glass jar with a tight lid. 
2. Optional: Add essential oils for hair health or experiment and use scents you love. Rosemary, lavender and cedarwood are great for hair growth and health. I generally use 3-6 drops for 1/4 cup of powder. 
3. For dark hair you can add cocoa powder.
4. Mix and cover tightly until ready to use.
5. Use a makeup brush to apply to the roots, let it sit for a couple minutes, then brush and style your hair! 

Seriously easy right?? Who needs chemicals?

Happy healthy hair in three easy steps. Who knew?

Blessings!

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Girls on the bus, are you ready for this?

Like many beekeepers, our colony did not make it through winter. So this spring I ordered three new packages of bees. Mid April, they arrived in these new "buses". The plastic cages you see here. I was hoping they would be easier that the wooden ones but more on that later.

When the packages arrived, I was home with both the kids. The bees had already been in their bus for a week. I decided I could not wait for my husband to get home that night. It would end up being too late in the day. So I asked the kids to play nice and not scream or interrupt me so I could concentrate... lol.  Well, I think you know where this story is going.

The steps to install the bees into a hive from the new busses is slightly different from what I did previously. After watching the video of how the new busses work I was hoping for the best. I knew it would be a bit tricky with my recent surgery. My hands are both pretty weak.

First package, I was able to get my first queen cage out and put her in my pocket fairly easily.  I sprayed the bus with sugar water really good to wet the bees. It took a lot more work to open the end of the bus with my hive tool than it did with the old wooden cages. Finally I got it open and I dumped the bees into their new home. I instantly started to curse under my breath (and I do not curse). The new buses plastic cages really did not allow the sugar water to penetrate on to the bees. So when I dumped them into the hive, they did not stay there. They were flying everywhere. Then to add to my frustration, I realized I forgot to remove the cork from the queen cage and replace it with a marshmallow. This was suppose to be BEFORE I dumped the bees! Now not only did I have thousands of bees flying all over, I also had to somehow calmly but quickly get the queen in there with them.

Keep in mind, my kids are SCREAMING at eachother less than 50 feet away and I am trying my best to concentrate.

Frustrated, I was able to get the cork out and was covering the hole with my glove. I realized that my finger was not all the way over the hole. The gloves are longer than my finger. So I turned my wrist to pull the glove down a little. When I turned my wrist back to look at the queen and put in the marshmellow, she was gone. She had snuck past my gloved finger. I looked all over my arm and my body thinking maybe she was crawling on me. Nothing. What a great start.

I could not find her anywhere. I placed the cage in the hive and closed it up hoping she had flew in or would fly back. The kids were still fighting like rabid dogs in the background (ok, it was probably not that bad but really when you are trying to concentrate it seems like it). My heart sank. I still had two more packages to install. There was no one else who could do this, I needed to keep going.

I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer and started to work on my second package. The second and third went very smoothly. It was still hard to open the buses with the hive tool (aka small crowbar). The thickness of the plastic cages blocking the sugar water was still a problem. I sprayed a ton so they were flying less but still more than normal.

Most importantly, I decided to remove my gloves to work with the other two queens.  This allowed me to work with them more easily. I also stepped away from the hives about 20 feet while doing it. I did not have bees hovering around me. I took my time. I talked to each queen about her new home. I welcomed her. I found this little one on one time with the queen to be very peaceful and calming.

I was able to finish the last two hives with the queens (and most the bees) safely in their new homes. The kids were now playing peacefully in the backyard. With much hope for my girls (and my possibly AWOL queen) I went to the house to make dinner...

Stay tuned for more on happenings with the girls.
Blessings!

If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.