Has it come to this? Getting published….

Dear Blog,

Has it come to this? The posting has drifted off and my attention is elsewhere lately. But you’ve been a long, faithful friend. A source of solace and comfort when no one else would listen. The friendly ear that accepted me no matter what came from me.

I once mentioned that a good friend is someone who will tell you all the hard things, but a best friend is someone who will listen to those same hard things. And so you’ve been. I don’t know if I’ve ever actually put this in writing but I named you for just such a thing. The Prodigal. Yes, it is in reference to the Biblical prodigal, the son who–for a time–went out to find his own way in the world. The blog was born out of a frustration with my then communication to the world. I’ve long since returned, but the blog became a companion of sorts. A trove of memories and especially of linking to friends and family.

I don’t Facebook. Let’s make that even more clear. I won’t Facebook. I hate it. I don’t like the superficiality of it all. The exposure. (And a blog isn’t exposed? Isn’t superficial?) Shut up… This is my story, not yours….

It’s just not for me. I wouldn’t post there, I wouldn’t read your posts, and no… I wouldn’t care. I’m sorry, I just wouldn’t. So the blog….

But lately, with the changes at work, with the increased pace of life, with… I don’t know. It’s just become hard to post lately. Harder. There isn’t as much going on that I care to share (the bees are an obvious exception), and I find myself actually putting a note in the calendar to remind me to post.

So I don’t know… Even now I can think of at least three or four blog posts I’d like to write, but the times I used to set aside to do that aren’t as consistent as they once were, and I honestly don’t miss it.

Aleisha, my mentor in beekeeping and someone I’ve long admired for a whole bunch of reasons I don’t care to write here, has gone through a great process of doing vs being. She doesn’t want to merely do things anymore. She wants to be things. It’s why she did the incredibly brave and powerful thing of stepping away from beekeeping for a year to see if it was merely a do thing for her, instead of a be thing. I hope she can be a beekeeper, but if not, she’ll be all the strong for having learned for herself what truly makes her happy.

I’m kind of in the same boat right now. I love writing. I love being a writer. But is this blog the outlet? Is this where I write?

Recently I came across an opportunity to write for a DMC site on family topics. In particular, I’m actually going to start the column I first imagined here (What Do You Think). My first article is scheduled to be published early next week. Published. Officially. I mean I’ve actually published over a dozen books now if you count my technical manuals as books. Some of them even have had publication runs numbering in the tens to hundreds of thousands. Pretty impressive, until I mention that my name appears nowhere on any of the books. Not once. But this article will actually have my name on it.

In a lot of ways, this is a dream coming true (it’s not true yet), and I just don’t know where the blog fits in anymore. At least not as I’ve used it. It’s still a great little place to come and unwind–isn’t that what I’m doing right now after all?–but for what it used to be?

I just don’t know.

Is this the end? I don’t think so. Is it time for a break? Let me be honest, I’ve been on break from the blog for almost a month now. Posting has been rote, emotionless, and done for the wrong reasons. Did you know I had a record month last month? I crushed my previous visitor total last month. Obliterated the old record. And I did it for the number, not for the reader.

Isn’t that a sign?

Best friends are friends who will listen to the hard things you have to tell them. The worst friends are the ones who use you. And for that I owe this blog an apology. It’s been more about visitor counts than content for a while now. And I got exactly what I aimed for. Lots of visitors.

Time for my classic sigh.

Sigh….

None of this is to say I’m done. I’m not. None of this is to say that nothing that I wrote was meaningful these last few months. A lot was. But I think, as far as being prodigal is concerned, that I came home recently. Whatever home means.

Every blogger seems to have this post. The I’m-not-sure-what-happens-next post. Some survive. Some don’t. I think this blog will survive, and I hope you follow it. For my part, I plan on continuing to write about bees, to write about grammar, to write about politics, and to write about life in general. Hopefully the right reasons surface. Heck, for all I know this post will reset everything and I’ll be back tomorrow (I actually do have an article I’m itching to write right now….).

Getting published…. For real…. Even if it is only a DMC site working to build a following. Everything starts somewhere. I’ve had the privilege to be started right here for the last five plus years.

I’m looking forward to many more.

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Hive Inspection: May 28, 2012

First off, as the son of a military veteran and the spouse of a military woman I wish all the best to our armed forces the world over, current, past, and future. You have my deepest respect and admiration for the work you do.

No pictures. I keep forgetting the camera, and my hands get so sticky with propolis and what not that I’m not sure I’d want to touch Courtney’s new camera anyway. The day was nice though, about 75 with lots of rain the previous few days. Everything was nice and green and in bloom, so the bees were busy.

I had a prospective beekeeper come over and see the hives to give him the experience. He and his wife are hoping to start next year. It was a great day to show people the hives. Very calm.

Here’s the report by hive:

Hive 1

Mackay did this hive. I can’t tell you how nice it is to have someone competent actually helping me. It makes such a HUGE difference in being able to get three five hives quickly. As we work, we talk out the individual inspections so that we know what is going on. We also switch hives each time to make sure we both know what is going on. But I digress…

Hive 1 was building well. They have built out about 50% of both the bottom and top brood box. They had solid brood patterns, lots of bees, and otherwise are looking good. I will admit that I thought they’d be farther along by now, but it’s hard for me to compare this hive with past experience because I haven’t done packages before this year. I guess I can say that they’re about as far along as we were at this point last year.

One thing we noticed in this hive and in hive 5 was that they are building right-heavy, meaning that they are building comb on frames 4-9, but not frames 1-3 in both hives. The left side faces the sun, and I wondered if that would do it until I saw hive 5. That side is fully shaded by hive 4.

Any thoughts, beeks?

Hive 2

Hive 2 was our queenless hive that we let requeen. I admit I’ve been very nervous watching this hive. The hive is still bursting with bees, and literally ever frame is super heavy with nectar. It’s incredible how much nectar is in there. I would guess they already have some 150 lbs of honey in that hive. We ended up adding the second honey super on this hive because of how heavy they are.

We dug quite deep in this hive (more defensive, by the way, than the other hives, which I’m attributing to the heavy honey stores) searching for the queen. The top brood box was nothing but honey, which has me feeling a touch concerned that the hive might be feeling honey bound. Any advice on this?

The bottom box was quite full of bees, but the frames were mostly open. These were old brood frames. Looking down between the frames, I noticed that no frames were capped, which is a terrible sign. We pulled our first frame (frame 5) and there was nothing in it. Blank. By this time, I was feeling quite worried that we didn’t have a viable queen. However, frame 6 showed a small pattern of new eggs laid perfectly across the bottom of the cells. I had worried that a worker would start laying, but given how deep these eggs were, I’m thinking these were laid by a queen.

We never did find her. Honestly, at this point, we just closed up the hive because I didn’t want to disturb them any more than we had already.

Hive 3

Very similar to hive 1. About the same progression.

We did find this queen. Mackay and I both are becoming quite adept at spotting the queen, which I’m glad for since these are unmarked queens. Now having said that, I’ll admit that she was the only queen we found yesterday. Adept indeed….

Hive 4

Hive 4 was the split from Hie 2, and they are doing well. Not nearly as well as Hive 2 in terms of production, but I think they are about to reverse that trend. Hive 2 is still losing bees and no new bees will hatch for another 19 days or so. Hive 4, on the other hand, is heavy on the brood with a strong brood pattern, and my guess is they’ll overtake Hive 2 as the dominate hive.

I’ve always really liked this queen, but now that I can compare her to three other queens (Hive 2 is her daughter, so I don’t compare that direction), I’m noticing how heavy on the propolis this queen is. Buckets of it. Hive 2 and 4 are both so sticky and messy, which is frustrating.

I really like the queen, but when she does go (this fall, spring I think), I’m very tempted to replace her with an Italian. I’ve never done the Italians, but my dad’s Italian hives are virtually propolis free. I don’t mind a small bit of propolis, but I’ll open Hive 2 and 4 and find POOLS of propolis in some places. It’s slightly on the ridiculous side.

Hive 5

Very similar to Hive 1. And almost no propolis. One complaint from this hive, however, is a HUGE quantity of bridge comb between the two brood boxes. There was enough that when I lifted the top brood box, the bridge comb actually lifted two or three other frames. This hive was also building a host of blade comb. I hate to see the blades because of the wasted effort.

Oh, we also snagged some fresh honey from a few cells of bridge comb that were torn open. VERY light and sweet, even more so than the honey we harvested last fall.

Last bit… Afterward, Mackay and I were talking about the future of our beekeeping. He’s going to be moving to grad school sooner or later (probably another two years or so), but I don’t know if I can handle five hives by myself. So much of what I enjoy about beekeeping is the social aspect of it all. That being said, I have to wonder if I could handle top bars by myself. They are quite a bit easier to manipulate and even faster to work through since so much can be done through a side viewing window. I’m quite tempted to try and sell my five hives come the end of the fall and turn around and buy five top bars. Yes, it’d be starting over, but if the change makes it possible to continue doing what I enjoy and do it well….

What’s the going price for a full hive with bees? The equipment plus a package is around $350 or so, so I could only guess that a productive proven hive would be north of that figure. I don’t know. I’ve got some friends who would be interested.

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Dave’s WW of EU: Misplaced Modifiers

A misplaced modifier is a modifier (a word or group of words that describe or limit other words–the most common are adverbs and adjectives) that is not placed near the word or words being modified. In plain English, you should put the modifier next to the term it is modifying. If you don’t, you end up with some fun phrases. I’ve bolded the modifiers.

1. On the way home, I found a gold man’s watch.

2. The kid ate a cold dish of cereal.

3. The torn student’s book lay on the desk.

4. We ate the food that we had brought slowly.

Okay, I think that gets my point across. Each of these sentences would be vastly improved by relocating the modifier closer to the word it needs to modify.

Fixing Misplaced Modifiers

Fixing misplaced modifiers is easy; move the modifier. Generally, you don’t even have to change the construction of the sentence. Just move the modifier.

Finding Misplaced Modifiers

Again, this is generally easy. If you re-read what you write, you will generally just notice that something doesn’t seem to be quite right. Misplaced modifiers often cause ambiguity and confusion, and if you ever end a sentence and think, “huh?” you just might have a misplaced modifier. Carefully read the sentence one more time and make sure your modifiers connect to the right things.

For review, try this site out. It’s got some good information on both dangling and misplaced modifiers: http://aliscot.com/bigdog/dmmm_exercise.htm

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Dave’s WW of EU: Dangling Modifiers

This is one of those ones that you can use to impress other people at a party (or not).

A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause where the doer of the action is not clearly indicated. For example: “Having gone to the store, Jill turned on the TV.” The first part is the dangling modifier, and this is actually a very common problem in writing.

Personal opinion here, but I think this problem crops up because the writer very clearly understands who they are talking about and therefore sees no need to clarify. There is also the possibility that the writer might assume the reader should be able to figure it out. In our first sentence, most readers would assume that Jill was the person who went to the store, but you truly can’t know that. For example, it makes just as much since to say “After Randall went to the store, Jill turned on the TV.” You just can’t assume that the reader will understand.

Identifying the Dangling Modifier

I find one of the better ways to find dangling modifiers is to not do it in the first place. It’s true. But if you haven’t quite nailed that part of grammar down, it helps to take each phrase and clause on their own and ask if the doer is identified. Using our example, you would take that first part of the sentence and ask if the person who went to store was known. In this case, the answer is no. So identify that person.

Fixing Your Dangling Modifier

This one is easy. To fix the dangling modifier, attach it to something. Identify the doer. That’s it. Yes, it does mean that you’ll probably have to rewrite the sentence a touch, but isn’t clarity worth it? And to be honest, the sentence style that leads to dangling modifiers really isn’t the best way to write anyway because it hides the main subject and verb of the sentence deeper into the sentence. But that’s a topic for another day.

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Dave’s WW of EU: Reciprocal Pronouns

Last time, I covered reflexive pronouns. Seems useful to do reciprocal pronouns….

Reciprocal Pronouns are pronouns that refer back to individual parts of plural terms. There are only two reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another.

Examples:

• They gave presents to each other for Valentine’s Day. (Each other refers back to “they.”)
• The group helped one another to prepare. (One another refers back to “the group.”)

The most common mistake people make with reciprocal pronouns is that they try to combine “each other” into one word. Sorry, it’s just one word.

And that’s all there is to reciprocal pronouns.

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Update on Hive 2–May 11, 2012

Short post here, but I went into Hive 2 Friday evening to check on the queen situation. The new queen should have hatched Monday, and I wanted to make sure all was well.

Hive 2 is still packed with bees, and they’ve started to draw out the first honey super. Last inspection, pretty much every cell was packed with pollen, nectar, or brood. Not so this time. The frames are starting to open up, which is good.

I only pulled two frames in each brood box (just trying to see how things were going, not a full inspection), and I found one old queen cell that looked like it had been torn open. I’m not sure if the bees are tearing them down or if that was the new queen tearing a rival cell open to kill the unhatched rival. I’m just not experienced in raising my own queens, so….

I did not see the queen nor did I see eggs. However, I vaguely remember hearing that it can take a week or two for the new queen to get mated. I’m not too concerned yet. The hive was overall gentle and well organized, which I take to be a good sign.

I’ll check the hive again this coming Saturday. I’ll be expecting to see at least brood then, and if I don’t, I may go exploring for the queen.

Any advice on queens?

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Dad’s Top Bars–May 5, 2012

Yes, this is pretty late, but better late than never, right?

Last Saturday, we went down to Delta to visit Grandma and Grandpa, and took advantage of a second visit to my dad’s top bars. Mackay joined us with his family as well.

This is Queen Anne’s hive, if I remember the names right. She was built out 8 bars, and as you can see, the early bars are just shy of full length. It was a warmer day, and more bees were out and about as well, although you can plainly tell which combs are brood combs in this shot.

Just another shot. I’m always fascinated by the perfect structure of the cells. Pretty impressive.

Mackay inspecting a comb my dad is holding. We were able to see eggs and the queen (next photo). I’ve found that it is quite a bit easier to find the queen in the top bars than Langstroth hives. I think that is because it is harder for her to move from frame to frame. It’s only one direction after all; front to back. In a Langstroth, she can go up, down, left, or right. At least that’s what I think.

She’s there. Can you find her?

Last but not least, the kids out at Topaz Mountain searching for Topaz. The kids on the far left is Henry, Mackay’s son. We found the normal small bag of beautiful crystals, which will join the other small bags of beautiful crystals we’ve collected from previous visits.

Fun stuff.

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Hive Inspection, May 4, 2012

Yeah… I know this is really late…. And I don’t even have pictures. Sorry.

Mackay and I finally got back into the three new hives AND looked at the split hives. Pretty good results.

Admin note: Have I introduced Mackay yet? Mackay is a good friend of mine who became interested in beekeeping last year. He comes over every time I go to the hives and has become quite the reliable assistant. He’s pretty much just as qualified as I am now. About my only complaint with Mackay is that while I get stung (13 times so far), Mackay does not. Strange as it may be, one of my goals is to see him stung this summer if only because I’m tired of being the only one!

Hive 1

I didn’t see the queen, but there are plenty of eggs and larvae. All looks to be going well. I added a super to the top because they had drawn out 6 of the 10 frames. Why wait?

Hive 2

This is the queenless half of the split. First off, there was not an empty cell in the hive. Not one. Every cell was full of soon to hatch brood, pollen, or nectar. Every single cell.

I obviously should have supered, and now I get to worry about a swarming. If there is one bit of good news, it is that we did add a super and all the brood is going to hatch pretty soon. Hopefully that will leave plenty of room for the new queen to start laying eggs.

We counted 11 queen cells including two that looked like they had hatched. I can’t imagine they actually did, however, because that was only day 14. This hive has traditionally been very aggressive at removing bad brood, and I’m going with that for now. The other 9 queen cells were all on one frame; hopefully something good comes of that.

I’m planning on going back in to this hive this Saturday to check on them and see if we’ve got a queen.

Hive 3

We found the queen in this hive, and she’s gorgeously black. I’m getting better at spotting them, which is fortunate since none of my new queens are marked. Lots of brood, solid stores. We added a super.

Hive 4

Plenty of bees in Hive 4, but we still don’t see a lot of activity outside the hive. I guess I’m not really concerned, just aware. We did find the queen, and she’s still doing as well as she always has. I rather like this queen, and I’m interested to see how her daughter in Hive 2 performs as a queen. It’s a line I’d like to see continue if push comes to shove.

This hive was already supered from the split, which I shouldn’t have done most likely, but they are doing well enough.

Hive 5

Pretty much the exact same thing as Hive 3. We found the queen again and threw on a second brood box.

Overall, I’m pleased with how this season is progressing. I wish I had a bit more room horizontally in my beeyard. The hives are all maybe three or four inches apart from each other which works right now because they are all different heights in relation to their neighbors. I don’t know how well it will work when they are all the same height. I might have to look into migratory covers.

I do think we’ll get an early harvest out of Hive 2. They were soooo heavy with nectar, and are just bursting at the seams. I’m thinking no later than mid-June, which would be awesome. Even better, that’ll be early enough that we’ll get a second harvest out of that hive come fall.

I also think we’ll get a large harvest from Hive 4. 1, 3, and 5 should be the normal first year harvest.

On Saturday, we went out to my dad’s hives again (Mackay had never seen them, and we were in the area rock hounding, so…). I do have pictures from that one, so I’ll write that up when I have Courtney’s camera on me.

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Myron’s a what?!?

The other day, Katherine and I were teasing each other. Here’s what happened:

Me: You’re a moose!

Katherine: You’re a chicken!

Me: You’re a goober!

Katherine: You’re a cow!

Myron: I’m a princess!

[silence]….

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