i had an opportunity to make a little update to my bee shed this morning:
May/27th/2026
I saw a swarm in a tree in the yard this morning. They had taken flight again before i could
go and try to catch them, however i saw them flying back closer to my bee shed, and so i
decided to set up an empty box in the northwest corner of the shed(hopefully they will find
it). Current setup is as follows:
west
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - •
| _ |
| [2]b2 |
| | | |
• [2]b1 •
s | | | empty[2] | n
o | [2]b1* _ | o
u • c1*[2] • r
t | | | | t
h | c1[2] | h
| | | |
• _ c2[2] •
| [2]a2* |
| | | c2*[2] |
• [2]a2 •
| | | |
| [2]a1 [2]a1* |
| |
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - •
east
a,b,c = lineages from last year
1,2 = hive numbers from early splits(march/25th)
* = new boxes from last splits(may/19th)
empty = empty(hopefully the swarm i saw will take up residence)
[number] ~= approximate height of each stack in deep hive-bodies
Note: i am still deliberating on propping up the outer covers to make some top-entrances. I
noticed about 3 hives had pretty sparse traffic coming in and out, though when i popped the
lids there were bees visible in all hives. They all seemed to be in good spirits and calm as
is usual for this time of the year.
p.s. it's a nice development. I'm not sure what has changed, but this is the first swarm i have seen in 2 years or more. i hope they make it!
Here are some pics from my test batch of wool balls. also, some progress shots from my seedling starters. some of the little trees i dug up from the garden don't seem to be doing so well, but it does look like i have some new sprouts and survivors from some of last year's starters.
Thinking more about the value of wool balls. It looks like my first test batch of balls came out to 10lbs on the dot(this is probably including some water weight from incomplete drying). According to google this gives me a price floor of about $60 for a corresponding amount of raw fleece: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1519153643/raw-wool-wool-fleece-suffolk-sheep-new $12 for 1kg(2.2lb) raw fleece from Suffolk sheep(~$6/lb) + $36 flat rate shipping(this was the cheapest option i could find on raw fleece without looking too hard) by comparison the price of yarn is much more: https://www.amazon.com/Picks-Andes-Worsted-Weight-Balls/dp/B01M5E3Z91/ref=sr_1_1_sspa $50 for 10x 50g worsted weight yarn skeins(~1lb total wight - there is some waste in the spinning process, though this converts to approximately 8x $value/weight over raw wool) and roving: https://www.amazon.com/Needle-Felting-Merino-Spinning-Supplies/dp/B0GTYMQFGM/ref=sr_1_13_sspa $15 for 1/2lb roving(so $30/lb - about 5x $value/weight over raw wool) don't forget wool balls: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1637185353/eco-friendly-new-zealand-wool-dryer no exact listing of the weight, but 4x dryer balls comes out to $10 + shipping. ...i'm experimented a little with the way i rolled the balls and how i packed the stockings. i also tried a couple different dens of stocking(i think sheer might be too thin, as it kept ripping while trying to remove the balls). i got surprisingly good results by simply stuffing the stockings without rolling first, though noticeable inferior to that of my more involved methods(still might be useful). I'm trying to think what the actual product is here. the wool shrinks down surprisingly much when felted. i have 65 lbs new raw fleece in a big bag now. after a quick count it looks like i had 78 wool balls from my first 10lbs test fleece. rounding up to 80 balls gives a total value of 80/4*$10=$200 total retail value based on etsy wool-ball listing(etsy really make my computer fans spin btw). so, extrapolating based on the number of balls from my first test, i should be able to make about 520 balls from the 65lb bag(80balls/10lb*65lb=520balls). 520balls/4balls*$10 = $1300. alternatively $6/lb*65lb = $390 for the raw fleece. note, bulk dryer balls get cheaper quickly approaching half-price with larger quantities on amazon, so potentially $650 for 520 balls. So that is a little analysis for sales value of dryer balls, however i was still thinking of converting the balls into bedding material, since the ones i have created so far are somewhat mixed in size and quality, and i think perhaps they could be made into a very nice blanket or bed with a little extra work(potentially very little). For reference the cheapest twin bed mattress(6" thick) on amazon costs $90. by comparison most of my wool balls turned out between 3" and 4" with a few much larger. At this point i don't have enough balls for half of a mattress, but by my math(520balls/[2x80balls] = 3.25) the big bag of wool should be enough to make 3 small beds. Given a wholesale price of wool-balls, that comes out to about $650/3 = $216 worth of balls per twin-size wool-ball bed. This is not surprisingly more expensive than a memory foam bed. This price does not include the extra cost of stitching the balls together with yarn however, which would probably be significant Perhaps stuffing the balls into pillow-cases to make lumpy cushions gives better cost-value ratio? here is an interesting link i found for various wet-felt and needle-felt machines: https://feltcrafts.com/feltmaking-machines-needle-felting/ hopefully i will find some time soon to make myself some wool combs(i also need to make a hackle for my flax)
I went and watched the sheep shearing at a local friend's(the Gentry's) farm yesterday. They are contributing all the wool for a charity project of mine i'm doing this summer for the benefit of Ukraine. Full disclosure, i'm somewhat of a newbie, and this project also has the selfish motive of me learning a ton about a topic i am very interested in which is natural fibers. I made a bunch of knit hats this past winter with the help of some local kids and we sent them to Ukraine, however they were acrylic, and i am very eager to begin working strictly with natural fibers going forward. The Gentry's gave me a few wool fleeces from last year to get me started on some tests this Spring, and i quickly discovered that i need to improve my tools/equipment setup if i want to efficiently produce yarn or felt mats. I have some plans to make those improvements at a future date, however for this summer, i settled on the idea of making felt balls - actually felt ball-blankets to be exact though i will start with felt balls. My first batch of felt balls in the washing machine was a definite improvement over combing and rolling felt mats by hand as far as yield-to-efforts ratio goes. Turning the balls into blankets will require some extra work stitching them together with yarn however, and because i don't currently have a efficient setup for making my own yarn, i decided to go buy some 100 percent wool yarn from Michaels(maybe i'll make my own yarn at some future date, or maybe i'll look into finding a better local yarn supplier). Anyway, i now have wool yarn and wool balls, so I plan to do a little test blanket while i wait for the rain to pass. I plan to start the wool cleaning process on the next warm sunny day. My plan is to use the suint-soak method followed by some thorough rinsing to get all the stink out before sun-drying. It turns out there is a little bit of a learning curve even to making felt balls in the washing machine, though hopefully i've gotten the trick to it now. My first test balls look pretty solid i think(sorry no pic out of the nylons). Anyway, i don't have much to say about the sheep shearing since it is sort of outside of my area of interest. I can say though that it was very cool to see it all happening. I was thoroughly impressed with Kevin the shearer's skill and strength wrestling and shearing all 5 rams + 30 ewes. All in all, it took about 3 hours start to finish. Anne took notes on some old ewes with fatty cysts at a couple points and gave a shot of antibiotic to the udder on another one. Otherwise the whole operation went by very fast. Note, the Gentry's sheep are all of the Scottish Blackface breed.
Also, here is a list of some local wool and yarn retailers in my area: Cestari Sheep & Wool Company west of Staunton VA House Mountain Yarn Company Lexington VA(website load issue firefox-esr) Susan's Yarn Stash Fishersville VA(minor website issues) EWE fine fiber goods Charlottesville VA Magpie Knits Charlottesville VA The Scrappy Elephant Charlottesville & Lynchburg VA Mangham Manor Wool & Mohair Farm north-west of Charlottesville VA
Here are some pics from me boiling lanolin. I bought it online since i wanted lanolin for an idea making beeswax+lanolin lotion bars, and I was told by the Gentry's that the kind of wool their sheep(scottish blackface) had is not particularly high in lanolin. i tried boiling some of it but was not able to retrieve any significant amount of lanolin. There are claims online of people extracting lanolin from the wool however, so perhaps i did not boil it hard enough - also, i was boiling felt balls, so perhaps i did not give it enough time for the heat to penetrate the balls. There are visible lanolin stains in the wool - you can actually still see it in some of the wool balls i made(sorry no pic). Anyway, I wanted to go ahead with my beeswax+lanolin experiment, so i bought some lanolin on amazon. I then boiled in water it in an attempt to make it less sheepy-smelling. I think the boiling and filtering off the supernate did help the smell, however in the process the lanolin then became 'hydrated', and i also noticed that it would not mix in the beeswax fully in this hydrated form, so i put it in the crockpot and delicately cooked of any remaining moisture. It formed up into a solid cake nicely, however i'm thinking for my purposes i might add a bit more lanolin in the future. My approximately 1:1 beeswax:lanolin mixture was noticeable softer than pure beeswax, though still too hard to spread well(on my feet in this case) - perhaps i will try a 1:2 ratio in future tests.(sorry no pic of the solid lotion cake)
It's another cloudy day, and so i decided to catch up on some pictures from my camera roll - it actually only takes 5 min or so to load camera roll now, however that's getting long enough where it kind of interrupts flow, and makes me not want to do it as much(maybe i will fix this - there are many things i need to fix). Anyway, here are some pics from my latest checkup on the bees(also one at the beginning from melting down some old hives). I have some other pictures i want to put from my expedition yesterday to watch the sheep shearer(also, some shots of me boiling lanolin). p.s. i noticed later(no pic) that some of the bees were bearding later that afternoon(after the splits). we are getting into the hotter time of the year now, and so i'm kinda thinking of propping open my top covers to set up makeshift top entrances. maybe it will help? maybe the bees will start building down?
I managed to get going relatively early this morning, and go work on my bees. In the end, it was sort of a remainder why i previously held off doing 2nd splits in May, however i ended up doing some, and now i have 11 hives(i hope they all take). here are some brief notes - sorry no pics, time is limited, i would take a rest after this(my toe is extra funky these days and i need to sit with it in my toaster), however it appears that while i am working on one thing, my sister is making moves to procure more of my valuable materials for her projects, i need to go figure that out now.
May/19th/2026
west
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - •
| _ |
| [2]b2 |
| | | |
• [2]b1 •
s | | | | n
o | [2]b1* _ | o
u • c1*[2] • r
t | | | | t
h | c1[2] | h
| | | |
• _ c2[2] •
| [2]a2* |
| | | c2*[2] |
• [2]a2 •
| | | |
| [2]a1 [2]a1* |
| |
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - •
east
Note, I'm renaming lineages of hives based on one of 3 starting hives this spring: a, b,
c(see map). I marked all new hive locations with asterisk(*). also, one hive i did not
split(b2) because they had not filled the top box out sufficiently. most other hives had
filled out the top box completely, with a couple only having filled 9 frames, and one
hive(a2) beginning to make comb in the bottom box. On only one hive(c2) i was able to work
frame-by-frame(sort of). All other hives had too much cross comb, and so i had to use the
knife and split by 5-frame groupings. I finished removing the material for my old bee
benches, and now all hives are on blocks lower to the ground. They are also now further
back from the perimeter. hopefully this prevents bears reaching in, as well as keeping the
ones on the south in the shade better. Hopefully all hives do well, and i will revisit
them at the beginnning of July to do some harvesting.
I got around to updating my front page this morning. Now it better reflects my long-term political leanings: Also, i sort of already knew about this, but it popped up one of on my feeds the other day, and i thought it was worth saving here(what will we do when the water runs out?): "...Hundreds to thousands of years of rainfall would be needed to replace the groundwater in the depleted aquifer... ...Vast stretches of Texas farmland lying over the aquifer no longer support irrigation..."
i hate to be such a downer. how could we solve this problem? more desalination? seawater evaporation ponds?
Funny thing about the last two posts... Anyway, my life this past week has been a long string of never-ending celebrations(no escaping a celebration). I did manage to find a little time to work on some stuff here and there, so i guess i shouldn't complain. Quick note, it's getting harder to export photos from my phone. The devs at Kyocera didn't really think things through and so now it's like a 20 minute wait whenever i try to view the contents of my camera-roll from the android file transfer app. Anyway, i didn't buy this phone because i thought it would be easy... Otherwise, i'm trying to catch up on stuff. i did a little test batch of wool felt the other day, and discovered i need to postpone any big felting projects until i get a better setup.
may/15/2026 1.943.210.8664 1.771.243.1050 1.281.503.4218 1.602.428.4952 1.928.582.6360 1.771.999.7122 1.312.463.9127 1.731.503.1729 1.207.393.5189 1.913.398.0298 1.302.469.6216 1.585.357.9266 1.470.852.8552 april/cont'd 1.704.243.8632 1.771.333.6083 1.757.304.6659 1.757.514.8135 1.470.852.8427 1.813.725.7603 1.813.378.3471 1.480.672.0924 1.434.234.9916 1.771.328.8560 1.703.828.8046 1.771.252.0346 1.771.252.0378 1.678.831.7599 1.928.295.1726 1.757.231.5906 1.301.712.4764 1.771.247.5899 1.562.635.8481 1.571.667.2991 1.949.401.4996 1.984.310.8369 1.973.291.5879 1.562.635.8436 1.916.404.4981 1.402.251.6535 1.651.472.9685 1.804.602.7746 1.272.252.2796 1.313.270.6864 1.770.264.4479 1.571.667.2973
There were some repeat numbers, though none more than twice. Interesting to note, there were no spams from 23456 - that is good! here is the link to the previous spammer list: Oh right, i did manage to get some cardio in today. I'm thinking I need to make some changes to my routine so that it works better with the changes going on around here. anyway today was a success. hopefully i can keep up the good work!?
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Note, i was watering my new terrace, and I have some flax finally sprouting! Funny, it looks like i never made a post about the completion of my rock wall and subsequent seeding of my new terrace with flax. This was around the middle of March - funny, i guess i forgot. Anyway, there were a few that sprouted last month, however i was beginning to get scared that my seeds had gone bad, however i am now happy to say that i am noticing more sprouting now. sorry no pics(no time).
Some quick notes for my planned wool project this summer. i'm still trying to make sure i have all the parts i need. hopefully i can make it happen! TLDR: First skirt raw wool fleeces to remove poop and other contaminates as well as second cut (short)wool. Then wash the wool. Finally send the wool to the mill where they will spin it for you. helpful note: second cuts will felt. How to use Wool Combs! The Ultimate Guide wool combing tutorial to produce 'top' for spinning. wash before combing. alternative to carding into cloud or roving. removes VM and off-cuts. How to Use a Wool Picker good to know. looks like a safer version of wool combs. Picking & Carding Alpaca Fiber (Fleece) picking raw fleece into clouds. next step carding clouds into batts. from there can be spun or felted. how to use combs, carders and diz-tool to prepare washed wool for spinning... Combing vs. Carding vs. Flicking: A Spinner’s Guide to Fibre Preparation Techniques reminder on difference between worsted vs woolen yarn nice descriptions on the various processes. i think i need more combs. i think i will start by getting more dog combs, however maybe i will progress to something like these. Skirting wool fleeces, processing wool for handspun yarn, and a maker's resistance soapbox. worth noting, she is using chickenwire(~1" large gaps) for her skirting table. her skirting table looks big too(maybe 4'x8'?). she processes the whole fleece...(youtube died)...
I got a little shock yesterday when i drove past the orchard and saw a bunch of my trees had turned brown. After investigating, it is obviously frost damage - we have had some wild temperature swings here the past couple weeks. Anyway, it looks like some of our trees god frosted. It's worth noting, the older trees on top of the hill did not get damaged as badly(hardly at all). I have heard this can cause issues with nut production - we will see.
