Donner Party Kitchen Staff -- Cookin' up something different...

Christopher Samuel Amos Glock

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:15:06 GMT

I'm an Honorary Uncle again! :mrgreen:

King Snake

Terry Small, Jr — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:54:21 GMT

Found a King Snake today. Non poisonous, so it kept it's head.

My bees

Terry Small, Jr — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:35:13 GMT

I have the camera set up again.

http://www.donnerpartykitchenstaff.com/

Bee Swarm

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:14:01 GMT

I tried to shake the cluster out over my head. It was too low in the tree for me to do that. My co-beek Alfredo almost took off his veil in the middle of it.

Dispatching the rattler

Terry Small, Jr — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 09:07:36 GMT

Alfredo goofing off

Terry Small, Jr — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:57:24 GMT

This is what it's like moving bees during the day, except that normally you don't take off your veil. The bees were trying to rob the honey under the netting. Saturnino took the video with his cell phone.

Rattlesnake

Terry Small, Jr — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:38:35 GMT

I killed a rattler in one of our apiaries today

The Terry Dance

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 22:00:21 GMT

King of the Hive

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 23:20:01 GMT

Left home in Wednesday's pre-dawn hours, got home about 2230 Saturday. We worked from dawn to dusk to deliver, evaluate, switch & feed 3000 colonies.

This is the last 8 colonies to be worked before we head home.

'Bekah

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:44:32 GMT

Facebook

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 20:36:49 GMT

Sorry about the lack of postings here. I got turned on to Facebook, and have been spending most of my computer time there.

Awesome T-shirt

Terry Small, Jr — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 03:31:31 GMT

I'm speechless...

Farmer Bees Christmas Dinner 2008

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 05:08:05 GMT

sorry about the picture quality, it was dark & I used a camera phone

We had our Christmas dinner tonight at Mi Guadalajara in Escondido. It's a nice restaurant with great food. Had a great time talking and joking around. We actually had conversations that didn't involve bees (gasp!) :o It was nice to meet everybody's families. Being such a small company, 6 people, we get to know each other well.

Alfredo and Jose & his wife are on the left. Saturnino (aka Tony) is all the way at the end in the dark shirt. Hermelindo & his wife are somewhere down the table past Dave's wife. Dave (da Boss) & his wife Marcia are sitting on my right.

Bee Bread

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 23:14:56 GMT

This is how we make the pollen substitute to feed the bees. On the left you can see the finished pallets loaded with the mixture. The round cylinders are 55 Lb (25 Kg) containers of pollen. To the right of them are the pallets of soy flour & brewers yeast. Hermilindo is filling 5 gallon buckets with sugar syrup from the tank on the truck. The scale in the middle is what I use to measure out the dry ingredients. Tony is dumping 40 Lbs of pollen into the mixer.

This is about a 3 Lb patty in the hive.

Also, you can eat this stuff. All the ingredients are food grade.

Dad's cancer

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:51:52 GMT

I post a lot of funny stuff, work related pics, family pics & anything else I find interesting here.

This isn't one of those posts.

Several months ago my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Out of 13 samples taken during the biopsy, only one showed any cancer. They felt that they had caught it very early. His Dr. advised him that even if they did nothing, he would probably die of something else. One of the things dad & I share is that if we do something, we are thorough, we make sure it is done right.

Yesterday my dad's prostate was completely removed with DaVinci Robotic surgery. The 5 hour operation took 11 hours. The operation itself went smoothly, but as they were counting the tools used during surgery, they came up missing one biopsy needle used during the procedure. After many, many X-rays, the Dr's were confident that the errant needle was not inside my dad.

Pops had us worried there for a little bit, but he's fine now. Please keep him in your prayers for a smooth recovery.

Realization

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 07:24:36 GMT

My bro Charley & sis (in-law) Brooke recently turned me on to Facebook. It's a site I've heard of, but never looked at till now. It has allowed me to reconnect with several old friends over the last few days.

I've been going through a bunch of pictures on my computer and uploading the ones I thought were cool to my profile. Part of this included a bunch of pictures from my short career as a long haul truck driver. I realized that as much as it cost me, how great the risks were, and how much I hated being away from home, it's hard to regret the time I spent on the road.

I have been to 46 of the lower 48 states. I've driven in conditions pulling a 53' trailer that most people couldn't drive in a car. In all seasons, in all types of weather, I've seen all of this great country. The people I've been able to meet have taught me more about human nature than a doctorate degree in psychology. I got my Ham Radio license. Dealing with different attitudes, points of view, ways of doing things & problems that were different every day & that had no choice but to be solved. We might have been 3000 miles away from home and 1200 miles away from dispatch, we had to find a way to make it work.

As much as I'm glad it's over, I am grateful for the experience.

Had a little problem at the office

Terry Small, Jr — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:28:28 GMT

We were mixing batches of pollen today when an air pocket in the sticky, sloppy junk popped on me. I got a face full.

I thought you checked the fuel!

Terry Small, Jr — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:51:44 GMT

I was eating lunch at work today when suddenly I heard a small plane flying at full throttle. Then it stopped. :shock: Then it started again. Then after a few seconds, it died, again. It would run for 2-3 seconds, then die for 5-6. I was trying to find the plane while this went on about a half dozen times. There is a very large field next to where I work, I figured that's where he was headed.

It is a very strange feeling to have a small aircraft pass 100 feet directly over your head when it's engine isn't running. :? I could hear the swoosh-swoosh-swoosh of the prop windmilling.

He got down to less than 50 feet before it started again. This time it stayed running and he flew off.

My day off

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:18:20 GMT

Spent some quality time laying tile at my brother Larry's house. As much as I tried to forget that I knew how to lay tile, I still got sucked in.

Breakfast time

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:49:54 GMT

We keep a cat at the honey house to help control rats & mice. So far it's survived without becoming coyote bait, this is a smart cat.

When I walked in this morning I noticed she was eating something. This was strange, as her food dish is on the other side of the building. A closer look revealed that she was chowing down on the back half of a squirrel.

Naked Beekeeping

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 06:35:30 GMT

Sorry about not posting for a while. I've been having some serious problems getting online. :evil: It looks like I've engineered a solution. :D

Feeding bees

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:24:09 GMT

Now that I'm able to get back online, I've got a lot of stuff to post.

It's late in the season and the nectar flow has ended. The bees, especially because the colonies are concentrated in apiaries, can not forage enough food to keep the colony alive. As a result we must feed a pollen substitute (protein food) & sugar syrup (ProSweet 77) (carbohydrate food) to the bees. The syrup we are using right now is blue because we've added Fumagilin-B to prevent Nosema (bee dysentery). The tank behind me holds 335 gallons, the one you can't see on the end of the truck holds 300. That's about 7334 Lbs of syrup. Filling 1 gallon feeders inserted into each hive, 2 guys will go through most of this in one day.

Every two weeks we have been giving each colony about a 3 Lb patty of pollen substitute. With around 4000 colonies, that's a big job for 5 guys! :shock:

The secret recipe:
90 Lbs Soy flour
90 Lbs Dried brewers yeast
50 Lbs Granulated sugar
40 Lbs Pollen granules
30 Gallons Sugar syrup

Robbing

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 05:02:06 GMT

This colony is being robbed. Bees from other colonies are trying to find any way possible to get in and steal the honey they smell inside. You can see dead bees littering the ground around the hive.

It's not always clear what causes bee's robbing instinct to kick in, but once it starts, it can destroy a colony. Bees in the colony being robbed will defend the hive to the death.

New Rebekah & Samantha Pictures

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:50:11 GMT

I can never have too many pictures of my nieces. :mrgreen::mrgreen:

Abscond

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:48:49 GMT

Bees are very hygienic creatures. The inside of a beehive is one of the most sterile environments to be found in nature. When conditions are such that the bees are unable to keep their hive clean, the colony will sometimes abscond from the hive.

This is a colony from a bee yard (or apiary) that we have been having a major problem with ants at. The colony got fed up and settled on a nearby branch. They are building a new hive out in the open.

Mean Colony

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:32:58 GMT

The vast majority of bee colonies are pretty docile most of the time. Occasionally we run into a colony that has become aggressive. :shock: When we find one of these mean colonies we mark it with a big M so the other guys will know to treat it with special care. Some beekeepers add a little extra detail. :P

All Done

Terry Small, Jr — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:12:27 GMT

Just as the temperatures were becoming bearable, we moved the last of our bees out of The Valley. It was an education in how not to get stung up. Bees navigate by the sun. At night, when they can't see the sun, they get very aggressive. Bees are moved at night because that is when the field bees return to the hive and they don't fly at night (except at Border Patrol checkpoints) :?.

I got stung up several dozen times my first night moving bees. My partner knocking a hive off the pallet didn't help. :shock::shock::shock: It was a bad night. The last move I did, I got stung once.

On our way out to The Valley we took the back way. Leaving Valley Center, we passed through Pauma Valley on our way up the grade to Palomar Mountain. After skirting the base of Palomar Mountain, home of the Hale Telescope, we passed Lake Henshaw and made a left onto Highway 79. A few miles after passing the Mataguay Boy Scout Reservation, we would make a right onto San Diego County Road S2. S2 would drop us down into the Boreggo Valley, but not without a struggle. We would have to make it through Ranchita, Scissors Crossing, Shelter Valley (Pop. 320), Butterfield Ranch, enter the Anza-Boreggo State Park, Auga Calienti Hot Springs, Sweeney Pass while following the Great Southern Overland Stage Route of 1849(despite the fact that the Overland Mail Route was never known as "Great," the route was not "Southern," and it didn�t exist in 1849) The Carizzo Badlands Overlook has a view you will never forget. Ocotillo Wells would signal the only stretch of freeway before...The Valley

I thought it was a dog...

Terry Small, Jr — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 03:03:12 GMT

The last three days were spent feeding bees with sugar syrup around the county. Today we stopped for lunch under a shady tree in an avocado grove in Valley Center. About the time we were getting back to work I looked up and saw what looked like a medium-sized dog walking towards me. It was about 100 yards down the road. (In an avocado grove, the word 'road' is used loosely :?) It walked out of the shadow of a tree and turned to look to the side of the road. I had never seen a dog so solidly built. It looked like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime, not like a stray dog or coyote. Then I took a closer look. It was the first time I'd seen a mountain lion outside of a zoo. :shock::shock: There was some question as to if it was a bobcat or mountain lion, so I looked up some pictures when I got home. Mountain lion, no question.

Frames

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:53:46 GMT

In most hives there are 9 frames in the shallow, 8 frames & a feeder (a container for sugar syrup) in the deep. This is Hermilindo inspecting a frame from one of our colonies in Poway (where I grew up! :mrgreen:).

At the top right you can see where the honey is capped. The cells are full and the moisture has been reduced to less than 17.5%. That is when the bees seal off the cells to store the honey.

Bee Fog

Terry Small, Jr — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:19:00 GMT

Sometimes the bees get so thick it's kinda like a fog. Usually when they are robbing, stealing honey from another colony. The bees are completely ignoring us, all they want is the honey.

This picture is my foreman Jose. He's been working bees for about 18 years. He's standing about 3 feet from the stack of boxes, posing to make it look like he's holding a box. We took this picture as a dare at the honey house.

I could have stood here in a t-shirt & shorts and not been stung. The bees smell the honey under the netting. They don't care about me.