Fox in the Box

We've all joked about children getting presents when they are younger and quickly grow tired of the toy and spend more time playing with the box that the toy came in.  And it's true.  I've always loved boxes.  It was so much fun as a child when my parents got a new appliance like a refrigerator or washer or dryer.  Those boxes were fun!  We made forts out of them, spaceships, race cars.  A child's imagination could run wild with what you could do with an ordinary box.

As it turns out, when I grew up, I never outgrew my love of boxes.  When we make a new purchase, I put the empty boxes up in the attic because, "that's a good box and it'll come in useful one day."  The other day, Tricia ordered a new crock pot.  When we have 'dinner on the ground' at church, it is so doggone handy to have a crock pot to bring your offering to the fellowship hall, plug it in to keep the food warm, and place on the serving line.

That new purchase meant we have a new box.  But we have so many boxes already.  Tricia placed the empty box outside in the garage to put in the trash can.  But now we can't possibly throw it away.  Why, you may ask, can't we throw it away?

Because Ginger, the cat, has adopted the box as her new home.

Instead of the cat in the hat, I call her the fox in the box. 

Each day, she's in her box where she naps in solitude, in safety, in security, tucked away out of sight.  And it's a good thing that she's not out patrolling around because just outside the garage door on the patio, there is and adventure taking place.  Like Marlin Perkins on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, there is the hunter and the prey.

Let's take a look.  Can you spot that bird on top of the patio chair?

That's a Carolina Wren and she's got food in her mouth.  She's bringing bugs to feed her two babies that are in the planter behind the ivy plant.  We watched as she repeatedly fed them.  The babies were big, almost full grown.  The Carolina Wren was mighty brave, trying to raise her young in a nest at ground level instead of in a tree.  A ground level nest provides zero protection for her or her two babies from the huntress.  But she is a really wise wren, and she surveilles the area, not giving away the location of her babies until she is absolutely sure that there is no danger.  Then she swoops in and brings a breakfast of bugs to two open mouthed baby birds.

We were worried about the mama wren and her babies.  But the babies grew up quickly on their diet of bugs and apparently flew out of the nest for they were gone today.  They owe their lives to the fact that the carnivorous cat was otherwise preoccupied with cat-napping in the cardboard crock pot box.

A Land Flowing With Milk And (Hopefully) Honey

We mentioned in previous posts that we've been attending beekeeping classes.  We've learned a lot, but beekeeping is like learning to ride a bike.  At some point, you've got to stop watching and listening and start doing.  To that end, a friend let us borrow an old box with three frames that he wasn't using.  We put it out on the trampoline.  You can see that a few bees smell the wax that's on the frames and they are flying around, checking things out.  Hopefully, those are scout bees checking out a new piece of real estate and ensuring that this new home has "curb appeal."

To catch a wild swarm, I learned that you should place the box about 10 feet off the ground.  I put in on top of a ladder and used a ratchet strap to tie it down.  I wouldn't want it to blow off in the wind or be knocked off by Belle.  We took a drop or two of Lemongrass essential oil and put it on a cotton ball and put it in the box.  Bees love that scent.  You have to be careful, though.  We learned that while the worker bees love it, the queen does not.  A couple of bees found the box!  Followed by a couple dozen.

We checked out the box in a short while and there were a lot of bees flying around.  We were praying that they had little suitcases with them and were moving in.

I took a short video of them flying around.  You can hear them buzzing and also the rooster crowing in the background...  Click the arrow below to watch.

We checked on the box a little while later.  There weren't as many flying.  Maybe the queen never came?  Maybe they didn't like the box and moved on?  I figured I would check.  I didn't put the full bee suit on, but put on just the veil and gloves.  The plan was that I would remove the ratchet strap, open the top and see if there were any bees in the box.

When I took the lid off, there was a WHOLE BUNCH of bees inside!  I called a friend and he brought another box with 9 frames and a telescoping lid.  Our plan was to take the top off of the box of bees, set the deep box with frames on top of it and lift the bottom box off the bottom board and insert a queen excluder.

The excluder keeps your queen from escaping.  The workers can go where they please, in and out, but the queen can only move between the two boxes, laying eggs and building her colony.

So we went about doing just that.

Soon, we were finished!  We got the excluder on and the box set up just the way we wanted.  

Bees don't fly at night.  We decided to put the bees in the wagon.  As soon as nightfall came, all the bees came 'home' and into the box.  Since none were flying, I pulled the wagon full of bees out to the location where we are placing the hive.  We will set it down on top of some cinder blocks.  We're really excited!  Tomorrow we plan on buying some additional boxes and set out some more swarm traps.  We'd like to catch some more.  We will open the box of bees in a couple of weeks and inspect in order to see if we see eggs/brood.  We will keep you posted.