Who Over-Wintered In Our Treehouse?

We had a treehouse guest -- but who?

Today was a nice warm Sunday, and the kiddos were playing in the sprinkler and going up and down the treehouse rope ladder pretty much all day. The treehouse has become a part of everyone's summer here, and we're so lucky to get to enjoy it.

So the kids were exhausted and I volunteered to climb up and bring down the towels and blankets and what-not that had somehow ended up there after everyone went home. While I was there I tidied up a bit, and happened to discover I'd been altogether wrong about the treehouse's vacant status over the winter....

Want to see more interesting stuff? Read about our VW Bus Bed Build, or maybe the Solar Stock Tank Swimming Pool. Or, if you're not tired of beekeeping stuff, see how our bees deal with unwanted intruders as the Hive Guards Repel a Robber Bee.

Memorial Day: Treehouse Spring Inspection!

Treehouse Construction Seems To Have Held Up Nicely

Finally, a treehouse post about tree houses! About time, am I right? :-)

With apologies to readers who are a little tired of beekeeping stuff (did I mention I stuck my finger in a swarm??), I did find my way up to the treehouse with the camera for a good look-around. I couldn't have been happier!

Things are looking great, the treehouse hardware, the platform, the roof -- everything held up through the winter and the kiddos have been treehousin' at every opportunity. I will have to replace my basket rope, though ....

Want to see more interesting stuff? Read about our VW Bus Bed Build, or maybe the Solar Stock Tank Swimming Pool.

Anatomy of a Swarm: A New Hive Begins

How to catch a swarm of bees

I know, I know. It's turning into a beekeeping blog. I promise, there's a lot of Treehousing to be done here in a bit. But the bees have been so darned interesting lately ...

Today, the swarm that had been threatening at our hive finally happened. It's a pretty amazing thing to watch -- and in the end, we had a friend over who collected a bucket o' bees to start a new hive on his property.

The wonderful part is, of course, our bees in the hive are doing great -- so great they needed to expand their operations, so to speak.

How do you catch a swarm? Here's how it's done.

Want to see more interesting stuff? Read about our VW Bus Bed Build, the Treehouse Build, or the Solar Stock Tank Swimming Pool.

Added Supers to Bee Hive, Got Neat Video

Bees go out, bees go in

So my wife added supers today to the top of the hive -- she has them so nicely decorated, after all -- and the bees skedaddled out of there and were buzzing about somewhat madly. They often do this, but the hive is so strong this year it was pretty amazing to see.

That's about half the bees that exited the hive, the rest are swarming around -- you can see them in this video, which also finishes up with my first-ever time lapse. See that black windmill in the photo? That's where I stuck my phone to do the time lapse.

So what's happening? My wife thinks she disrupted some swarming behavior -- she spotted some queen larvae when she had the hive open -- so some (or all) of the bees were getting ready to leave because the hive was too hot, or too small, or otherwise unsatisfactory. Adding the boxes on top should give them room to do their thing comfortably.

Interestingly, it took them about an hour to go from their "bearded" state at the beginning of the time lapse movie to get mostly inside -- you'll notice if you watch carefully, they seem to mostly make their way to the main entrance on the bottom of the hive. Interesting stuff.

Want to see more interesting stuff? Read about our VW Bus Bed Build, the Treehouse Build, or the Solar Stock Tank Swimming Pool.